The Vampire (1913)

Robert Vignola: The Vampire (1913). Alice Eis and Bert French doing the "Vampire Dance". Photo from Leonardo Pisani's blog, discovered in Wikipedia.

Robert Vignola: The Vampire (1913). Alice Eis and Bert French doing the "Vampire Dance". Photos 2-4 from the IMDb.

THE VAMPIRE (Kalem Company, US 1913)
    Dir: Robert Vignola; ph: George Hollister; cast: Harry Millarde, Marguerite Courtot, Alice Hollister, with Bert French and Alice Eis in their famous “Vampire Dance”; rel. 15.10.1913.
    35 mm, 2560 ft, George Eastman House.
    Grand piano: Donald Sosin.
    Viewed at Teatro Zancanaro, Sacile, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM) / Fort Lee, 11 Oct 2004.

Richard Koszarski (GCM): "The Vampire, with its direct evocation of Burne-Jones’s signature image of voracious female sexuality, beat William Fox’s Theda Bara films into the market by over a year. But both Kalem and Fox were tapping into the general vampire-mania which had swept through various levels of popular culture since the turn of the century. This version was shot at Kalem’s open-air studio on Palisade Avenue in Cliffside Park, just south of Fort Lee. While the wind-blown interiors are somewhat distracting, the film makes good use of New York City locations, which it juxtaposes with the bucolic landscape of Hackensack, New Jersey." – Richard Koszarski (GCM)

AA: Reportedly the introduction of the vamp into the cinema. But similar man-eaters were already at large in Denmark (Asta Nielsen), Italy, Russia, Germany...

Qf. Griffith, Murnau... Country boy Harold comes to town, meets city woman. He is fired because of reporting late to work. The country sweetheart Helen is longing for a letter from him in vain. When the boy runs out of money, the vamp has had enough.

The vampire dance by Alice Eis and Bert French is fantastic. Harold recognizes himself in the victim.

Helen comes to the city as a prisoner. She uses the fire escape to flee. "From bad to worse". Harold has turned to alcohol and gets a gun to commit armed robbery.

Sober storytelling in a melodramatic narrative.

A beautiful print.