Dr. Death and Mr. Howard

DOCTOR DEATH, SEEKER OF SOULS-1973-Fred Sanders (Barry Coe) tries to find a way to bring his wife Laura (Jo Morrow) back from the dead. After consulting a phony medium and meeting a bug eyed old man and the society of the dead, he meets a woman named Tana (QUEEN OF BLOOD'S Florence Marley) who takes him to see Dr. Death (John Considine) who she says can bring back the dead. During a demonstration the doctor he and his assistant Thor (Leon Askin) saw a scarred woman in half (like a magic act) then bring her soul back in another body. Sanders remains unconvinced but after seeing his wife’s apparition and hearing her voice, he agrees to have the doctor bring her back. The doctor then relates how he got the power (in sepia flashback) 1,000 years before (I think his voice changes too). He decides to kill Tana and use her soul but when he attempts the soul transfer it doesn't work. Sanders’ wife refuses it and Sanders decides it's better that way but the doctor has other plans. He and Thor go around killing innocent women, trying to transfer their souls into Mrs. Sanders body. To no avail. Meanwhile Sanders romances his secretary Sandy (Cheryl Miller). When the doctor is stabbed his blood gushes out and disintegrates his attacker. After deciding that the secretary has the strong soul he needs, doc decides to bleed her to death!  The predictable ending has the doctor's soul in Mrs. Sanders body and plotting revenge. 

This movie is very boring in spots and very stupid in others. Considine is ok in the over the top main role spouting a lot of platitudes about singular soul transfer but the rest of the cast isn’t very good. The real reason to see this is for the appearance of Moe Howard as a member of the doctor’s audience! He seems to flub one of his lines. 

This was director Eddie Saeta only full length film however he was assistant director on many films going back to the late 1930's. Former actor Sal Ponti wrote the screenplay. Co-star Barry Coe was in lots of TV show episodes and LOVE ME TENDER (with Elvis). A year after this John Considine made another low budget horror film THE THIRSTY DEAD. His father John W. Considine Jr. was a producer in the 1930's and '40's. His most famous was MAD LOVE in 1935.

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Mexico Monsters

SHIP OF MONSTERS-1960-This lunatic Mexican sci-fi musical comedy features Gamma (Ana Bertha Lepe) & Beta (Lorena Velazquez), 2 alien women from Venus who comb the solar system in search of males to breed with after a war has destroyed their male population. A clunky blinking robot Torr assists them.  Before coming to Earth they pick up some doozies! There's the short big head Tawal, Prince of Mars, who's brain seems to be on the outside of his head. Demonic Ogre Muppet like Uk, king of the fire planet. Giant Crassus of the red planet (isn't that Mars?). Plus a marionette like bag of bones whose name and planet are not mentioned. 

The girls freeze them and hide them in a cave when their spaceship has trouble and they are forced to land on Earth. They meet the loud smiling Lauriano (Eulalio Gonzalez) and his much younger brother. Almost immediately he and Gamma fall in love and he sings a couple of songs! Later Beta is jealous and reveals that she is a vampire from the vampire planet Uranus and plans to drain Earth of its blood. She turns into a bat and kills a farmer. Gamma rats her out to their boss and Beta is condemned to be disintegrated. Beta double crosses Gamma, locks her up, makes Torr her slave and convinces the captured male prisoners help to her terrify and conquer Earth. She and Tawal seem to have a thing for each other! Lauriano encounters all 4 of them in the forest. Since he’s a big mouth braggart no one believes him. He manages to get to the spaceship but Beta catches him and makes him sing her a love song. While they are kissing Lauriano steals the control box Bets uses and frees Gamma (and his little brother) but sends the rocket into space. With the help of the robot the aliens are destroyed and Beta is impaled. Gamma stays on Earth. 

This is so nutty and dumb it's very entertaining! Vampire alien Lorena Velaquez was later in some Wrestling Women movies. Director Rogelio A. Gonzalez made many more movies in Mexico but unfortunately was killed in a car accident in 1984.

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Enter: Blue Demon

THE BLUE DEMON-1965-In his very first adventure the Mexican luchador Blue Demon (playing himself) battles a mad scientist who turns men into werewolves. He and Dr. Gruber (Mario Orea,who looks kind of like a mini Orson Welles) prowl around a smoky forest while a little guy in his undershirt shadows them. The duo are attacked by a wolf man but BD vanquishes him and he turns back into a human. The undershirt guy isn't happy and leaves. The pair then  investigate a eerie castle but don't seem to find anything. 

Later the doctor has meeting with some people including his daughter Marina (Rosa Maria Vasquez) and her boyfriend Prof. Carral (Jaime Fernandez). After some wrestling we learn that Carral is a mad scientist and the undershirt guy is his henchman. He has formula that turns men into werewolves. He demonstrates this at a wrestling match where he and Marina watch calmly as BD wins his match but has to fight again when his opponent turns into a werewolf! Later on after undershirt guy has kidnapped and imprisoned Dr. Gruber, Carral turns himself into a werewolf fights BD (twice), kidnaps Marina and dies after being shot. Despite causing so much trouble Marina breaks down and cries over his corpse. BD seems to have had enough and wanders into the woods. The SFX are pretty laughable and there's long stretches of talk but it still manages to be entertaining. The funniest part is when the werewolf a small search party lead by Marina. He pummels one guy and grabs Marina and the others in the party simply runaway!

Lead villain Fernandez was the half brother of the famous Mexican director “El Indio” Fernandez. Director Chano Urueta made the next installment BLUE DEMON VS. THE SATANIC SOCIETY which featured some of the same supporting cast. Original title: El Demonito Azul

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Wrestling Women

LAS LUCHADORAS VS. EL ROBOT ASESINO-WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE ROBOT ASSASSIN-1969- ln the first Wrestling Woman  series to be filmed in color female Luchador Gaby (Regina Torne'), her wrestler friend Gemma (Malu Reyes), her cop boyfriend Arturo (Joaquin Cordero, the monster in ORLAK, THE HELL OF FRANKENSTEIN) and his assistant battle a mad scientist Dr. Orlac (Carlos Agosti; INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES) bend on ruling the world by turning everyone into "human robots". He kidnaps many famous scientists to help in his plan dispatching a tall metallic robot (who wears a trench coat and wide rimmed hat & sunglasses) to get them. He also has a scarred man-beast in a cage in the basement (what successful mad scientist doesn't?). For some reason a nurse opens up the cage to let him out, turns her back and it kills her. The doc then uses a whip on the monster as punishment. 

Gaby has several matches in the ring and several encounters with robot (one of the kidnapped scientists is her relative) and she and her companions get beat up. Two captured scientists do create a device that allows Olac to control people (he has a real over the top maniacal laugh) but Gaby and her group break in, destroy the robot and rescue the scientists and Gaby's friend who was also "robotized". The mad doc somehow escapes with the basement beast (totally forgotten about till now). Later when it seems things have returned to normal Olac sends his beast man to kidnap a woman who  he turns into a masked human robot wrestler. She beats every opponent (with Olac controlling her from the stands) to get a revenge match with Gaby. Though she/it nearly kills Gaby the murderous plot is revealed and the vicious robo wrestler falls to her death. Olac is shot by the police. Both bodies wind up in the wrestling ring. 

Screenwriter Alfredo Salazar and directed Rene Cordona made many horror and wrestling related adventures. 

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