Vampires of Warsaw

1925 film

28 October 1925 (1925-10-28)

Running time

36 minutes^[1]CountryPolandLanguagesSilent
Polish intertitles

Vampires of Warsaw (Polish: Wampiry Warszawy) is a 1925 Polish silent crime film directed by Wiktor Biegański and starring Oktawian Kaczanowski, Halina Labedzka and Maria Balcerkiewiczówna. It was Biegański's most popular film, and displayed the influence of Soviet cinema on his work.^[2] The film is considered lost, so it is difficult to describe the plot in detail, but from what can be gathered the film appears to have been a murder mystery whodunit featuring a pair of Russian aristocrats who are determined to marry a weathly father/daughter and murder them for their inheritance. Despite the title the film ^[3]did not actually feature any vampires of the supernatural variety.

Actor Igo Sym, who later shared billing in films with top name stars like Marlene Dietrich, became a Nazi informant in WWII and turned in a number of fellow Polish actors and theater owners who were aligned with the Resistance forces in Poland. In 1941, some Polish freedom fighters assassinated Sym, and the Nazis retaliated by executing 21 hostages and sending dozens of others to Auschwitz.^[4]

Cast

Oktawian Kaczanowski as Pradowski
Halina Łabędzka as Urszula Pradowska
Maria Balcerkiewiczówna as Countess Tamarska
Igo Sym as Tadeusz Wyzewicz, lawyer
Lech Owron as Baron Kamiłow
Marian Kiernicki as Antoni, lokaj
Wiera Pogorzanka as Tonia
Katarzyna Dworkowska as Przelozona klasztoru
Piotr Hryniewicz as Prosecutor
K. Marczewski as Lichwiarz

References

^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p.294. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ Haltof p.14
^ Bretan, Juliette (22 August 2018). "Lost & Destroyed: In Search of Classic Polish Films". Culture. PL. Retrieved 2 August 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 295. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.