The Fearless Vampire Killers | | Cast : | Roman Polanski, Jack MacGowran, Alfie Bass, Jessie Robins, Sharon Tate | | Director : | Roman Polanski | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | November 13, 1967 | | DVD Released Date : | October 05, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | Unrated | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 09, 2005 | | Summary | Fun Vampire Movie | Content
 | This is one of My Favorite Vampire Movies. It starts out with Professor Abronsius and His only Disciple Alfred Traveling in Transylvania to find Vampires their luck changes for the best when the innkeepers daughter Sarah is Kidnapped by Count Von Krolock a Dracula Like Vampire. The The Professor and his Assistant go to the Castle to Rescue her and thats when the fun begins
This is on my List of Favorite Vampire Movies
Love at First Bite
Dracula A.D. 1972
Dracula: Dead and Loving It
The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me But Your Teeth Are In My Neck
Blacula
Salems Lot - 1979
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| Rating | | | Date | July 07, 2005 | | Summary | Fairytale In Three Acts | Content
| BEWARE: CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGHOUT
Three Acts: The Inn, The Castle, The Dance
Dance Of The Vampires is filmed in soft, bewitchingly pure-white snow. Amidst the magical snow filled landscapes of the Dolomite mountains, the fairytale begins. A shrilly chorus starts chanting an ostinato baroque melody, quivering comedically as the notes rise and fall in short, repeated patterns. Bright red cartoonish blood drops dip down the nocturnal blue background, bouncing of the credits. One drop hits a letter and explodes into a little bright read cartoonish bat, then flies away. The nocturnal blue sky casts an eerie azure glow over the snow, as a sleigh enters the screen, jingling along the lovely snow ridden paths. Wispy winds are heard in the distance, alongside fragmented howls.
Professor Ambrosius (Jack McGowran), called "The Nut" by his colleagues, looks frozen. His helper, Alfred (director Roman Polanski), looks scared. A pack of wild, black dogs threatens the sleigh; Alfred, reminiscent of the great Buster Keaton, attempts to threaten the savage dogs with an umbrella. As if an umbrella would scare away wild dogs! Thus, the adventure begins.
Ambrosius literally falls into the hands of local townspeople, European-Slavic Jews, who are mysteriously living locked up in an inn. Garlic decorates the rustic-red interior of the confining inn. The Inn-Keeper Shagal (Alfie Bass) and his townspeople deny that vampires exist, and quickly dismiss any talk of castles. They seem ashamed that such monsters even exist, even as they protect themselves from being victims of the vampires. They seem even more ashamed at their inability to fight off the monsters, much like the European and Slavic Jews who were unable to fight the Holocaust.
Alfred ogles the full bosom of the vivacious, tempting, red-haired Sarah (Sharon Tate), Shagal's daughter, whose sexual energy ignites the introverted Alfred. Shagal (who's also sexually repressed) attempts to repress her sexuality, which creates a link between the fear of monsters and the fear of sexuality. The link is left unexplored, because people know that there is really nothing to fear, there's no true danger, but they like being scared anyway. The vampires are in far-off castles, sex is not talked about, and Alfred slams the door shut as Sarah sensually bathes.
Small, cramped spaces, repressed sexuality, and lack of cleanliness unsettles Sarah; soon, Count Von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne) bites Sarah as she's bathing, and takes her away from the Inn. As the Professor and Alfred stare at the blood on the bubbles and snow drifting downward onto the bath, Shagal immediately follows the Count, and is also bitten. After a chase, Ambrosius follows Shagal in pursuit of the vampires, and the fearful, childish Alfred follows in hot pursuit of Sarah.
They find the picturesque, gothic castle, its feudal exterior slightly in ruin, snow enveloping the nooks, battlements, floor, steps, and crannies, creating an enchanting fairytale visage. Alfred and Ambrosius scale the roof, slide down, meet the hunchback, and leer at the hellish-red schemed interior of the castle, which slightly resembles the interior of a church, with high-vaulted arches. Soon they greet His Excellency. The Count (His Excellency) and the Professor discuss the philosophy of vampirism. The Count compliments the Professor's well-written vampire book, and asks the Professor to sign a copy for him. The Count's flamboyantly homosexual son likes Alfred.
In the morning, they seek the crypt. Alfred to Ambrosius, whom he calls Master: maybe there is no crypt in the castle.
Alfred, once again Keatonesque, pratfalls and stumbles as he refuses to slay the count, pleading for mercy as Ambrosius hangs halfway down from a window, stuck. Still morning, Alfred finds Sarah bathing (she's not fully transformed), and she refuses to leave the castle. Afterall, there's wide open spaces, open sexuality, and baths.
A gorgeous Dance unfolds before them. Vampires celebrating fresh blood - first let's dance, then we'll feast! Classical baroque music floods the room as the ghastly vampires, adorned in vividly-coloured frocks, move in a classically choreographed fashion; the entire scene resembles Poe's Masque Of Red Death. Sarah, wearing a dazzlingly bright crimson red dress, is the Mask of Death, and she's the center of attention. She looks strikingly beautiful and purely innocent. Alfred and Ambrosius come to the rescue.
They flee the Dance, jump into a sleigh, and take off into the snow, under a midnight-blue sky. Alfred ponders Sarah's delicate, tiny hand, and whimsically dreams about sleeping. Sarah's fangs plunge into his neck...
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| Rating | | | Date | June 18, 2005 | | Summary | One of the Best Vampires Movies EVER MADE | Content
| this is a cool vampire movie it is funny and smart this is up their with "Love at First Bite" and the Mel Brooks movie get this it is a little slow but it works
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| Rating | | | Date | April 24, 2005 | | Summary | Fearless Vampire Killers, or pardon me but your teeth are in | Content
| This is one of those campy films that you just have to love. The plot is thin, but the laughs are big. It most certainly is not meant to be anything except mindless entertainment. My 15 year old daughter tells me that the music is very wierd, and that the sound is to low to actually hear what they are saying. She seemed to like turning on the sub-titles. All of her friends also said that it is to weird, but it still goes to all of the teen parties with her.
Overall, it is a funny film that has no redeaming social value.
I really liked the movie when it first came out, but over time I think that it has not held up all that well.
Give it a look if you like. Easily worth 10 bucks for the DVD, but no more than that.
Jonathan
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| Rating | | | Date | March 14, 2005 | | Summary | Fun But Flawed Time Capsule of '60's Horror | Content
| Director Roman Polanski came very close to getting the balance right in this spoof of the vampire movie genre. He manages in parts to create almost a fairytale atmosphere, and some of the camerawork and art direction are stunning (check out the opening optical shot of the moon that pans out to show the horse drawn carriage travelling through the mountains! I think it's one of the most beautiful opening shots in all of film). Lovely Sharon Tate is the eye candy, and she isn't called upon to do much but look stunning. Polanski is enjoyable as the Vampire Killer's Little Helper, but the man playing the Vampire Killer is hideous---his performance is so buffoonish and grotesque that it really throws off the balance of the movie. Without his awful over-acting and mugging, this could have been a classic film. |
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