Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

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"Kiss of the Vampire" Scttutete 1£<nU*9 O O Plus Hammer's latest shrill chill epic. If properly dualled and strongly sold, should do OK in saturation play-offs. "Kiss of the Vampire" is the latest chiller from the Hammer horror mills in Britain. This entry has a nice gory Eastman color setting, better than average production values, and competent performances. If Universal backs it with a strong local level campaign, and it is coupled with the right kind of cofeature, it should get some fairly good grosses in saturation play-off. Director Don Sharp and producer Anthony Hinds have managed to insert some new twists in the well-photographed and gimmicky film. The John Elder screenplay is basically the same one that has been keeping Count Dracula and his descendants busy lo these many years, with a finale borrowed from "The Birds" thrown in for good measure. In a gory prologue, blood spurts from a casket after a shovel is forced through it. The story, which takes place in 1910, begins when Edward De Souza and his pretty blond bride, Jennifer Daniel, run out of gas on a country road and seek refuge at a dark, musty inn, located near a castle. That night they dine with their lordly neighbor, Noel Willman, and, later, Miss Daniel is spirited away by Willman, who sinks his fangs into her swan-like neck. He is, it seems, headmaster of a whole cult of vampires, and De Souza finds himself hopelessly outnumbered when he tries to rescue his mesmerized bride. The neighborhood drunk, Clifford Evans, comes to De Souza's aid, explaining about the vampires and how he had to desecrate his daughter's body at her own funeral in order to free her from their evil spell. De Souza is captured by the vampires and, just as a hungry wench is about to feast upon him, he draws the sign of the cross, grabs his bride and makes a break. The drooling vampires pursue, but a flock of horrendous bats descends upon them. Evans whispers some magic words over Miss Daniel, who has not yet been completely transformed into a demon, and she conies out of her spell just in time to see the satiated bats departing from the castle of the now-bloodless vampires. Universal. 88 minutes. Clifford Evans, Noel Willman. Produced by Anthony Hinds. Directed by Don Sharp. "Donovan's Reef gu4tne4<t Kate*? O G Plus Brawling, fast-moving Wayne action comedy by John Ford should satisfy family audience. John Wayne is in typical form as he battles it out with Lee Marvin and, between bouts, tames Boston socialite Elizabeth Allen against a lush Hawaiian Technicolor background. "Donovan's Reef is robust, fast-moving, family entertainment. It is competing with earlier Wayne pictures that are now available, almost nightly, on free television. Producer-director John Ford staged this Paramount release primarily for laughs and some of the sequences seem hardly motivated. Wayne and Marvin move into action only for the pure joy of it, and after awhile they look like a couple of overgrown kids — and their antics tend to become dull. Tall, gravelly-voiced Elizabeth Allen, in her first important screen role, is given ample opportunity to display a fine comic flair. Cesar Romero is around in his familiar role, the fortune-hunting playboy, and Dorothy Lamour, sans sarong, adds a nostalgic note as a sort of South Seas Mae West who sings "Silent Night" during a hurricane. Jack Warden, Dick Foran, Mike Mazurki, round out the cast. The screenplay by Frank Nugent and James Edward Grant is set on a South Pacific Island just after World War II. Wayne and Marvin are a couple of brawling ex-seamen who run a saloon called Donovan's Reef. When Miss Allen, daughter of their crony, doctor Jack Warden, arrives to see if her father is responsible enough to inherit a fortune, Wayne adopts Warden's three native children so as not to offend the lady's sensibilities. This causes all sorts of misunderstandings, especially after Miss Allen falls in love with Wayne and learns that he has never been married. Warden returns from a long trip and explains everything to his understanding daughter. She continues to hold a grudge against Wayne until he loses his patience, spanks her, and then asks her to marry him. Paramount. 108 minutes. John Wayne. Lee Marvin, Jack Warden, Elizabeth Allen, Cesar Romero, Dorothy Lamour. Produced and directed by John Ford. "My Hobo" 'Sutut&M 72. a tiny O O Mild Japanese comedy with touches of home-spun humor. Fair art market entry. Badly subtitled. A philosophical comedy from Japan, concerning an egg-head hobo and the two waifs he befriends, provides generally pleasing, if undistinguished, entertainment. Badly subtitled, the film is too cliched in its home-spun philosophies to generate more than mild art-house interest. The Eastman color and Tohoscope film, for which Senezumi Fujimoto and Hideyuki Shino were executive producers for the Tokyo Eiga Company, offers intriguing background as the hobo, Keiji Kobayashi, ambles from Kyushu to Tokyo. Unfortunately, the subtitles fail to reveal the locale of some of the most interesting and scenic sights. Along the journey, writer-director Zenao Matsuyama has supplied diversions with a pretty, upper-class vagabond, Hideko Takamine, who takes Kobayashi's money and deposits it in a bank for his safekeeping, and in the two completely natural and disarming moppets, Noriehi Miki and Reiko Dan. There is much talk about honesty, religion and man's responsibility to himself and to others. In the end, after the orphaned children become permanent charges, the hobo gives up his carefree life, marries Miss Takamine, and accepts the responsibilities of maintaining a family. Toho. 98 minutes. Keiji Kobayashi, Hideko Takamine. Produced by Tokyo Eiga Company. Directed by Zenzo Matsuyama. "Harbor Lights" SudinedA IRatcHf O Plus Third-rate meller for support in action houses. This mild actioner being released by 20th-Fox is suitable only for rounding out dual bills in the sub-runs. Under Maury Dexter's production and direction, the Puerto Rican-made melodrama moves fairly rapidly, has performances that are competent and some interesting location shots of San Juan. Filmed by Associated Producers, it features Kent Taylor, Jeff Morrow, Mirian Colon, and a locally-recruited supporting cast, with some of the minor roles dubbed, rather poorly, into English. Henry Cross' pedestrian screenplay finds Taylor, a professional gambler, investigating the mysterious death of his brother. He is approached by a smuggler (Morrow) who wants a diamond that the brother was trying to take out of the country, and is chased by the police, who believe he murdered a crooked barge captain. Miss Colon supplies an is-she-or-isn't-she (with the smugglers) touch, and, in the final reel, decides to side with Taylor. Finally realizing that Taylor is innocent of the charges against him, the police trace the murders to Morrow. Taylor finds the diamond and gives it to charity. 20th Century-Fox. 68 minutes. Kent Taylor, Jeff Morrow, Mirian Colon. Produced and directed by Maury Dexter. Page 14 Film BULLETIN Augusts, 1963