Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter

Virtually ignored when it was first released in 1973, the Hammer Films offering Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter has since gained a minor cult following thanks to multiple late night television broadcasts. The eponymous hero travels through 18th century England with a hunchbacked assistant and a glamorous aide (B-movie queen and one time 007 starlet Caroline Munro) in search of a peculiar vampire who has been draining the youth out of beautiful girls, leaving them to die aged beyond their years. In many ways, the film was clearly ahead of its time: its tongue-in-cheek humor and intentionally arch performances clearly signal that no one onscreen is taking this too seriously while the martial arts-influenced sword fights between the vampire and the captain show writer/director Brian Clemens was an early apostle of Hong Kong-style action filmmaking. Yet the film lacks the florid overcooking that made the Hammer flicks the ultimate cinematic guilty pleasure, and one wishes prime hams such as Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing could have played the captain rather than the handsome but strictly adequate Horst Janson. Originally intended to be the first in a new film series, Hammer's abrupt financial collapse limited Captain Kronos and his pals to this single offering. It is probably just as well: campy enough for a one-shot entertainment, the captain and his team don't quite have the flair to merit additional adventures into the supernatural realm. Boasting a reasonably sharp transfer, the disc also includes a solid commentary track with Clemens, Munro, and film scholar Jonathan Sothcott. Optional. (P. Hall)