BLOOD THIRST (1965/released 1971)

Director: Newt Arnold

Writer: N.I.P. Dennis 

Producer: Newt Arnold

Cast: Robert Winston, Vic Diaz, Katherine Henryk, Yvonne Nielson, Vic Silayan, Eddie Infante, Judy Dennis, Bruno Punzalan, Max Rojo, Minda Morena, Ching Tello, Isidro Francisco, Felix Marfil 

One night in Manila, a dark figure with a monstrously malformed head pounces on a victim. This is just the latest in a series of homicides of young women found drained of blood from deep slashes on their arms. Police Inspector Miguel Ramos (Vic Diaz) invites his American friend Adam Rourke (Robert Winston), a former police lieutenant, author, and sex crimes expert, to assist him in solving the murders. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Blood Thirst is composed of a strange mix of early '60s influences. This film is interesting because it does not seem to care which genre it is supposed to belong to. Its title is obviously being pitched at the horror crowd, yet it plays out like a bizarre episode of the Peter Gunn television series set in the Philippines. Jet-setting and the globe-hopping James Bond were all the rage in the '60s. Therefore, our pistol-packin’ hero Adam Rourke travels to the exotic location of Manila, spends plenty of time in a swanky nightclub smoking, drinking, and watching a sexy belly dancer (Yvonne Nielson) between his fistfights, and he somehow muddles his way to the solution of the weird murder mystery.

This all sounds pretty exciting and atypical for a horror movie, but the horror junkie will probably be a bit puzzled or frustrated. In fact, the horror almost seems to be an afterthought. Horror is established during the opening sequence of the film, and then only sporadically onward until the finish. In the meantime, we have the hero doing his Peter Gunn/James Bond inspired best to kill time with smokes, drinks, and polite banter with everyone. He also indulges in brash machismo that borders on rape with Sylvia (Katherine Henryk), his love interest in the movie. Since she resents him almost immediately, it stands to reason that she will fall in love with him, right? After all, he is handsome, well dressed, and summoned from halfway around the world to solve the case so he must be irresistible, no matter how smugly he behaves.

Robert Winston is pretty smooth as Adam Rourke. Some of his lines aren’t quite as clever as he thinks they are, but he makes for a suitable hero. He certainly does have his quirks, though. He travels around with a life-sized dummy he names Harvey. It makes one wonder just how often our cop-turned-writer hero Rourke ever expects this bulky accessory to actually be of any use, but it sure comes in handy in this flick. This turns out to be an elaboration on a stratagem used for a scene in the first James Bond film Dr. No (1962). Just why Rourke is expecting such imminent danger is never explained. Winston also flaunts his manly, hairy-chested physique, ala Sean Connery in Dr. No, by sleeping in only pajama pants. 

Rourke’s deviation from the Peter Gunn/James Bond influence is his having to suffer occasional indignities; once by the aforementioned love interest Sylvia leaving Rourke abandoned for a long walk back into town, and twice by a one-legged man that flips him flat on his back. Rourke is even coincidentally on hand to assist a drunken acquaintance to her door, yet decides against it, which allows another murder. There are other defeats dealt to him by his foes, but they fall squarely into the typical hero-takes-punishment mode. 

Ultimately, hero Adam Rourke’s snooping around does not solve much of anything. It is only when he is at the mercy of his unsuspected adversary that he learns what is going on. His adversary even mocks him by saying the police are even more stupid than Rourke. Then it is up to good luck and someone else to save his bacon. 

Once the menace is fully dealt with, there are still some unanswered questions regarding the phenomena involved in this story. It is not always necessary for a horror film to explain every little bit of weirdness, but the monster is never given any reason for its existence. If the occult is involved anything goes, I guess. 

Busy Filipino character actor Vic Diaz is on hand as Inspector Ramos. He would become a familiar face in Filipino exploitation films of the '60s and '70s. Unlike this film’s character, Diaz usually played villains. 

Aside from the quirky mix of '60s influences in this oddball of a film, Blood Thirst’s most distinctive feature is the black-and-white cinematography. The shots are full of nice compositions and sharp lighting that creates interesting images in a pretty talky and leisurely paced movie. 

Contributing to the film’s refusal to ever conform to expectations, this 1965 production was not released in the US until 1971 as a co-feature to another odd, blood-themed horror film from Britain called Bloodsuckers (aka Incense for the Damned). The '70s drive-in crowd must have been scratching their heads wondering just what the hell to make of this almost schizoid, black-and-white, throwback-to-the-mid-'60s flick called Blood Thirst.