Honourable Mention: Paris When It Sizzles

The Richard Quine directed, 1964 romantic comedy Paris When It Sizzles proves again – should we actually need proof – that vampires get everywhere.

The story follows Richard Benson (William Holden), a screen play writer who has been hired by producer Alexander Meyerheim (Noel Coward) to write a screenplay named “The Girl who Stole Paris”. Meyerheim is due in Paris in two days’ time but Benson, now more playboy than writer, has done nothing with the script for months.

He hires a typist Gabrielle Simpson (Audrey Hepburn) and with her typing skills he has two days to come up with an idea, if a seduction of her and more drinks than you can shake a stick at do not get in the way of the creative process. The film shows the developing script in scenes, in which Gabbrielle and Richard become Gabby and Rick, and the film features cameos by Tony Curtis, Marlene Dietrich and the voice of Frank Sinatra (with a name check in script).

As for the vampire, an in-script lunch for Gaby and Rick is replicated in reality by Gabrielle and Richard. A rather drunk Gabrielle wonders what will happen next in the story and why Rick keeps nibbling Gabby’s neck. We cut back to Gabrielle's imagining of the script as Rick takes Gabby to a cave and she realises why he keeps nibbling on her neck – he’s some sort of werewolf. Rick disavows her of that – indeed, he is no werewolf but a vampire. This leads to a chase scene involving a carriage, a horse and bi-planes! Later in the film the Gabby character, when taken to a film studio, admits she used to be madly in love with the character Dracula.

So, there you have it, vampires getting everywhere, this time in Paris When It Sizzles. The imdb page is here.