When medical researcher Vincent Ball is sent to prison for conducting experiments that have not been approved by the medical board, a mysterious doctor (Donald Wolfitt) who runs his own prison arranges to have Ball transferred there. Wolfitt intends to use Ball's knowledge to do his bidding which includes experiments on other prisoners. Wolfitt, we learn, is suffering from a rare blood condition, and that makes him rely on other people's blood so in one way he is a vampire, but not in the traditional way of Bram Stoker. Suspicious of where Ball has been transferred and later learning that he has apparently been killed in escape attempt, his fiance Barbara Shelley arranges to get a job there as a housekeeper. As there usually is in films like this, there is a deformed assistant (Victor Maddern) who made be deranged in his willingness to assist Wolfitt, but he won't let anybody harm Shelley. This of course leads to the inevitable showdown and a few violent endings for some of the characters.

An above average horror with plenty of science fiction elements, this has great art direction as well as some delicious camp. Certainly there are hints that Wolfitt's character died of vampires death and somehow came back to life, but twists just proved that theory. inexpensive state to see modern being introduced to Shelley when she takes on the job the castle, because she doesn't even flinch, one of the few horror heroines not to do so when confronted by a monstrous looking creature. That opens modern character to have some sympathy in his favor, and as a result, he ends up being one of the most memorable characters in this film, the other being William Devlin's prisoner who plays an important part in letting ball know the secrets of the castle. The ending it's pretty gruesome, but there were hints that the castle was going to explode or catch on fire like American International did in all their Edgar Allan Poe tales, but the writers chose a different route.

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE is a pseudo-Hammer film made to cash in on the huge success of Hammer's THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. It's a bit of a mixed success, at least in terms of the production: the low budget is evident from the limited number of sets, but what sets! The whole film looks delicious and colourful with a real Gothic atmosphere that rivals Hammer at their best. The rival producers even hired Hammer man Jimmy Sangster to write the screenplay, which is all about early blood transfusions rather than any real vampirism – so if you go in looking for neck-biting antics you'll be sorely disappointed.

Much of the film is set in an asylum for the criminal insane, presided over by sinister doctor Callistratus (played by renowned theatre actor Donald Wolfit, who looks uncannily like a bigger version of Bela Lugosi here). Vincent Ball is the dashing hero thrown into the chaos, finding himself at the mercy of brutal guards, vicious Dobermans lurking outside the asylum, atrocious conditions, torture, and a creepy hunchback (the sympathetic Victor Maddern, hidden beneath some delightfully grotesque makeup that puts his eye halfway down his cheek). Before long, the utterly beautiful Barbara Shelley is also on the scene and at the mercy of the villains...

Sangster's script reads like a half-baked version of THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and indeed he took many of the themes in this movie and strengthened them for the Hammer sequel. Still, even if the script is slightly sub-par, the pacing is spot on and there's never a boring spot here. The Gothic feel is spot on, with plenty of spooky atmosphere punctuated by sudden moments of the grotesque – a heart beating on its on in a tank, a limbless body kept alive, a corpse in a block of ice. I didn't even mind the lack of undead, as I've always enjoyed the scientific paraphernalia in these movies. Other moments of interest include brief appearances from John Le Mesurier as a judge and Bernard Bresslaw as a thief. The sole aim of this film may have been to rip-off Hammer and director Henry Cass may be workmanlike at best, but still I enjoyed this fun and colourful little romp.

A lunatic doctor in 1874 Transylvania, thought to be a vampire and killed with a wooden stake through his heart, is given a new ticker and resurrected from the dead; after changing his identity, he is put in charge of a remote prison for the criminally insane, but finds he needs medical help after his antagonistic blood cells are at odds with each other. Enter Vincent Ball (who amusingly resembles Edward Norton!) as a young doctor railroaded into prison via tampered evidence, and Barbara Shelley as Ball's sweetheart who believes her fiancé is innocent. Amazing, unusual screenplay from the talented Jimmy Sangster and solid performances bolster this horror-movie-which-really-isn't. A prologue complete with vampire-hunters and bright red blood prepares us for the standard bloodsucker set-up, yet Sangster is more interested in the wronged victim than the so-called vampire, and the action inside the heavily-guarded jail is surprisingly suspenseful. Some of the violence is a bit timid or rushed through, such as when a sadistic guard lands on his own bayonet blade (either director Henry Cass or his editor skitter passed the gruesome incidents),and there are a few plot-holes which the writer leaves gaping. Otherwise, an efficient and enjoyable British-made thriller filmed in muted, gloomy Eastmancolor; not the 'shocker' advertised, but actually so much more. *** from ****