''The Vampire's Ghost'' is a 1945 American

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...

directed by

Lesley Selander Lesley Selander (May 26, 1900 – December 5, 1979) was an American film director of Westerns and adventure movies. His career as director, spanning 127 feature films and dozens of TV episodes, lasted from 1936 to 1968. Before that, Selander was ...

, written by

Leigh Brackett Leigh Douglass Brackett (December 7, 1915 – March 18, 1978) was an American science fiction writer known as "the Queen of Space Opera." She was also a screenwriter, known for '' The Big Sleep'' (1946), '' Rio Bravo'' (1959), and '' The Long Go ...

and John K. Butler, and starring

John Abbott Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott (March 12, 1821 – October 30, 1893) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the third prime minister of Canada from 1891 to 1892. He held office as the leader of the Conservative Party. Abb ...

, Charles Gordon, Peggy Stewart,

Grant Withers Granville Gustavus Withers (January 17, 1905 – March 27, 1959) was an American film actor who acted under the screen name Grant Withers. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into sound films, establishing himself with a lis ...

Emmett Vogan Charles Emmett Vogan (September 27, 1893 – October 6, 1969) was an American actor with almost 500 film appearances from 1934 to 1954, making him, along with Bess Flowers, one of the most prolific film actors of all time. In 1913, Vogan ...

and

Adele Mara Adele Mara (born Adelaida Delgado; April 28, 1923 – May 7, 2010) was an American actress, singer, and dancer, who appeared in films during the 1940s and 1950s and on television in the 1950s and 1960s. Early years Mara was born in Highland P ...

. The film was released on May 21, 1945, by

Republic Pictures Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City a ...

Plot

Roy Hendrick ( Charles Gordon) returns to the village of Bakunda after a short absence to find that there has been a series of strange murders where each victim was bitten the neck and drained of blood. The local Natives are certain it is the work of a vampire, but Roy, his girlfriend Julie Vance ( Peggy Stewart) and her father Thomas Vance ( Emmett Vogen) who runs a local plantation do not believe in such superstitious nonsense. They go to see Webb Fallon (

), a newcomer to the area who runs a nightclub and knows a lot about the occult and the local voodoo customs. It is soon apparent that Fallon is indeed a vampire. A native stabs him with a silver tipped spear, and at this point Fallon tells Roy the truth about himself, making Roy his slave with the curse of the undead. Roy must do his bidding and can not tell anyone the truth about Fallon. Fallon kills Lisa (

), a dancer in his club and a troublesome sea Captain named Barrett (

Roy Barcroft Roy Barcroft (born Howard Harold Ravenscroft; September 7, 1902 – November 28, 1969) was an American character actor famous for playing villains in B-Westerns and other genres. From 1937 to 1957, he appeared in more than 300 films for Re ...

). Hendrick is helpless to stop him until the local Priest gives him the strength to conquer Fallon's hold on him. Fallon, realizing that everyone is on to him now, takes Julie to a nearby Temple of Death where he plans to make her his eternal vampire bride. The heroes race to Temple, stop Fallon in the nick of time and burn the vampire's body in the temple.

Cast

as Webb Fallon *Charles Gordon as Roy Hendrick * Peggy Stewart as Julie Vance *

as Father Gilchrist *

as Thomas Vance *

as Lisa *

as Capt. Jim Barrett *Martin Wilkins as Simon Peter *Frank Jaquet as The Doctor *

Jimmy Aubrey Jimmy Aubrey (23 October 1887 – 2 September 1983) was an English actor who worked with both Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, having gone with Fred Karno's theatrical company to America in 1908. However he left to start on his own in v ...

as The Bum

Production

The film was an early screen credit for

. Her former agent, Hugh King, had gone to work at Republic as a story editor and got Brackett a job on it as writer. Brackett later recalled, "they were doing this horror film. They decided to cash in on the Universal monster school, and I had been doing science fiction, and to them it all looked the same — "bug-eyed monsters." It made no difference." Shortly afterwards Brackett was hired by

Howard Hawks Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name." A v ...

to write ''

The Big Sleep ''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, The Big Sleep (1946 film), in 1946 and again The Big Sleep ...

''. Filming started in October 1944. Brackett later said she worked three weeks on the script with another writer. "They shot the film in ten days and that was two days over schedule (laughing). They fired the cameraman after the second day because he was taking too much time. But uh, it was not the greatest film ever made."

Reception

The success of this and ''

The Phantom Creeps ''The Phantom Creeps'' is a 1939 12-chapter science fiction horror serial starring Bela Lugosi as mad scientist Doctor Zorka, who attempts to rule the world by creating various elaborate inventions. In a dramatic fashion, foreign agents and G-M ...

'' encouraged Republic to make another two horror films, '' Valley of the Zombies'' and '' The Catman of Paris''.

References

External links

*
Complete film
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

*
''The Vampire's Ghost''
at BFI
Review of film
at ''Variety'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Vampires Ghost 1945 films American supernatural horror films Films with screenplays by Leigh Brackett Films directed by Lesley Selander American vampire films Films based on short fiction Republic Pictures films 1945 horror films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films