There are a lot of problems with this film … mostly in structure. The cut-and-paste origins are very apparent especially when the female lead seems to forget stuff that happened shortly before. However there are so many "tent-pole moments" … scenes that are so good and evocative … that this remains one of my favorite Hammer films.  Everyone has pointed out the fact that it's a version of Suddenly Last Summer … just as Kiss of the Vampire is a lot like the 1934 Black Cat with a touch of So Long at the Fair. It is also a stunningly beautiful film that really evokes a dream. David Peel is a marvelous vampire as someone with a "social disease" and a deep secret and, as much as I love Christopher Lee, Peel is better than Lee would've been. With Lee you got bloodsucking demon … with Peel all sorts of unspoken, transgressive badness all packaged in a ready-for-the-Twilight-movies handsome façade.

opticalguy1954@yahoo.com (Spencer Gill)