Sorry, this movie sucks

One of my all time favorites.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The Vampire and the Ballerina (1960) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A small town has had three vampire attacks on the full moon and locals are terrified that something evil is stalking them. Not everything believes these myths and that includes a troupe of young dancers who end up staying at a castle but it doesn't take long for the vampire to come after them.THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA, or its original title L'AMANTE DEL VAMPIRO, is credited for being one of the earliest Italian horror films to mix sex and violence. The film today is quite tame in regards to both but it's easy to watch the film and see that it would have been an influence on several others that were to be released but at the same time there's no question that it's a flawed picture to say the least.I think the biggest problem with the film is the fact that there's really not too much that happens throughout its running time. There are very long stretches where we basically see the characters either talking or not doing a thing and this really makes for a slow film and one that you're going to need patience with. There are a couple other extended sequences with the girls doing their dances and this here is just as boring, although I'm sure people in 1960 enjoyed watching these beautiful ladies and their big breasts packed into these tight costumes.With that being said, there are some very good things scattered throughout the movie that makes it worth watching. As I said, the ladies are quite beautiful and easy to look at throughout the picture. There's also some nice atmosphere and especially the opening sequence, which gets the film off to a great start. Then there's the vampire himself who looks wonderful. I really liked the deformed monster look that they gave the vampire and it made the attacks all the more effective. There's also the ending, which I won't spoil but it's wonderful too.THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA isn't a masterpiece but it is an important film in Italian horror cinema. As I said, there are certainly some flaws with it but the picture is certainly worth watching.

Before television presenters, members of parliament, glam rockers, Hollywood producers, cigar-toting disc jockeys, Australian artists and weird haired American actors, all a young person had to worry about was attacks by classic monsters. This cautionary tale warns us that if you're looking after a troupe of ballerinas, it's best not to put them up in a village where there's a vampire on the loose.A young, non-dancer girl from the village is attacked first and brought to the huge mansion all the girls are staying in. Turns out half the village believe there's a vampire loose, whereas the other half think that's a load of crap, including the dance troupe leader's uncle – and it's his house all these scantily clad girls are lounging about. So he sits them all down and tells them the story of a curse – you know, the one you've heard about a million times.The village girl dies and there's a creepy scene where she wakes up in the coffin shortly before being buried. Later that night the vampire turns up and offers to take her to his castle to start a new life as a bloodsucker, but this is a ruse when he stakes her instead – looks this vamp doesn't want any rivals. But never mind that – these vampire attacks have inspired the dance troupe to do a vampire themed performance, so we get a great Fame-like sudden improvised dance workout!Of course two of these girls have boyfriends and some of them end up in the vampire's castle getting their necks sucked on and one of the boyfriends gets seduced by a female vampire. It's this kind of thing that gets in the way of one's marriage plans, so the boyfriends have to band together to take on these anaemic goth bastards. An early Italian horror with a lot of campy atmosphere, fast paced and gorgeous looking. It's not scary but it has a beautiful cheese level. And the vampire looks like a contemporary Mickey Rourke! Some of the 'vampire melting' effects are quite good too. Due to it being so early, there's not too much gore and no nudity, but that doesn't stop them trying! There's even a slightly implied lesbian relationship between the two main girls (and it seems to be symptom of vampirism in that it makes you bisexual). It's short too, which is good after sitting through so many gialli.

The plot is so routine it plays more like a late entry in the Eurohorror period of the 1960s than like the early entry it is. Clearly, few involved in the film took any serious care with the material, even throwing in some rather herky-jerky musical numbers, far from ballet. But the photography by Angelo Baistrocchi is both crisp and moody, attractively using the weathered castle locations. Clearly influenced by (HORROR OF) Dracula, still it's more in the Italian mode than Hammer horror. But it's weakened by mostly uninteresting characters and a lot of running about, often near a rocky stream. Still, the weird relationship between the two vampires is unusual: she's a contessa, he's her servant, but he made her a vampire--so as humans, she dominates him, while as vampires, he dominates her. This leads to an intense love-hate relationship climaxed by them turning on each other at the climax--while still loving one another.

A group of dancers gets stuck in a brooding old castle that, naturally, has thirsty vampires who are thrilled to see them. That said, the film is basically just a dull, glacially-paced exercise in routine plotting. The only redeeming feature is the beauty of the actresses.