I finally caught up with Freda's I VAMPIRI via the Image Entertainment disc (probably OOP now) and was very impressed. I know that Bava not only photographed this film (impressively) but also took over direction and was wondering how much of the final product he is responsible for.

I assume Bava had to do some restructuring to make up for lost shooting days. I found the hero's unconventional relationship to the Duchess and her "niece" interesting and it seemed more complex than the character relationships one usually sees in a Freda film (though the film does feature his trademark Margherita character).

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:

The film seems to owe as much to EYES WITHOUT A FACE as it does Carlos Fuentes' novel AURA though one wonders how much more Bava-like the film might have been if they'd dumped the obligatory blonde-woman-in-peril "love interest" and upped the Gothic lyricism by focusing on the relationship between the reporter and the duchess' niece (which includes a gender reversal on the "reincarnated" love interest conceit - though the reporter is the son of the man the duchess was in love with rather than a distant descendent). It could have been a precursor to Bava's WHIP AND THE BODY.

One can also see some effects that Bava tested here and used in BLACK SUNDAY such as the old age make-up that would be revealed by changing the color of the lighting on the actress. The castle exterior looks like the one used in Alberto De Martino's HORROR (1963) but the interior seems to be an impressive set (especially the great hall - is this just a studio set or one of Bava's glass painting composites?).

Bava and the screenwriter had to do considerable rewrites after Freda left the shoot; they had to finish half the picture in two days. One of the important actors in the film, the French actor who played Professor Du Grand, was no longer available by the time the film got back into production. The script was revised to focus on the newspaper reporter, Pierre, who moved from being more of a supporting player to being the romantic lead. The script also took a less fantastic and more realistic turn; for example, the Paul Muller character was originally conceived to be a reanimated corpse, but he's a junkie in the finished film. The whole story will be in my book.

Did you ever track down that German print to see if it had the guillotine footage present in the German trailer?

Well, it wouldn't be in the feature. That version of the film was never finished, edited or released. Like many trailers, the German I VAMPIRI trailer was assembled from outtakes.