Gerald (Edward de Souza) and Marianne Harcourt (Jennifer Daniel) are traveling through early 20th century Bavaria on their honeymoon when their car runs out of gas. Gerald leaves Marianne with the car while he walks to the nearest village. While he is gone, a man watches Marianne through a telescope from a castle window. Gerald returns with a villager and a horse. The car is towed to the tiny village. Since the village has no gas, Gerald and Marianne decide to stay at the inn for the night. The inn is run by Bruno (Peter Madden) and his wife, Anna (Vera Cook).
The Harcourts receive an invitation to dinner from Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman). The wealthy Ravna lives in a large castle with his son, Carl (Barry Warren) and his daughter, Sabena (Jacquie Wallis). The Harcourt’s graciously accept his offer. During dinner, Ravna offers to send someone to the nearest town for some gas for the car but since the mode of transportation is an ox cart, it will take a few days. In the meantime he invites the couple to a masked ball he is having Saturday night.
At the party, Sabena gets Gerald drunk and spikes his drink with knockout drops. Carl dons a mask like Gerald’s and lures Marianne to an upstairs room. He locks her in. Marianne is then bitten by Ravna, who is a vampire. Later Marianne begins her initiation into Ravna’s vampire cult. When Gerald awakens he is told that he came to the party alone and is kicked out of the house. Gerald is run down by a horse drawn carriage. He is found and taken to the inn by Professor Zimmer (Clifford Evans). When he awakens at the inn, Bruno also tells Gerald that he was at the inn alone. All of Marianne’s things are gone. He calls the constable who tells Gerald that the Ravnas are the most influential family in the area and Gerald has no proof that his wife existed.
Gerald is at wits end until Professor Zimmer confirms that Marianne does exist and is being kept at the castle. He tells Gerald that the Ravnas are vampires. Zimmer also tells him that his daughter was turned into a vampire by the cult until he freed her from her living death. Zimmer agrees to help Gerald try to get his wife back before her transformation into a vampire is complete.
“Kiss of the Vampire” AKA “Kiss of Evil” was released in 1963 and was directed by Don Sharp. It is a British horror film made by the Hammer Studios and a vampire movie. An American television version of the film was titled “Kiss of Evil”. A lot of the original film was cut so this version added characters that weren‘t in the theatrical version to fill it out again. Just about all blood scenes were removed so the American version ended up with lots of inconsistencies and a little choppy.
The film was supposed to be the third film in Hammer’s Dracula series; however, it ended up being a generic vampire movie. It may not be a Dracula film but it still has all the other Hammer Films gothic touches. It also plays similar to the standard Dracula film except for the strange ending that makes the film deviate from the normal Hammer style. Professor Zimmer determines that he must use evil to combat evil. It is actually an interesting idea, but it was executed in a “B” movie way.
Reportedly, the rubber bats used in the film came from Woolworth’s.