The Fearless Vampire Killers

Through the mountainous wilds of Transylvania race the sleighs of the titular vampire hunters: Professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran), half-frozen and barely alive, and his assistant Alfred (played by Polański himself), fending off a pack of dogs with his last reserves of strength. Revived at a local inn, the travellers begin asking about the castle – and promptly stumble upon Sarah, the innkeeper’s daughter (Sharon Tate), in the bath. Polański and his co-writer Gérard Brach ingeniously bring the two threads together: the red-haired girl is soon abducted by Count von Krolock, and the vampire hunters set out to rescue her. The Fearless Vampire Killers is packed with slapstick set-pieces, sexual innuendo and just a touch of menace. Krzysztof Komeda’s grotesque score heightens the film’s absurdity, while Douglas Slocombe’s cinematography draws both on Hammer-style Gothic horror and the traditions of silent farce. Much of the comedy arises from the mechanics of space and the precise choreography of the gags, recalling the films of Buster Keaton. This is why the set design plays such a central role: from the Jewish inn hung with plaits of garlic and filled with barrels of cabbage trampled underfoot, through the snowy slopes shot in Urtijëi in the Italian Dolomites, to the castle that serves as the story’s main theatre – a maze of doors, windows, staircases and corridors just waiting to be turned into the next comic trap.

Michał Kowalczyk

Roman Polański (b. 1933) – Polish director, screenwriter and actor. He has made most of his films in France, Great Britain and the USA. In his native Poland he made only a few short films and his feature debut Knife in the Water (1962). He has returned to Polish and Jewish themes in The Pianist (2002), which brought him an Academy Award for Best Director and the Palme d’Or. His illustrious filmography includes many highly regarded titles, such as Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974) and The Tenant (1976).