Directed by Henry Levin and released in 1944 this is very much a werewolf film (of the four-legged variety) but a little scene at the beginning makes it worth mentioning here.
The film starts at the La Tour museum, in New Orleans. The museum was once the home of the La Tour family but is now maintained by the Society of Psychic Research under the guidance of Dr. Charles Morris (Fritz Leiber Snr). As the film starts there is the final tour of the day.
The tour guide is Peter Althius (John Abbott, the Vampire’s Ghost) who promises the tour tales of vampirism, werewolfism and voodooism.
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The first room he takes them into is the vampire room. In that room, decorated as a vampire nest (as he puts it) based on an ancient description, there is a life-sized vampire dummy/waxwork stood over a sarcophagus. In that we see a skeleton with a stake through the ribs – the prescribed method of killing a vampire. And that’s it, vampires mentioned in passing… the tour moves on to the voodoo room and the film itself involves werewolves, gypsies, murder and disbelieving cops. At just over an hour, it doesn’t outstay its welcome but it isn’t up to classic Universal.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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