Uncle Was A Vampire (1959)

Hard Times for Vampires…

A bankrupt nobleman loses his ancestral castle and is forced to work as a bellboy when it reopens as a hotel. Things seem to be looking up when a long lost uncle comes to stay. The only problem is that the new guest is a vampire.

Being fluent in 4 foreign languages and proficient in another 3 gave Christopher Lee a second career in films made in mainland Europe. ‘Uncle Was A Vampire’ (1959) finds him lampooning his ‘Dracula’ image in this mild Italian sex comedy. It’s a shame his voice is dubbed by another actor in the English version as it doesn’t help his performance but he’s still an impressive presence and a class act.

Elsewhere, the only other plus points are the female cast, who are certainly pleasant to look at and include Sylva Koscina, Steve Reeves’ squeeze from his 2 outings as ‘Hercules.’ Unfortunately, most of the proceedings resemble 1970s ‘family’ TV sitcoms with a fair amount of the clichés intact. There’s nothing wrong with some level of familiarity of course but the shameless mugging of star Renato Rascel pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin (so to speak).

‘You will buy my new heavy metal album….’

Having said all that, it’s fair to say that humour doesn’t always translate between nations, or eras for that matter, so it’s hard to judge the project to harshly. It certainly isn’t any worse than the Jerry Lewis-Dean Martin pictures of the same period or the Norman Wisdom comedies produced in the U.K.

And you do get to see Lee in his vampire heyday – even if he doesn’t sound like himself!