We're in a small Western frontier town where a plague seems to have settled in: black wreaths are present on several doors as young women are sickening and dying from some mysterious illness whose only physical sign is puncture marks on the neck. Dr. Carter, his daughter Dolores, and his son Tim are frustrated by their inability to save the victims, and also by the behavior of Buffer, a neighbor who is trying to get ahold of their land by damming up the water that would normally flow onto their property, hoping to drive them off their ranch (as it's a Western, there's also a touch of cattle rustling). The sheriff and Preacher Dan try to talk sense into Buffer but to no avail, and that night, Doc Carter is killed by the side of the road (with bite marks on his neck that no one seems to notice). Tim, sure that Buffer is to blame, gets drunk, confronts him, and in a showdown, is killed by Buffer. Dolores is fed up and advertises for a hired gun to take out Buffer. The man who responds is Drake Robey, dressed in black and claiming an allergy to sunlight (though practically speaking, being in the sun doesn't seem to bother him in the least). She hires him and invites him to stay at her ranch. His initial contact with Buffer and his men results in a brief gunfight in which bullets appear not to harm Drake. Preacher Dan, who is sort of dating Dolores, manages to work out a compromise with Buffer, but Drake stays around anyway to protect her, despite having a visceral reaction to a small crucifix badge that Dan wears that is supposedly carved from wood found in the Holy Land at Calvary. As Drake (who, if you haven't put the clues together, is a vampire), begins feeding nightly on Dolores, Dan finds some old documents that show Drake Robey is actually Drago Robles, a long-dead descendent of the family that used to own Dolores's ranch. From here, things move rather quickly to the final confrontation that you just know is going to end with Preacher Dan's Calvary cross being deployed as a weapon.
This B-film, the first vampire Western, doesn't get a lot of love from critics, but for me, it's another case of adjusting expectations. Go with the B-flow, remember that it was forging a new genre, and watch a restored widescreen print of it (new on DVD from Kino Lorber). In vampire movies, much depends on the actor in the main role, and Australian actor Michael Pate, with whom I was not familiar, is about perfect: he has the craggy face of a Western villain and the manner of a vampire. He even has just enough rough charm to pass as a potential romantic figure. Eric Fleming (a star of Rawhide, a long-running 1960s TV Western) is a less solid hero, though he's acceptable. I can't put my finger on why I feel that way; partly his looks, his uncertain manner, and the way the character is written. The always dependable John Hoyt is good as the doctor, but he's killed off too soon. Kathleen Crowley and Bruce Gordon are fine as Dolores and Buffer. As other critics have said, the film seems to be going for the feel of a Universal classic horror movie, but the direction is drab and the script could stand some punching up. For me, the biggest problem was the issue of sunlight. If they had already decided to shoot many scenes, including the climax, in broad daylight, why bother to even bring the issue up in dialogue? There is an excellent nighttime scene involving the shadow of a cross on a church steeple, so why Drake couldn't be confined to darkness is hard to understand. Still I found this generally enjoyable and a good October viewing choice. The audio commentary by Tom Weaver is good, even he can't resist an occasional silly snarky comment. Pictured above from left are Fleming and Pate. [Blu-ray]
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