I had been sick a while back and thought
what could be better than returning to films with a Mexican horror movie
as creaky as I feel when I wake up. From what I have read, this film kicked
off a spate of Mexican horror films that lasted till the end of the 1960s.
This is very low-budget with a few cheap looking sets used in scene after
scene. But it has atmosphere by the boxload. It is a mash-up of the old Universal
horror films with borrows from Frankenstein, zombies, Phantom of the Opera
and the Acquanetta gorilla films. It is directed by the prolific Chano Ureta
who directed all sorts of films beginning in the silent era from comedy to
horror to the Luchador films with the Blue Demon.
It is all completely absurd but what keeps
it afloat is that it takes itself completely seriously. The director and
cast are out to make a good horror film and having no money is just an inconvenience.
Nora is a feisty female reporter (for some reason this takes place in Eastern
Europe) who is bored with her work. A Lois Lane type. She wants excitement.
She gets it. Her editor suggests that she follow up on a personal ad in the
paper in which a man promises to make a woman happy and fulfilled. Go ahead
and meet him. Sure, why not. He meets her at a wharf (that gets a lot of
play in the film) and though he might seem odd to most people - wears a black
mask, sunglasses, black hat and cowl - she sees a story when he invites her
back to his place. A castle in which you have to walk through a cemetery
to get to. But that is nothing compared to his castle décor
- there are life-like human mannequins all over the place and a skull on
the piano. And of course, the creepy assistant who calls his employer Master.
He calls himself Hermann Ling - the greatest
mind in the world - a world he hates and wants revenge on. Especially on
women. This might be a good time to tell him you have a headache and go home.
But not our intrepid reporter. She asks him to take off his mask - he hesitates
- you won't like what you see - oh how bad can it be, Ok. Sort of like Rondo
Hatton if a car had run over his face and then poured acid on it. She kisses
him. Anything for a story. He worships her till he decides she must die.
What a better way to do that than find a recently dead body and transfer
the brain of a gorilla into it. And you have this urbane, handsome stud (Carlos
Navarro) who the mad scientist can order around through telepathy. His mandate
is to love nobody and kill whoever the doctor asks him to, Redheads mainly.
She is a redhead. The actress who plays Nora is gorgeous. Miroslava Stern
who was born in Czechoslovakia, but her family was forced to move to Mexico
because of the Nazis. She won a National Beauty contest and then began acting
in 1946. She even appeared in a few Hollywood films, appeared in a Bunuel
film. Was a star. Kind of a Monroe lookalike before Monroe. And then eerily
she committed suicide in 1955 with sleeping pills. Over a broken heart.
