VAMPYR Programme (Danish, 1933)

This is the original Danish programme from 1933 with art by Erik Aaes (art director on Vampyr, Day Of Wrath, and Ordet). Many thanks to Gary Wilson for the scans. Click the thumbnails for more detailed pictures.

English translation of the text from the programme (translated by Trond Trondsen):

This is the story about the strange events that happened to the young Allan Gray. His studies into earlier centuries' superstitious ideas on devil-worship and the on the activities of Vampyrs have transformed him into a dreamer and fanatic for whom the border between what is reality and what is fantasy has become blurred.

On a late evening, during one of his aimless wanderings, he arrives at a lonely inn down by the river close to the village of Courtempierre where he gets a room for the night. An ominous atmosphere pervades the old inn, and in the moonlit night, light and shadow, voices and faces appear to take on a hidden significance. Allan Gray feels that fear is starting to control him - in vain he seeks to protect himself against the numbing angst, but the fear of something or someone he cannot see or touch follows him into his sound sleep.

Shortly afterwards, Allan Gray wakes up when the door to his room is opened. A couple of seconds of tense anticipation - and an old man enters the room. An expression of infinite pain characterises his rugged countenance - he does not respond to Allan Gray's question; but simply leaves a square packet on the table and leaves as quietly as he entered. Allan Gray leaps out of his bed, and grabs the packet.

"To be opened after my death," is written on the package.

What horrible secret is just about to be revealed? One thing stands clear in Allan Gray's mind: a tormented human soul has uttered a desperate call for help, and an inner voice commands him to heed the call.

Slowly, Allan Gray gets dressed and walks out into the muggy and moonlit night. Receding shadows show him the way to an old manor which sits in the middle of a large estate, its steeples rising up through the hazy summer night.

Allan Gray walks up to the old castle and looks in through one of the French windows - and to his great surprise he can recognize inside the house the very man who just visited him at the Inn.

Then immediately he hears the sound of a gunshot and the Lord of the manor falls down onto the floor. The servants come running. Allan Gray is let into the house and together they rush to the aid of the old Lord, but it is too late - the lord of the manor dies in their arms.

The old servants beg Allan Gray to stay the night, and the young fellow is led by the manor's youngest daughter, Giséle into the Library. Here, he learns that Giséle's sister, Leone, lies gravely ill in a room upstairs. Nobody knows what is wrong with her, but day by day her strength is drained away - it is as if some secretive power is sucking out of her her very lifeblood.

The servant has in the meantime sent a lad off with a horse driven carriage to fetch the police, when Allan Gray and Giséle suddenly spot Leone, apparently sleepwalking in the grounds outside. They dash out after her, but she has vanished in the foggy night, and only after a lengthy search do they spot her laying unconscious on a stone bench. On her neck she has two small, fresh wounds, as if bitten by a rat. With the help of the servants, they have her carried back up to the manor and put back into bed. Allan Gray suddenly remembers the parcel which the Lord of the manor, during his enigmatic visit had left on his table and which he had subsequently placed in his coat pocket. He pulls it out, breaks the lacquer seals and finds an old leather bound book with yellowed pages.

It is an account of activities of Vampyrs. Tales from all ages and all lands - he reads - tales of horrific demons, called Vampyrs. At full moon, the body and soul of dead folks come back to life, people who cannot find rest in their graves due to the misdeeds they have committed while alive. They come out of their coffins so as to suck blood from innocent children and young people thereby extending the life span of their own shadowy existence. The Prince of Darkness himself is their cohort, providing them with supernatural powers in the kingdom of the dead as well as in the land of the living. At night these creatures from the abyss haunt the abodes of the living with death and misfortune. The one who succumbs to becoming a Vampyr sinks helplessly into the abyss... A mark on the throat, as if bitten by a rat or a cat, is the Mark of Eternal Damnation. Neither the science of doctors nor intense prayers are sufficient to alter their horrible destiny, which in addition to bodily pain also causes untold torment of the soul. Yes, like the black plague the Vampyr's thirst for blood is transferred onto the victim who itself becomes a Vampyr and now searches out new victims among those closest to him. Entire families - yes, entire villages have in this manner helplessly spiralled down into curse and damnation.

Suddenly it dawns on Allan Gray that Leone is not ill with any ordinary sickness, but rather that she is the victim of a Vampyr. He calls to mind the recent wounds on her throat - and he realizes that it must have been the Vampyr who took out the Lord of the manor, because he knew the truth.

Before he can resume his reading the old servant taps on the window pane and signals to him to come outside. The coach has returned. He hears the horse's hooves clattering and the wheels rattling on the uneven brick pavement. He runs out into the courtyard only to have his worst suspicions confirmed: the carriage is empty and in the driver's seat hangs the lad's slumped corpse. The power of the Vampyr reaches far and wide!

Shaken in his innermost being, Allan Gray returns once again to the Library and opens the old book. "The shadows of executed criminals are the attendants of the Vampyr, but also living humans can be forced into submission by their horrible reign. A story from Hungary describes how a village doctor, who had pawned off his soul to the Evil One, became the helper of a Vampyr and thus an accomplice in a long string of hideous crimes in the area. In that case the Vampyr had chosen perhaps the most dangerous man imaginable to be his associate."

Again Allan Gray is interrupted in his book reading. He hears the old servant open the front door to bid the village doctor welcome. Allan Gray goes out into the hallway and immediately recognizes the village doctor as a certain mysterious person who he had already earlier that night crossed paths with. Gripped by a sudden sense of urgency Allan Gray follows the doctor up to the room where Leone has been placed.

Meanwhile, the old servant finds the book on the table in the Library and starts to leaf through it. "The Vampyr who has completely gained power over his victim tries in every way possible to cause him to commit suicide - as he then commits suicide he becomes the possession of the Count of Hell, whilst the Golden Gates of Heaven are forever closed on his soul.

Leone's condition is grave indeed. The doctor declares after completing the examination that a blood transfusion is required. But who will give up his blood? Allan Gray?

In the adjacent room, the queer doctor draws blood from Allan Gray who, exhausted by the loss of blood, falls into a kind of slumber. Uneasy dreams flutter through his mind, muffled sounds pierce through into his death-like sleep, until he suddenly senses that someone is trying to shake him awake. From the adjacent room he hears a now familiar voice, the village doctor in an enticing, tempting voice: "Come with me! Let us be one soul, one body... Death is waiting!"

In the blink of an eye, Allan Gray finds himself back in Leone's room. The poison vial falls out of the doctor's hand and the abominable tempter flees. By the time Allan Gray arrives downstairs, the doctor has already disappeared. And, alas!, he has taken Giséle along with him!

Tenaciously, Allan Gray follows, in hot pursuit, into the moonlit night. He aims for the place where he first met the man who later turned out to be the village doctor, and he there succeeds in resuing Giséle, while the doctor once again is able to get away.

In the meantime, the old servant is reading on in Allan Gray's book. "Who is able to solve the riddles of death and life? Who can fully explore the secrets hidden from the light of day? Just as macabre as the Vampyr's life, is the method by which one may break their power. These monsters, who cannot find peace, must be murdered, in order that a persecuted mankind may be liberated from their reign of terror. In the village of Kisilova, which was haunted by a Vampyr in the shape of an old woman, one proceeded as follows: at dawn one opened the grave, where one found the old one laying as if asleep. Some men drove an iron bar through her heart and thusly nailed her disgusting soul to the Earth. She now died the real death, and the curse that rested on her was broken that very instant."

Page by page the old book's yellow leaves slide through the servant's trembling fingers... "Even in our very own country oral tradition has it that there are certain environs which have been haunted extensively by Vampyrs. About 20 years ago, the village Courtempierre was ravaged by a pandemic of murder, which killed eleven people. The doctors gave the illness a scientific name, to be sure, but among the laypeople a stubborn rumour persisted that this was all due to the deeds of a Vampyr. Many thought that the Vampyr was none other than Marguerite Chopin, who is buried at the Courtempierre graveyeard. Marguerite Chopin had all throughout her life been a monster in human clothing. She died unrepentant, and the Church on her deathbed refused her the Holy Sacraments."

The servant puts away the book - he has made up his mind.

By Marguerite Chopin's grave behind the village Chapel he meets Allan Gray. They open the grave and find the dead one laying there, as if asleep...

In the meantime the village doctor has sought refuge in an old watermill. By accident he finds himself locked into a small chamber where the flour sacks are filled, and when the old servant - who has pursued him to the mill - activates the machinery the Vampyr's associate drowns in the flour that comes crashing down.

The curse has been lifted - the power of Darkness has been broken, and teary-eyed Allan Gray leads the freed Giséle out into the glistening dawn.

END