Friday, May 2, 2008

BLOOD BATH (Track Of The Vampire) - Ronald Stein - "Sordi" (1966)

"Spider Baby" creator and Francis Ford Coppola associate Jack Hill just misses the mark on this film, which I chalk up to casting mostly, but despite all that, this movie has one of the jazziest scores that Ronald Stein has ever composed, unfortunately, this terrific music fails to rescue this movie from the doldrums!!!

It's quite a stretch to think that Sordi's art really appeals to this lady, but then, the original name of this film is "Blood Bath"!!!!

Some costumed revelers celebrating come across Sordi as the vampire and the one guys says, "Man, Look at those fangs, they're better than mine!"!!

William Campbell is really excellent as demented artist/vampire Antonio Sordi, and all the women he kills are great, but the counter character lot of beatnik artist wannabees still just doesn't work.

The production company for this movie was "Avala Film" who produced 400 movies since 1947, and besides this film, you'd be lucky if you had ever heard of one of them unless you are from Yugoslavia!!! Amazing!!!!
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4 comments:

  1. BillyWitchDoctorMay 3, 2008 at 1:36 AM

    I was astounded and delighted to discover Not Of This Earth! The Music Of Ronald Stein, which features tracks from Spider Baby, Attack Of The 50-Ft Woman, Dementia 13, and more.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 5, 2017 at 1:04 PM

    Ronald Stein was one of the greats of film music, for sure! It's such a cool thing for me that he scored so many of my b-movie favorites that I can watch them and listen to his work forever and ever!

    Incidentally, the main title theme for BLOOD BATH came from Corman's earlier film, THE UNDEAD. I think the fact that Mr. Stein is listed in BB as "Music Supervisor" or somesuch credit, indicates that the score for this film must have been taken from various of his earlier works, since they all sounded very familiar to me, when seeing BB for the first time last night.

    Incidentally, this film seeming disjointed is not accidental either, as it was assembled from footage by something like four different writers and directors, and was made into three films (the original "root" film titled OPERATION TITIAN that was made in eastern Europe, plus the three US films made from it: BLOOD BATH, TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE, and PORTRAIT IN TERROR)!

    So yeah, it's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle! :|

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  3. EEGAH!!October 5, 2017 at 6:16 PM

    Good info! Thanx! Since it's been nine years since I wrote this, I don't remember much any more. I should probably give it another viewing! (But I doubt that's going to happen)

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  4. AnonymousOctober 5, 2017 at 7:09 PM

    I'm enough of a geek for film tinkering that I ordered the Blu-ray, which contains all 4 versions of the film, along with interviews, etc. It's $30 but I'll buy it anyhoo!

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