LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO aka THE MARK OF THE WOLFMAN aka FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR 1968/1971

 

"See the wolf monster attack - lusting, slashing ripping 
in gory, flesh hungry, blood mad massacre !"

 The American release was shown in "Super 70mm Chill-O-Rama" ! 

(which I'm sure is a whole creepier then regular 70mm !)

  

      Although not the first Spanish horror film, 1968's LA MARCHA DEL HOMBRE LOBO (MARK OF THE WOLFMAN) was arguably one of the films that kick-started that genre's golden age in the coming decade. In addition to being his initial foray into horror, this was Paul Naschy's first portrayal of the tortured nobleman/werewolf Waldemar Danisky. Backed by some healthy German financing it was shot in 70mm along with 4 track stereo, with even a 3D version being produced. Like many of his future films, this was scripted by Naschy under his given name of Jacinto Molina.
     At first glance, Naschy would seem to be an odd choice for a leading man in Gothic horror, as the former championship weightlifter was short, stocky and barrel-chested with an obvious comb-over (that's even more apparent as his films make the transition to HD). He did, however, have a magnificent screen persona as with his dark brooding looks and piercing eyes he was able to project both an aura of sinister evil along with a melancholy sadness in his characters.
     Released in Europe in 1967, this was picked up in 1971 by producer Sam Sherman for release in the U.S. as a co-feature to Al Adamson's woeful DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN. Sherman had promised his distributors a "Frankenstein" film for the double bill and as his production of a proposed 2nd feature fell through he looked to acquire an overseas production that he could re-tile. All of which makes it odd that he chose a movie with no Frankenstein monster in it - and even more bizarrely he passed on Tuilo Demicheli's 1970 "monster rally" type feature ASSIGNMENT TERROR which included a Frankenstein type monster, along with Naschy's werewolf (plus Dracula and a mummy !).

     MARK OF THE WEREWOLF serves up two werewolves along with a male and female vampire, but Sherman was bound and determined to give the audiences a Frankenstein monster in some form. In a great piece of showmanship, he tacked on a crudely animated prologue which explains that the Frankenstein family was cursed and branded as "Wolfsteins"(!) and in addition lopped-off the two opening reels to get it down to a more double feature friendly length, along with tacking on an appropriately lurid title in FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR. All this means that the film contained no Frankenstein monster, which must have left some patrons feeling a bit gypped (but with that being said, they might have also felt a bit gypped after seeing the co-feature DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN).
     Although taking place in contemporary times MARK OF THE WOLFMAN, like many a Euro-horror film, seems to exist in a strange nether-world where jet setting rich folk dash about in sports cars and live in richly appointed Gothic estates while gypsies in period costumes trod about in horse-drawn wagons and everybody speaks about ancient curses, vampirism and lycanthropy matter-of-factly with no doubt to their existence.

Some nice candelabra action here !

     Directed by Enrique López Eguiluz (this being his only genre film) and beautifully shot by Emilio Foriscot (who was the later cinematographer on Sergio Martino's THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL and THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH) this is one of the more gorgeous looking Spanish horror films of the period. Shot in some of the same locations as TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD (the El Cercón Monastery in Madrid) characters are often framed in medium and long shots in order to show the fantastically designed & lite Gothic ruins and opulent rooms.
     The film opens with a masquerade ball in the home of the young Countess Janice von Aarenberg (Dyanik Zurakowska THE VAMPIRES' NIGHT ORGY and THE HANGING WOMAN) who's dancing with her just returned from school boyfriend Rudolph. Naschy's Waldemar Danisky bursts into the party (dressed as a satanic Robin Hood) and immediately sets his eyes on the young Countess which causes concern for Rudolph. The fathers of Rudolph and Janice also look on with disdain as Danisky has a reputation locally as a shady character (it's these sequences that were exercised by Sherman).
     Over the course of the next few days, Danisky continues to coincidentally "run into" Janice and shows both her and Rudolph around his ancient family estate where he relates the legend of a cursed ancestor who is buried in the family crypt. Later a very colorful and over the top gypsy couple take refuge in the castle and looking to steal some treasure, they open up the tomb of the cursed relative and upon removing a silver dagger from his chest they allow him to be reborn as a werewolf.
      As the werewolf begins to bloodily ravage the countryside the villagers gather together for a wolf hunt with Danisky being wounded by the werewolf while saving Rudolph's life. Now cursed with being a werewolf Danisky starts his bloody rampage, while Rudolph feeling indebted to Danisky, attempts to help him find a cure. Added by Janice they locate a document that references a Dr. Mikhelov who may have a cure. Realizing the doctor is now dead they write to the address and soon the a mysterious Dr. Janos Mikhelov (Julián Ugarte from ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK) and his "assistant" Wandessa (the very beautiful Aurora de Alba who also appeared with Naschy in THE HANGING WOMAN and VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES) show up. All of which set up vampirism, satanic rituals and a one-on-one werewolf fight to the death.

      Even though this is Naschy's first outing as his famous alter ego it's pretty amazing to watch him here as hurls himself from the screen full force. Like Christopher Lee ten years before who had burst from Hammer's HORROR OF DRACULA with his highly athletic and sensually sadistic portrayal of the title character, here Naschy brings a highly charged ferocity to his werewolf. He leaps through windows, hurls himself full force at his victims and bloodily mauls them all the while growling and snarling (although the patented Naschy werewolf drool is not yet in play here).
     As mentioned, this is one of the most beautifully shot films from the golden age of Spanish horror. Filled with weird Mario Bava like lighting with the camera seemed to literally drink up the Gothic atmosphere (there are several times you want to hit pause, just to study the set design). There are also several instances of quiet poetic like beauty such as Wandessa's seduction of Rudolph as a flowing satin veil slowly covers the couple and later as Janice and the vampire waltz through ruined catacombs as they move through various colors and swirling fog.

     The female cast is beautifully filled out by Dyanik Zurakowska and Aurora de Alba with some special attention needed to be paid to de Alba. A bit more mature then most other horror actresses of the time (she somewhat reminisces of Helga Liné) and looking absolutely mesmerizing here, she brings a wonderful sinister sensuality to her role. She was also pretty unforgettable in VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES and TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD (aka THE HANGING WOMAN - which also co-starred Dyanik Zurakowska).
      Some years ago Shriek Show released FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR on DVD which contained the long European cut (with English dub) along with Sam's animated prologue. Hampered by some uneven coloring and obviously coming from different film sources, it does contain an informative & fun commentary by Sherman as he relates the convoluted distribution of the film and says that he's still in possession of a 70mm 3D print. It's also been released in Germany by SubKultur (under the title DIE VAMPIRE DES DR. DRACULA) on Blu-Ray as part of their ongoing Naschy series.
     This was my (as I'm sure it was many a "monster kids") first exposures to Naschy as it seemed to run almost continuously on my local late night 70's TV. The original ad campaign promised a free burial to anyone who died of fright while watching the film!

*With the exception of the two title cards from the American release which were taken from the Shriek Show DVD all the above screencaps are from the SubKultur Region B Blu-Ray*

LA NOCHE DE WALPURGIS (WEREWOLF SHADOW) 1971

AKA THE WEREWOLF VERSUS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN
THE BLACK MASS OF COUNTESS DRACULA

   Having worked our through The Blind Dead films now its time to start on the Spanish horror legacy of Paul Naschy. Most likely due to several factors (more on these this later) Naschy has always had a somewhat spotty and under the radar reputation in regards to American horror fans as he seems to be the last one that's explored when they dive into euro horror. First and foremost among these reasons is that except for one brief glorious time his stuff (and Spanish horror in general) has always been hard to get on this side of the pond in decent editions with most of them regulated to public domain releases of varying quality or mail order through collector video dealers.
   Born in 1938 in Madrid, Spain Naschy was a champion weight lifter as a young man and after knocking around films for awhile (including a small uncredited part in 1961's KING OF KINGS) in 1968 he wrote a screenplay based upon a werewolf figure that in human form was that of a Polish nobleman named Waldemar Daninsky. Securing financial backing it was released in 1968 as LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO (THE MARK OF THE WOLFMAN with its U.S. title being FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR). Originally in 70mm 3D (!!) this would kick start Naschy's highly prolific horror career and he would appear as the tragic Daninsky character in 12 more films (with one being a "lost" film along the way). Along with starring he also wrote the majority of the screenplays for his horror projects, that along with werewolf movies would would also include period horror movies and vengeful zombies, devil possession, Frankenstein's monster, hunchbacks, mummies and resurrected warlocks among other evil manifestations. A lifelong fan of horror movies (especially the classic Universal films of the 30's and 40's) Naschy's films are unique among other Spanish horror in that they featured a characters from "classic" horror monster figures and were influenced by the Universal and Hammer films.

   Released in 1971 LA NOCHE DE WALPURGIS (NIGHT OF THE WULPURGIS) is most commonly known by its UK title of WEREWOLF SHADOW and was released in the U.S. as THE WEREWOLF VERSUS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN. It was the 5th movie in Daninsky saga (with the 2nd THE NIGHTS OF THE WOLFMAN being the lost one) and was the first one directed by Leon Klimovsky. The Argentinian born Kilmovsky would go on to direct eight of Naschy's films along with THE VAMPIRES' NIGHT ORGY and THE DRACULA SAGA among others. WEREWOLF SHADOW is often credited with starting the Spanish horror boom as it was a huge hit in Europe and played on American drive-in screens on various dbl. and triple bills.

   Somewhat following the events in 1970's THE FURY OF THE WOLFMAN (it's best not to attempt to follow a discriminable story arc in these films) Waldemar is resurrected by a couple of doctors who remove some silver bullets from his chest and after bloodily dispatching them he sets up house in a large French country estate. Elvira (Gaby Fuchs from MARK OF THE DEVIL) along with Genevieve (the very beautiful Barbara Capell) are traveling in the area searching for the grave of the medieval murderess, devil worshiper and most likely vampiress Countess Wandessa Nadasdy (Patty Shepard from HANNAH QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES and THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN) and they follow the usual Euro horror plot line of city people who dress in loud 70's fashions and venture out in the countryside where they become involved in the supernatural. Having run short of gas the two women take Walemar up on the offer to take shelter in his home and upon learning of their search for the grave he offers to help them as he's looking for a silver cross/dagger believed to be buried with the countess.

   After comparing notes and a few minutes detective work its discovered that the tomb is located on his property (hey, how 'bout that !) near an an old monastery. After digging up the tomb the silver cross is removed from the countess's remains and in a bit of homage to Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY Genevieve cuts herself and her blood falls upon the rotted corpse. We soon have a resurrected countess lurking about and and with her long flowing black dress in the form of Patty Shepard she is was of the more striking images from 70's European horror. In one of the movies highlights the now vampiric Countess Nadasdy stalks Genevieve turning her into a vampire and in a bit true hyperbole (at least as far as the U.S. title is concerned) we actually do get a werewolf vs. vampire climax with the wolfman Naschy battling vampire Patty Shepard (or least her double).
    Like most of Naschy's scripts (and Spanish horror in general) there are several "what the hell" subplots that don't really go anywhere and are there most likely to pad out the running time as here we get a way too long sequence of  Elvira's boyfriend investigating her disappearance (most of which was cut for the U.S. release) and there's a weird bit involving Naschy's mad sister lurking about. Kilmovsky does set up some deliriously atmospheric scenes (mostly involving the female vampires) with slo-motion, billowing dresses and fog along with plenty of bright red blood splashed about. As in all these movies Naschy's werewolf is highly athletic bounding about and smashing trough windows all the while dispensing gallons of drool and spitting up copious amounts of blood after a kill. In addition there's one scene involving a zombie like monk figure that bears a striking resemblance to the Blind Dead whose first movie would go into production a bit later in the same year.

    The South Carolina born Patty Shepard was the daughter of a military man and while he was stationed in Spain she starting modeling which led to roles in movies. She had a very unique look and a presence that was somewhat reminisce of Barbara Steele and although only available in a severely butchered edit her 1972 film THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN is well worth a look. She worked fairly steadily up until the late 80's (appearing in 1988's SLUGS) before retiring. She passed away in 2013.
     As mentioned earlier Naschy has always been rather difficult to gauge as far as horror fandom is concerned as his catalog has for the most part been problematic in regards to finding decent additions and until the Phil Hardy and Michael Weldon books in the late 80's he hardly got a mention in print form. Although to be fair, his movies do have some achingly dull moments and the sometimes overwrought dialogue (especially in regard to the romance scenes) are unintentionally funny even in the subtitled versions. However for fans of Euro horror there is something fascinatingly entertaining about these (especially the Kilmovsky ones) as there's tons of great Gothic atmosphere, lurid color, blood and beautiful women. At the center of everything though is Naschy and as especially in regards to his characterization of the forever tortured soul Waldemar Daninsky its fascinating to watch an actor who truly believed in these movies and his work. I got the chance to meet him at a Fanex convention in 2000 where I purchased his then newly translated autobiography. He was very kind and I remember being a bit saddened at the lack of people there to see him.

    Back around 2005 BCI/Deimos put out a fine series of Spanish horror DVD's including this title and other Naschy films, plus THE LORELY'S GRASP, NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS and THE DRACULA SAGA. Except for a few glitches, these were beautiful transfers and as unbelievably as it may seem in these days of disappearing brick and mortar video stores you could walk into Best Buy and there they were. Unfortunately BCI went belly up before finishing the series, however in the past year there's been rumors of Kino/Redemption releasing some Naschy titles. Code Red DVD released the interesting & different (and sporadically available from Code Red ) Nsaschy/Kilmovsky post-apocalyptic zombie horror/thriller THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK with the always worth a look Maria Perschy. Please check out my fellow blogger Brian at his Cool Ass Cinema for a review of this. Code Red also has out a really nifty dbl feature disc of  THE VAMPIRES' NIGHT ORGY and Naschy's DR. JEKYLL VS. THE WEREWOLF and Shriek Show released FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR. As to be expected there 's been numerous European releases with Artus of France recently announcing some titles.