Was Horst Janson really forty years old when he made this? Damn, the man looked good!
Horst plays Captain Kronos, a man who wears a snappy uniform and hunts youth-draining vampires in the company of an affable hunchback. He also wears a bag on his head as part of some bizarre meditative ritual. Aside from the bag-wearing part, he's a solid action hero, and it's a shame that Hammer never turned this good little movie into one of its long-running franchises.
The acting is a highlight: John "don't call me Johnny" Carson gives one of his typically likable and neurotic performances as Doctor Marcus, Wanda Ventham makes a lovely villainess, and Ian Hendry has an amusing cameo as an obnoxious thug (how the mighty had fallen, though -wasn't he a star at one point?). There's also great lines aplenty and some nice choreography for the sword-fights.
This is the kind of movie that Full Moon - or for that matter, Dimension films - wishes it could make. Alas, modern horror is usually too gross and uninventive to match the charm and creativity of a Hammer "classic" such as "Captain Kronos."
