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What he doesn’t know about vampires wouldn’t fill a flea’s codpiece!
A review of
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
(1974)by
John Plunket
This is a decidedly non-traditional Hammer Films production: a vampire swashbuckler. A galumphing score heralds the arrival of Captain Kronos (Horst Janson)and his sidekick, the hunchback Professor Grost (John Cater), galloping over the hills. It is the early 19th Century, and Kronos has been summoned to a remote village by Dr. Marcus (John Carson), who fears that the undead are at work. These vampires have a unique modus operandi: they suck the life force out of their victims, turning them from young girls to ancient, dying women with a single bloody kiss.
Kronos and Grost are professional vampire slayers: the Captain is an ace of swordplay, the Professor an expert on vampires, of which “there are as many species as beasts of prey” in the Captain Kronos universe. They pick up a follower on the way to the village, the Gypsy Carla (Caroline Munro, wild-eyed and feral), who Kronos rescues from the stocks (“And what crime have you committed?” “I danced on a Sunday!”).
At the village, it becomes a “Who’s the vampire?” mystery, the prime suspects being the lordly Durward family: a pair of androgynous, possibly incestuous siblings (Shane Briant and Lois Daine) and their aged, reclusive mother (Wanda Ventham). Or is it Carla? Or the mysterious blind girl in the tavern (Gigi Gurpinar)? Kronos will ferret out the undead, and when he does there will be ferocious dueling.
Captain Kronos was the brainchild of writer-director Brian Clemens, best known for The Avengers. It’s obvious that this was a labor of love, with Clemens putting much thought into the film and into each scene within it, creating his own inimitable world. There is a Brothers Grimm-ish dark forest, a hillside cemetery with crude wooden crosses, and nicely done interior sets from huts to mansions. Clemens excels at the details: ornately carved stakes with blood gutters, flowers wilting as a vampire passes, blood mixed with broken eggs in the aftermath of an attack. The dialogue is nicely written, with a lot of humor.
The characters are also well realized. Kronos carries a samurai sword in addition to his saber, smokes thin cigars packed with a ‘Chinese herb’, and meditates with a handkerchief over his face. He is scarred, taciturn, brooding, and a possible deserter. That he’s not a cheery Errol Flynn swashbuckler makes him all the more appealing. Both Kronos and Grost are given many little touches of backstory which make them come alive. The character of Carla is given shorter shrift, but Caroline Munro, who played Vincent Price’s dead wife in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and a Bond Girl in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), manages to make her memorable as well.
On the commentary included with the Paramount DVD, Clemens acknowledges that he was inspired by John Ford’s westerns; Kronos is the lone gunman riding into town to set things right. The most blatantly western scene is set in a tavern, with Kronos and Gorst standing up to a group of bullies. Unfortunately, the only point of the scene is to establish Kronos’ skill with swords; the characters in the tavern are disappointingly absent from the rest of the film.
Captain Kronos is a lot of fun, but there is one flaw: the events in the film turn out to be a little underwhelming. You end up wanting it to be more than it is, much more. Clemens sets up great characters, but then they aren’t given very much to do- they, and the film itself, don’t quite live up to their potential. A limited budget might have been one reason for this; as it turns out, there is another. The film was, in a way, a pilot episode. Clemens was hoping that Captain Kronos would be the first in a series of films, or even a television series, starring the eponymous hero, perhaps as an immortal vampire hunter throughout the ages. Unfortunately, Captain Kronos was not a strong success at the box office, and Clemens’ plans fell through. Hammer itself withered not long afterward, releasing its last feature film in 1979. The company currently lurks in suspended animation; it may yet rise from the grave.
Although Captain Kronos failed at the box office, it succeeds in delivering fun and charm, and it will leave you wanting more. Remakes are normally a waste of film, but in the right hands a remake of Captain Kronos could be great indeed, fulfilling the untapped potential of Clemens’ character.
With superior being a bright full moon, this DVD rates:
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© Plunket, 2007
