Saturday, October 6, 2012

I VAMPIRI - Mario Bava - aka "The Vampires" - "Lust Of The Vampire" - "The Devil's Commandment" (1956)

If you haven't seen "I Vampiri" or it's English incarnation "Lust Of The Vampire" lately, well, what are you waiting for? It's a prefect film for the season!

Created in 1956, "I Vampiri" stakes claim to being the first Italian horror film of the sound era!

"I Vampiri" is not your tradtional Dracula type vampire movie, but instead is a film about bad science sucking the life out of helpless and hapless victims in order to keep one rich individual alive and beautiful! That's right, it's kind of like politics! As you can plainly see, there's a reflection that no unwitting person would want to see in the mirror of their dressing room. At least she had one last positive thought, he wasn't a vampire!

 Paul Konrad Muller is just a pawn in this nasty game of blood taking and giving!  Just the kind of person you want working for you! He'll do anything, as long as he gets his fix! As he is also sometimes known, Paul Müller has some 242 titles to his credit, and there's a wanted poster hanging on a wall in The Dungeon with his picture on it!

Here's your fix, sucker! We don't need you any more!!

The authorities are starting to get suspicious, so the only way they can get out of this one is to fake the professor's death, so he can continue his work unimpeded!!

The family motto is, "I shall conquer Hell!" Petty lofty ambition, and an ultracreepy mausoleum to go along with the attitude!!

On the left is Renato Tontini as Rinaldo, the professor's assistant, and on the right is Antoine (Fantomas Against Fantomas) Balpêtré is Dr. Julien du Grand! Renato was the kind of guy you'd want if there was trouble, and it wasn't difficult for him to act like a tough guy, because he was actually a professional light heavyweight boxer with a record of 26 wins, 14 losses and 4 draws!

The very atmospheric cinematography was done by none other than Mario Bava, who also ended up finishing the film as the director after the first director Riccardo Freda got into an argument with the producers! Almost the same exact thing happened when the two worked together a few years later on "Caltiki The Undying Monster!"

The dynamic music used in "I Vampiri" was composed by Franco (Hercules, Prisoner Of Evil) Mannino and Roman (Caltiki The Undying Monster) Vlad!

The next innocent prey is told by a man on the street to go to this apartment for a very special unexplained reason, and the results turn out to be another unexpected meeting with a hand full of chlorophyll!

They need to drain her blood to keep the madam young and viral!!

When the cops finally show up, all they find is an empty apartment!

This is one of the very first high-tech laser disc players!

Sword and Sandal Goddess Gianna Maria Canale is Mistress Giselle du Grand, a woman with more than just a few problems! Gianna was also the wife of the director of "I Vampiri," sculptor and art critic Riccardo Freda!

The blood of the last girl is having a very strange effect on Giselle in an actual physical and
mental way!

Straight out of the du Grand crypt, here's some '13' wallpaper for you!

Without a doubt, this is one of the creepiest excuses for a guard railing I've ever seen!

Giselle finally picks the worst possible time to change back to her true self, right in the middle of a police interrogation! It's going to be downright impossible to try and smart talk her way out of it this time!! "I Vampiri" is a well made movie available on Netflix that any lover of the genre is bound to like!

5 comments:

Realm Of Retro said...

What a rich display of screenshots!
It lets us check out the excellent sets. Good Job!

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Thanx Randy! When Bava's at the helm, it makes the job easy!

Domain Reseller said...

blogging is life for me, the besti read to day is the difference between a blog post and an article. Its so sad to hear.. Six years is very long time.hope you had nice experiences since you started blogging.

Crafty C said...

That lobby card is really cool!

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

CC,
Indeed! I like that one a lot!!

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