The Vampire and the Ballerina (Italian: L’amante del vampiro) is a 1960 Italian horror film directed and co-written by Renato Polselli.

• Hélène Rémy as Luisa
• Walter Brandi as Herman
• Maria Luisa Rolando as Countess Alda
• Pier Ugo Gragnani as Professor
• Tina Gloriani as Francesca
• Isarco Ravaioli as Luca
• Gino Turini as Giorgio

The film’s story and screenplay were written by director Renato Polselli and screenplay authors Giuseppe Pellegrini and Ernesto Gastaldi. The original screenplay for the film was written by Giampaolo Callegaris. Ernesto Gastaldi described the script as “rather canine”, and wrote a new one with director Renato Polselli. Gastaldi felt the script was no different than any others he had worked on, with the only new element being vampires. Gastaldi commented that since Dracula starring Christopher Lee had been such a big hit in Italy, producers and distributors were eager to make their own vampire films.

Gastaldi recalled the casting for the film involved Gino Turini, who put in part of the money for the film, and Hélène Rémy as the film was originally going to be a co-production deal with France. Gastaldi also noted that the casting of Tina Gloriani was due to her being the director’s lover at the time.

The film was shot at the castle of Artena in later 1959 in three weeks. Renato Polselli has claimed that the skeletons in the vampire’s crypt scenes were real skeletons. The shot of the vampire’s face deteriorating was a homemade special effect. Polselli stated that the case was made with plaster, followed by the make-up artist molding an adhesive rubber mask over it with a layer of ash between the plastic and rubber. “We made a face cast with plaster, then the make-up artist and I molded an adhesive rubber mask over it. Our trick was to put a layer of ash between the plaster and the rubber.”

black and white, mono, widescreen, 86 minutes. DVD-R comes packaged as shown in color DVD case, wrapped in plastic!