poeticrevolution
Honestly, I believe that so many people dislike this movie because they can't understand what the actors are saying; the audio is very bad. Turn on captions the first time you watch it and imagine it as a foreign film in a foreign language (Polanski is, after all, a young foreign director at the time). It's true (and a little obvious) that some of the lines are dubbed and the actors are talking too fast (a mistake that Polanski made with his directing, although he, himself, allows his character to talk too slow). However, again, captions compensate for all of that.My one great criticism of this endearingly quirky, surreal, and amateurish film is that Polanski just doesn't translate humor very well with his acting. He should have cast another actor in his role.
Guy DeMatties
Roman Polanski directs and stars in this spoof of old-time vampire movies as he plays the assistant of a bat researcher (Jack McGowran) who is intent on discovering vampires in Transylvania. Polanski's character tries to protect the young daughter (Sharon Tate) of an innkeeper from the advances of the local vampire who has been terrorizing the countryside. Ironically, this is the film where Polanski met Tate, who was soon to become his wife, which indirectly led to her being a murder victim herself in the Charles Manson murders. The vampire hunters hunt down the vampire to confront him and save the townspeople, whose number of vampire casual;ties have risen dramatically over the last year. A lot of humorous moments, while also adding some real tension.
Dalbert Pringle
Garlic here. Garlic there. Garlic, garlic everywhere! Meet Herbert Von Krolock, cinema's first openly-gay vampire.Do you suppose that director Roman Polanski was trying to communicate something about his own character to us by having a gay vampire, like Herbert, wantonly lust after Albert (played by Polanski, himself) in one of this film's climatic moments? I certainly think that he was trying to tell us something, but, at this point, I think it's best to keep what that is to myself. (Tee-hee!) As far as Comedy/Horror films go - Yes. I do realize that this picture was, indeed, made in 1966 - But, all the same, here are 4 strikes against it - (1) It was way too tame in the horror department. (2) It was lacking in enough satisfactory vampire attacks. (3) It was only marginally entertaining. (4) It was in dire need of some more, much-needed laughs. One of the main reasons why this vampire parody fell so short of my expectations was due to the fact that its screenplay was a collaboration between Polanski and Gerard Bach.Let's face it - The forte of these 2 men was scripting dead-serious drama, so, I guess, it really should have been no surprise that an attempt at Comedy/Horror would miss its mark more often than it hit it.For me - The big highlight of this somewhat mediocre production was, of course, the vampires' ball which was held at Count Von Krolock's eerie, cobweb-enshrouded castle in good, old Transylvania.
grantss
Fun and funny vampire movie from acclaimed director Roman Polanski.Plot is reasonably basic, and not entirely watertight. However, this is more than made up for by the humour of the plot. While Polanski crafts a feeling of foreboding, dread and fear, your vampire staples, he balances this with some great comedy. The stark contrast between the usual vampire atmosphere and the humour makes the comedy even better.At the forefront of this comedy is Polanski himself, as the bumbling assistant. It is most physical comedy and often feels Chaplinesque. Polanksi enhances this by speeding up the frames during some of the sequences, giving a silent movie feel to these scenes.Jack MacGowran is also great as the Albert Einstein-lookalike Professor. Nice twist in the plot towards the end too.
AD
