Dance of the Vampires: A Bite on a Winter Night

In the film “Once upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino, in a peculiar buffoonish manner, confesses his love for the Dream Factory, but his second attempt after Inglourious Basterds to play in the glade of alternative history is much more curious. On the night of August 8 to August 9, 1969, exalted psychopaths from Charlie Manson’s “family” are going to visit the house number 10050 on Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, but, according to Tarantino’s idea, mistakenly get into the neighboring mansion, where they are greeted by the character of Brad Pitt, who, like it follows to “otbradiv” the aliens, “pittit” them into minced meat. The true story really could have turned in a different direction, albeit at a completely different moment…

By 1967, Roman Polanski already had three full-length films in his luggage, The Golden Bear, the FIPRESCI Award and an Oscar nomination, led a deliberately outrageous lifestyle and did not disdain fashionable drugs, generously pouring them with expensive alcohol. Having temporarily dropped out of the producers’ field of view, Romek and his friend, screenwriter-drinking buddy Gerard Brush, went to the Austrian Alps to look at the skiers. Here they came up with the idea for a new film, a comedy parody of the penny horror films of Hammer studio. Polanski was delighted with the idea, announcing that he would sell it to film studios in a month. Of course, he overreacted, the gesheft took two months. Martin Ransohoff, who later produced the cult cartoon “American Pop” by Ralph Bakshi, took over the production. Polanski saw his then-girlfriend, actress Jill St. John, in the main female role, but Ransohoff suggested a different candidate. This is the first fork in history, if Romek had gone to the principle, having approved the Gil, and August 1969 would have been remembered by other victims…

Transylvanian Carpathians, XIX-th century. Professor Abronsius, a kind of hybrid of Stoker Van Helsing and Einstein, smacked by the theory of relativity, accompanied by student Alfred arrives in a tiny village nestled at the foot of the mountains. Here the professor expects to find evidence of the existence of legendary vampire monsters. The owner of the inn, Yoni Chagall, immediately declares that vampires are a children’s horror story, but the bedchamber of his main treasure, the beautiful red-haired daughter Sarah, is hung with bundles of garlic on an industrial scale. The locals also remain silent, only the village fool almost blurts out, but shuts up in time with the friendly palms of the neighbors. The intrigue is gaining momentum when an archetypal freak with the talking name of Dolls appears in the tavern, wishing to purchase a batch of candles for the count’s castle. The next night, Sarah disappears, the professor and his assistant attack the trail of a vampire, leading them to that very castle. The owner, Count Von Orloc, gives the companions a warm welcome, captivating Abronsius with a scientific conversation. Alfred, on the other hand, becomes the object of attention of Herbert Von Orloc, the owner’s son. Herbert is a pederastic ghoul whose interests extend not only to Alfred’s blood. The situation is heating up…

Polanski and Brush obviously read not only Bram Stoker, whose “Dracula” they laugh at with boyish enthusiasm. Cheerful devilry and macabre sloppiness stick like a draft through the window cracks of an old castle, forcing us to remember the “Night before Christmas” by our Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. And with the Soviet film adaptation of Gogol’s “Viya”, released in the same year, Polanski’s film has a spiritual kinship. As if in the best traditions of Soviet cinema, there are no passing roles and secondary characters. Jack Mcgowran (Abronsius) and Ian Quarrier (Herbert) have already worked with Polanski in the grotesque thriller “Dead End”, the images of an absent-minded scientist and a comical homosexual bloodsucker, respectively, succeeded brilliantly. No less textured is the German actor Ferdi Meine in the role of Von Orlok Sr. The Englishman Alfie Bays is absolutely convincing in the role of the innkeeper Chagall. Such “shagals” were typical of Eastern Europe and the pale of settlement of the Russian Empire. The mountainous terrain of northern Italy served as an excellent backdrop for the adventures of vampiroborets, and the pristine whiteness of the snow turned the film into a winter fairy tale, albeit a little creepy.

The sleds of satire slipped not only along the established cliches of horror stories, but also along the ideas of “free love” that were in vogue in the 1960s, and along the elite strata of society, which are so disgusting in fact that even mirrors refuse to reflect them. Finally, Romek himself proved to be an excellent comedic actor, and Sharon Tate, imposed by Ransohoff on the role of Sarah, very quickly became Mrs. Polanski. In the American rental, the film “Dance of the Vampires” was released under the title “Fearless Vampire Killers or Sorry, my teeth are in Your neck” (The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck). Stripped down and re-voiced, it did not receive proper recognition in the United States, while the director’s version, which swept across Europe, was received much warmer. Only a few noted that behind the external buffoonery is hidden the story of the invincible Evil that little Romek witnessed firsthand, only miraculously escaping the concentration camps in which his parents perished. A scary, very scary winter fairy tale…

The mansion at 10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, California was rented for some time by Terry Melcher, the only son of singer Doris Day and the music producer who built the sound of The Byrds’ first albums. A certain Charlie Manson, who considered himself a rock star without five minutes, pressed Melcher hard, demanding a contract and cooperation. One day Terry kicked Charlie out of the door, choosing the appropriate expressions for the occasion. It should be understood how this hurt Charlik: sending his murderers on August 8, he strictly ordered them not to leave anyone alive. If Manson had known that Melcher had already moved to another flat by that time, the story would have jumped on other bumps again. And finally, on that merciless August night of 1969, Steve McQueen, Quincy Jones and Ian Quarrier were supposed to stay at the Polanski-Tate couple’s house, where Sharon had been carrying their first child for the ninth month, but Steve McQueen, Quincy Jones and Ian Quarrier did not happen.

If all three of them had been there, history would have chosen a third path for itself. But this story of yours is a semi-literate woman who knows neither subjunctive moods nor verbs of the future tense. Even the fourth outcome, filmed with senseless ingenuity and proposed by the senselessly provocative Tarantino, looks like a “Hollywood finale” against the background of facts. “The Dance of the Vampires”, which began as an intriguing winter horror story, ended with a mass of real ghouls. In the Dolomites in the Year of Love 1967 from the birth of Christ, Roman and Sharon were happy.