In an undeveloped section of San Francisco, ground is being broken on the old Heidecker Estate. The Rawlins development company, run by John (Jason Miller) and Leslie (Kathryn Harrold) Rawlins is building apartments, schools and churches in an area being called Bryant Park. They are currently dedicating the cross which will be part of the Saint Sebastian Church. A priest (Scott Paulin) is on hand to bless the cross. In the audience is retired police officer Harry Kilcoyne (E.G. Marshall). As he goes to leave Harry sees that the area of the ground where the shadow of the cross extends appears to be scorched as if it had been on fire.
That night a man appears to claw his way out of the earth. The buried man is Prince Anton Voytek (Richard Lynch), a vampire that has been buried for decades. Soon there are a number of brutal deaths in the area. The victims are drained of blood.
During a party at the Rawlins home their friend, Nicole DeCamp (Jessica Walter), introduces the architects to Anton Voytek. Voytek tells John and Leslie that his wealthy family owned the Heidecker mansion and that there is a cache of art objects stored underground where the mansion used to be. Construction is put on hold and workers are brought in. The underground vault is found and millions of dollars' worth of art and valuables are brought out. When it is discovered that all of the artifacts have been looted from various places over centuries Voytek is arrested.
Nicole bails him out of jail. As the sun rises, Voytek races home and makes it to his casket just in time. Believing that John and Leslie are responsible for the theft of his riches, Voytek vows revenge. He violently kills Leslie. John goes over the edge and is put into an asylum. Voytek comes to the asylum and is about to kill John when Harry Kilcoyne shows up and saves him. Harry confides in John that years ago his former partner disappeared looking for someone who was responsible for a string of similar murders in the thirties. John and Harry agree to team up to hunt down and destroy the vampire. But Voytek seems to be several steps ahead of them all the way.
“The Vampire” was released in 1979 and was directed by E.W. Swackhamer. It was created as a pilot for a series that was never developed. The pilot was written by Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll.
I don’t know how well this would have worked as a weekly series but as a made for television movie it was really good. Of course, since it is made for television, there is basically no blood, and not a fang in sight. That didn’t seem to matter. The story was decent, and the acting was great with some wonderful actors. It’s understandable why Richard Lynch gets all those evil parts. As the sexy vampire he is intense and passionate. Jason Miller, who played Father Damien Karras in “The Exorcist” 1973 and E.G. Marshall from “12 Angry Men” 1957 were equally skilled in their portrayals of the vampire hunters.
In 1967 Richard Lynch set himself on fire after taking LSD in New York’s Central Park. The fire burned more than 70% of his body and he spent a year in recovery. He subsequently gave up drug use but was left with a scarred face. Using the incident, he quickly became typecast as a bad guy in films. A decision that afforded him work for the next 35 years.