User Reviews

Because he owes back taxes to the government, Baron Osvaldo Lambertenghi (Renato Rascel) is forced to sell his family's castle. The new owners turn the castle into a hotel and hire Osvaldo as a bellboy. Osvaldo receives a letter telling him an uncle he's never met, Baron Roderico da Frankurten (Christopher Lee), intends to pay Osvaldo a visit. Osvaldo is unaware that his long lost uncle is, in fact, a vampire. Roderico arrives and much hilarity ensues as he turns Osvaldo into a sort of temporary vampire. In one night, Osvaldo bites every woman in the hotel on the neck and has them all swooning for him.

I love a lot of Italian cinema from the 50s through the 70s. I enjoy Italian Gothic horror, Gialli, Spaghetti Westerns, Eurospy, Poliziotteschi, Peplums, war movies, cannibal movies, zombie movies, and even some straight up dramas. But, with a few exceptions, I've never been a big fan of Italian comedies. Maybe something gets lost in the translation, but the broad approach to comedy taken in most of these movies just doesn't work with me. And that's my main problem with Uncle Was a Vampire. Most, but not all, of the comedy doesn't work on me. I didn't find most of Rascel's brand of comedy appealing. Instead, Rascel annoyed me – not what you want in a comedy. Sure, there were bits a pieces that worked – all the women going nuts over Osvaldo, all the men in the hotel running around with wooden stakes, and some of Rascel's scenes with Christopher Lee. Overall, however, the comedy was inconsistent at best.

Speaking of Christopher Lee, he's quite good in Uncle Was a Vampire. For the most part, he plays it straight and it works. Standing next to the diminutive Rascel, Lee looks huge and menacing. Lee probably has more vampire screen time here than in any of his Hammer films. The cast also includes the lovely Sylva Koscina. While her role is more limited that I would prefer, as I've said before, any movie with Sylva Koscina is better simply because she's in it. Uncle Was a Vampire is worth watching just to check out Lee and Koscina. As a result, I'll be generous and rate this movie a 5/10.

"I bite all right." So says the hammy Renato Rascel, more outrageous than Bob Denver was in his single episode playing the dream Mr. Toothy on "Gilligan's Island", over-emoting every line deliberately before and after uncle Christopher Lee has his plasma cocktail. Rascel's zany character is a broke hotel owner who is forced to sell it and remain on as a bellboy. Uncle Chris arrives as the resident of the coffin disguised as a serviette, and quickly makes his presence known. Hotel residents become aware of something spooky going on, and the pretty Sylvia Koscia becomes an intended midnight snack for uncle and nephew who are now alike in every way but height and sensuality, with Rascel lacking uncle's finesse.

While most of the English dubbing is quite obvious, for Lee, it is obvious that his lines are in English, yet still dubbed I English. The comedy is of the juvenile type with Rascel pretty much playing an Italian version of a Bowery Boy or Mexico's Cantiflas or France's Fernandel. It's playfully over-the-top. What is most amusing is that Rascel is a vampire who is too scared to bite for blood. It's harmless, silly fun, but I wish that there was more of Lee.

Baron Osvaldo Lambertenghi (Renato Rascel, who represented Italy in the 1960 Eurovision contest and acted in several films) has sold his ancestral castle and stays on as a porter, which he does without complaint until the day that his uncle Baron Roderico da Frankurte (Christopher Lee) arrives.

Roderico is a vampire, in case you didn't read the title. Osvaldo tries to tell the guests, but they think he's crazy, at which point he gets bitten too. This was made nearly instantly after Hammer's Horror of Dracula and if he wasn't a big enough box office star to get people to show up, Sylva Koscina from Hercules is here as well. So is Susanne Loret (Atom Age Vampire), Kai Fischer (The Hellfire Club) and Lia Zoppelli (who was in Toto and Cleopatra) are also on board.

Director Steno is mostly known for comedy films, like his films with Toto, Banana Joe with Bud Spencer, Dr. Jekyll Likes Them Hot with Edwige Fenech and Man, Beast and Virtue, which had Toto and Orson Welles in the same movie.

For Hammer fans, you can almost consider this a lost Lee Dracula, except that the humor and the horrible dubbing Lee got may take you out of the movie.