aka Crypt of the Living Dead; Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires
(La Tumba de la Isla Maldita)
Spain/USA. 1973.
Crew
Directors – Ray Danton & Julio Salvador, Screenplay/Producer – Lou Shaw & Julio Salvador, Story – Lois Gibson, Photography – Juan Gelpi, Music – Phillip Lambro, Special Effects – A. Molina, Art Direction – Juan Alberto. Production Company – Coast Industries Inc..
Cast
Andrew Prine (Chris Bolton), Mark Damon (Peter), Patty Sheppard [Shepard] (Mary), Teresa Gimpera (Hannah), Hisan Genik (The Wild Man), Mariano Rey (Professor Bolton), Frank Brana (Blind Sailor), Edward Walsh (Adnan’s Father), Jack La Rue Jr. (Adnan)
Plot
Following news of the death of his father, Chris Bolton travels to a remote island that his father, a history professor, was studying. He discovers that his father was crushed in a crypt beneath a sarcophagus. The sarcophagus is that of Hannah, the young bride-to-be of Louis VII, who was killed in 1269. The locals are superstitious and believe that Hannah was a vampire. Chris determines to raise the sarcophagus to give his father a proper burial. In opening the lid of the sarcophagus, they find Hannah’s body perfectly preserved and unaged after seven centuries. Doing so succeeds in bringing Hannah back to life where she proceeds to prey on the locals.
This is a film that floats around under several different titles. The original Spanish version, directed by Julio Salvador, translates as Tomb of the Cursed Island, although it is commonly referred to as Crypt of the Living Dead. The English-language versions have been titled Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires, which most often shortened to just Hannah, Queen of the Vampires. It is stated that new material was shot for the US version but this leads to the great confusion about which film is which.
I am unable to find any online material comparing the Spanish and English-language versions of the film. That said, much of the version seen here features two American actors, Andrew Prine and Mark Damon, and is clearly shot in English, although there are some Spanish actors present. In that both actors are present for almost the entire film, it makes a difficult case to believe that there was an entirely different Spanish language film out there somewhere. You can only assume that there was an original Spanish production shot in English and that US director Ray Danton came along and simply shot some additional scenes for the existing material. In the Hannah/Young Hannah version, Danton is the only listed director.
Spanish director Julie Salvador had been making mostly thrillers since the 1940s. This would be his last film and he passed away in 1974. The English language director was Ray Danton who had been an actor mostly in tv since the 1950s. As director, Danton first appeared with the vampire film Deathmaster (1972) and subsequent to this made The Kirlian Force/Psychic Killer (1975), before going on to work as an episodic tv director.
Teresa Gimpera as Hannah, Queen of the Vampires
The main problem with Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires is that it is dull. It takes almost half the film before Hannah is raised from the crypt. And when she is, almost nothing happens – she just wanders around lurking with intent. Usually in a vampire film, you have assorted scenes with the vampire preying on and seducing people – there is the odd scene with villagers being lured away and turning up dead, before an end confrontation. What we have here feels anaemic in terms of genre expectations.
Andrew Prine was a young actor of the day who had a number of roles (albeit nothing major) in B movie cinema throughout this decade, including the genre likes of Simon, King of the Witches (1971), The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), Grizzly (1976), The Evil (1978) and Eliminators (1986). Mark Damon became a star following Roger Corman’s The House of Usher (1980). In the 1980s, he returned to Hollywood where he became a producer with the likes of 9½ Weeks (1986), Short Circuit (1986), The Lost Boys (1987), The Jungle Book (1994), The Musketeer (2001), Monster (2003), Lone Survivor (2013) and The Hurricane Heist (2018), among many others.
