![]() He beats the man to death with a hammer before dragging the woman into an open grave to rape her. For reasons that are never explained, vampire Caleb Croft (played by Michael Pataki) busts from his tomb and violently interrupts them. The film opens with a couple conveniently making out in a car parked near a cemetery. There’s something to be said for the audaciousness of amateur filmmaking and you can’t fault GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE for being timid. It was also the first movie shot in Rape-O-Vision.Īnd it’s also kind of fascinating, in its own way. GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE is mean, gross, and offensively stupid, and is better suited for the trenchcoat-and-sunglasses crowd found sitting in the back rows of a stroke house. It’s a movie that manages to wring terrible performances from otherwise decent actors, bringing the median cast performance level down to that of a high school play stocked entirely with understudies. GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE is a vile piece of shit, falling somewhere on the spectrum between Bosnian pornography and a snuff film. The difference between the storytelling on display in THE SOPRANOS and GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE is a measure of eloquence. You could make a compelling argument that Chase ripped off his ending for THE SOPRANOS from GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE. It’s more likely, though, that Chase just doesn’t believe conflicts have the kind of decisive conclusions usually seen in entertainment. Subtlety, thy name is GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE. As the final scene fades to black, the following words hover into view in a bold sans serif font: “THE END OR IS IT?” ![]() Where THE SOPRANOS ended on a note of subtlety, GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE has the kind of ending so corny it would make even R.L. Instead, let’s consider the ending of 1972’s GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE, a horror film that also doubled as Chase’s first credited screenwriting gig. People who wanted a more concrete ending probably had no real appreciation for the show beyond its pageantry of violence.īut I’m not here to talk about THE SOPRANOS. He might not have met his fate at the end of that particular episode, but it’s only a matter of time before his number comes up. We never find out who the stranger is, though, because the scene cuts to a black screen before the credits roll, denying us a firm resolution to the episode, the season and the entire series.Įxcept, it really didn't. ![]() Until this moment, the scene has been composed to create a feeling of vague menace. Here’s a rough version of how THE SOPRANOS ended: A stranger approaches a restaurant table where mobster Tony Soprano is sitting with his family. It created such uproar that people who never watched the series even felt compelled to develop an opinion about it. Smith III and his daughter Sherri Anne Cervelli.In 2007, David Chase decided to end THE SOPRANOS on a note of ambiguity. He is survived by his wife, his son William E. He was inducted into the Muscle Beach Venice Bodybuilding Hall of Fame in 2010 and became an honorary member of the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures in 2000. Smith was also an accomplished athlete, receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Bodybuilding and Fitness in 1995. He flew on secret missions over the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, according to a statement shared by his wife. In addition to his acting career, Smith enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War in 1951 and was recruited by the National Security Agency due to his fluency in multiple languages. Suzzanne Douglas, star of 'The Parent 'Hood' and 'When They See Us,' dead at 64 His last role was in the 2020 film "Irresistible," written and directed by Jon Stewart. More recently, Smith appeared as a regular on the last season of the original “Hawaii Five-0” from 1979 to 1980 and in the Western series “Wildside” in 1985. The 6-foot-2 actor's career saw him tussle onscreen with some of the most rugged leading men in Hollywood, including Clint Eastwood, Rod Taylor, Richard Harris, Yul Brynner and Nick Nolte. She did not disclose his cause of death.Īccording to IMDb, Smith starred in several films and television series from 1942 to 2020, including 1942's “The Ghost of Frankenstein," 1943's “The Song of Bernadette" and 1982's "Conan the Barbarian." In the 1970s, his fame grew playing the villainous Falconetti in "Rich Man, Poor Man," an early and extremely popular TV miniseries. Joanne Cervelli Smith, his wife of 31 years, confirmed the actor's death to USA TODAY on Friday. William Smith, an action star from classic films like "Any Which Way You Can" and "Red Dawn," died on Monday.
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