I Vampiri is a 1956

1956 in film

The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...

 Italian

Cinema of Italy

The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...

 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 loosely based on the story of Elizabeth Báthory

Elizabeth Báthory

Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although in modern times she has been labelled the most prolific serial killer in history, the number of murders has been debated...

. Directed by Riccardo Freda

Riccardo Freda

Riccardo Freda was an Egyptian-born Italian film director. Best known for his horror and thriller movies, Freda had no great love for the horror films he was assigned, but rather favored the epic sword and sandal pictures...

 and Mario Bava

Mario Bava

Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...

, the film stars Gianna Maria Canale

Gianna Maria Canale

Gianna Maria Canale was an Italian actress.- Biography :Canale was born in Reggio Calabria. In 1947, at the Miss Italia beauty contest, won by Lucia Bosè, she placed second. Canale received publicity in many Italian magazines after this. Her looks were compared to those of Ava Gardner...

 as Giselle du Grand, Carlo D'Angelo as Inspector Chantal and Dario Michaelis as Pierre Lantin.

I Vampiri was the first sound era

Sound film

A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...

 Italian horror film. Mid-way through production, director Riccardo Freda

Riccardo Freda

Riccardo Freda was an Egyptian-born Italian film director. Best known for his horror and thriller movies, Freda had no great love for the horror films he was assigned, but rather favored the epic sword and sandal pictures...

 left the project, and was replaced by the film's cinematographer Mario Bava

Mario Bava

Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...

. The film was released in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1963 under the title The Devil's Commandment and has since been released under more titles including Lust of the Vampires and The Vampires.

Plot

The plot revolves around the vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

Giselle du Grandan, who is able to maintain her youthful looks through a serum derived from a virgin's blood. Grandan begins to age and demands better results from the serum's inventor, who captures more young virgins but is caught by a young reporter.