The Vampire
Directed by Paul Landres
Written by Pat Fielder
1957/USA
Gramercy Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant
Dr. Paul Beecher: Oh, Will, you told me yourself these pills were from vampire bats.
Dr. Will Beaumont: Exactly, Paul, but that doesn’t make you another Dracula.
This Vampire looks more like the Wolf Man than Dracula but the flick is pretty good as these things go.
As the movie opens, Dr. Matthew Campbell is found collapsed in his lab by a delivery boy. The boy fetches Dr. Paul Beecher (John Beal). In the moments before the man dies, he tells Beecher he has found the secret to regression. It is contained in a bottle of pills he gives Beecher. Beecher pockets the pills. The widower’s daughter then takes pills from the wrong bottle for her father’s headache. Mayhem ensues as people start dying mysteriously of “capillary disintegration.” With Colleen Gray as the doctor’s nurse and Kenneth Tobey as the sheriff.
I thought this was a solid little picture, if one with few surprises or thrills. The pills turn out to be addictive so there’s a junkie withdrawal sub-plot thrown in.
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