Pete Stein asked for this movie and I was happy to write about it. Hope he enjoys this.

Created before Polanski’s U.S. debut, Rosemary’s Baby, this film was marketed by MGM as a farce, with twelve minutes cut from the movie, an animated prologue added, and both protagonists dubbed with cartoony and silly voices. This version was retitled from Dance of the Vampires to The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck.

I’ve seen that version of the film, which was the one most commonly seen in the U.S. until it disappeared from circulation in the mid-1970s.

In the early 1980s, MGM found the original cut and released it. This version has garnered new interest and better opinions of the film. I probably need to see that one to evaluate the movie properly, but I’m not sure I could make it through this one again.

Overall, it just feels too cute.

It’s about the adventures of the ancient Professor Abronsius and his apprentice Alfred, played by Polanski. They bumble their way through just about everything they do, which some would take as comedic, but I took as boring and cloying.

They end up in a village filled with angry townsfolk who constantly engage in occult rituals to keep the vampires away. Alfred falls in love with the tavern owner’s daughter, Sarah, but who can blame him? The best part of this movie is the doomed Sharon Tate, who owns every second she’s on screen.

The vampiric Count von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne, who played God in Night Train to Terror) captures her and even turns her father into a vampire. Soon, a convention of vampires and the Count’s gay son enter the story. Yet our heroes are never heroic and simply fail to make it to the movie’s end.

Again, I may need to check out the real version. But I’ve always found this too cheeky. Perhaps that’s the intention, and perhaps it’s just dated. Then again, a few hours of Sharon Tate isn’t the worst thing.