ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Three fairly good movies with nothing in common, plot wise.

~ The Vampire (1957) is and unusual late-50s sci-fi movie in which a doctor takes pills that turn him into a blood sucker!

~ The Venetian Affair (1967) has all the earmarks of an U.0.N.C.L.E. feature even though it isn’t.

~ The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967 England) puts Christopher Lee in the Chinese robs of the dreaded Asian villain.
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The Vampire (1957)

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[Also released as: "Mark of the Vampire"]

John Beal's fine acting makes this one worth watching. Beal is a small town doctor who is turned into a grusome blood sucker because of strange pills he accidentally takes after a dying doctor develops a drug that "regresses animals to a more primitive state".

We don't get to see the transformed doctor's face until the forty-seven minute mark, but it's worth the wait. The climax is action packed, with Kenneth Toby ("The Thing from Another World") as the two-fisted hero who goes head-to-head with the hideous beast!

Also starring Dabbs Greer ("It! The Terror from Beyond Space"). Collen Grey ("Phantom Planet") is the doctors lovely nurse and the heroine of the tale.

Directed by Paul Landres. ____________________________________________________________________

The Venetian Affair (1967)

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Is this another multi-episode "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." feature? Look at the evidence:

(1) It has the word "affair" in the title,

(2) it stars Robert Vaughn,

(3) it involves espionage and intrigue in beautiful Venice,

(4) the villain injects people with a serum that turns them into brain-washed zombies,

(5) it has a long list of well-known guest stars such as Boris Karloff, Elke Sommer, Felicia Farr, Edward Asner, Luciana Paluzzi ("Thunderball", "The Green Slim"), Roger C. Carmel ("Skullduggery", "Star Trek").

Okay, so is it U.N.C.L.E.?

Surprise, the verdict is not guilty. Vaughn plays a reporter and ex-CIA man who investigates the assassination of several diplomats. Karl Boehm is the enemy agent with the zombie serum. This MGM film was produced and directed by Jerry Thorpe from a screenplay by co-producer E. Jack Newman.

The poster art for this movie by Frank McCarthy (creator of several fine Bond posters) is gorgeous. Here's the one-sheet.

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And here's the larger version I found of the artwork itself (with the tagline still at the bottom, dang it. )



Mr. Vaughn looks like a true badass spy, yes indeed . . . ____________________________________________________________________

The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967 England)

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Number three in the steady decline of the Christopher Lee series featuring Sax Rohmer's indestructible oriental villain. Fu kidnaps a famous surgeon and his daughter and compels him to use plastic surgery in the creation of a look-alike for Fu's arch enemy, Nayland Smith (Douglas Wilmer).

The double does things which Smith gets blamed for, hence Smith is discredited.

Directed by Jeremy Summers from a screenplay by Harry Allan Towers. Starring Tsai Chin, Howard Marion-Crawford, Horst Frank, and Maria Rohm. American release prints were in black-and-white. Directed by Jeremy Summers.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)