Vampire Circus (1972, Hammer Horror Film)

Vampire Circus is a 1972 British horror film directed by Robert Young and starring Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters and Anthony Higgins (billed as Anthony Corlan). It was written by Judson Kinberg, and produced by Wilbur Stark and Michael Carreras (who was uncredited) for Hammer Film Productions. The story concerns a travelling circus, the vampiric artists of which prey on the children of a 19th-century Serbian village in east Bosnia. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios.

Cast:
Adrienne Corri as Gypsy Woman
Laurence Payne as Professor Albert Müller
Thorley Walters as Peter, the Mayor of Stitl
Lynne Frederick as Dora Müller
John Moulder-Brown as Anton Kersh
Elizabeth Seal as Gerta Hauser
Anthony Higgins (billed as Anthony Corlan) as Emil
Richard Owens as Dr. Kersh
Domini Blythe as Anna Müller
Robin Hunter as Mr Hauser
Robert Tayman as Count Mitterhaus
Robin Sachs as Heinrich (twin brother of Helga)
Lalla Ward as Helga (twin sister of Heinrich)
Skip Martin as Michael the dwarf
David Prowse as the Strongman
Mary Wimbush as Elvira
Christina Paul as Rosa
Roderick Shaw as Jon Hauser
Barnaby Shaw as Gustav Hauser
John Bown as Mr Schilt
Sibylla Kay as Mrs. Schilt
Jane Darby as Jenny Schilt
Dorothy Frere as Granma Schilt
Milovan Vesnitch as the erotic male dancer
Serena as the erotic tiger-woman dancer
Sean Hewitt as First Soldier
David de Keyser as the voice of Mitterhaus's curse (uncredited)

Three of the cast — Laurence Payne, Adrienne Corri and Lalla Ward — would be reunited in the 1980 season of the British sci-fi/fantasy series Doctor Who in the serial The Leisure Hive. David Prowse, who later played Darth Vader in the first Star Wars trilogy, appears in a silent role as the circus strongman. Robin Sachs played the part of Ethan Rayne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as the space conqueror Sarris in the science-fiction comedy Galaxy Quest. Robin Sachs and Lynne Frederick also featured, as lovers Thomas Culpeper and Katherine Howard, in Henry VIII and his Six Wives (1973). In Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film of A Clockwork Orange, Corri had played the wife of writer F. Alexander, being ravaged by Alex and his droogs who left her husband crippled, to be shown later relying on the care of bodybuilder "Julius", portrayed by Prowse.