Vampires of Warsaw

Vampires of Warsaw (Polish: Wampiry Warszawy) is a 1925 Polish silent crime film directed by Wiktor Biegański and starring Oktawian Kaczanowski, Halina Labedzka and Maria Balcerkiewiczówna. It was Biegański's most popular film, and displayed the influence of Soviet cinema on his work.^[2] The film is considered lost, so it is difficult to describe the plot in detail, but from what can be gathered the film appears to have been a murder mystery whodunit featuring a pair of Russian aristocrats who are determined to marry a wealthy father/daughter and murder them for their inheritance. Despite the title the film did not actually feature any vampires of the supernatural variety.^[3]

Directed byWiktor Biegański

Written byWiktor Biegański (based on his own stage play)

StarringOktawian Kaczanowski
Halina Labedzka
Maria Balcerkiewiczówna
Igo Sym

CinematographyFerdynand Vlassak
Antoni Wawrzyniak

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Vampires of Warsaw
A scene from the film.
Directed by	Wiktor Biegański
Written by	Wiktor Biegański (based on his own stage play)
Starring	Oktawian Kaczanowski Halina Labedzka Maria Balcerkiewiczówna Igo Sym
Cinematography	Ferdynand Vlassak Antoni Wawrzyniak
Production company	Merkurfilm
Release date	28 October 1925 (1925-10-28)
Running time	36 minutes[1]
Country	Poland
Languages	Silent Polish intertitles

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Actor Igo Sym, who later shared billing in films with top name stars like Marlene Dietrich, became a Nazi informant in WWII and turned in a number of fellow Polish actors and theater owners who were aligned with the Resistance forces in Poland. In 1941, some Polish freedom fighters assassinated Sym, and the Nazis retaliated by executing 21 hostages and sending dozens of others to Auschwitz.^[4]