First Curse

 

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THE CURSE OF NOSTRADAMUS-1961-Professor Duran (Domingo Soler) who has just lectured on senseless superstition says vampires and monsters do not exist. No sooner have the words left his lips when the vampire Nostradamus (German Robles) and his ugly hunchback assistant, Leo (Manuel Vegara) show up. He visits his father's rotting corpse, then visits Duran and his secretary Antonio (Julio Aleman) under the name Ericson. He reveals his real identity but the professor scoffs and calls him names. Nostradamus says to prove what he's saying is the truth, he plans to murder 13 people with the last being the professor himself. He's pretty vicious. He hypnotizes one guy and he's buried alive and makes an antiques dealer shoot a collector and then the dealer is arrested for murder (he later jumps to his death). Nostradamus visits the professor several times to gloat. Later, Nostradamus kidnaps Anna (Aurora Alverado), Duran’s daughter. He and Antonio go after the vampire with platinum bullets but a cave in disrupts their plans in the abrupt ending since this and the three “sequels” that followed are all culled from a serial. 

Director/writer Federico Curiel also made THE BRAINIAC (1962) and several El Santo movies. Stillman Segar who worked on the English language version was unfortunately killed in a plane crash in 1969.

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Santo Vs. Nazis

 

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SANTO EN ANONIMO MORTAL-(ANONYMOUS DEATH THREAT)-1972-When a jeweler is fatally shot and real estate agent pushed off a roof, Inspector Ponce (Armando Silvertre) is stumped. They both received notes they were going to be killed. Mario Gaos (Xaiver Masse) is worried. He received a note too. His wife wants to call the police but Gaos decides the only person who can help him is Mexico's number one wrestling crime fighter, the one and only El Santo (himself). And no sooner is his name spoken than we see him in the squared circle in a pretty rough match. After the match, he is visited by Gaos. Santo promises to guard Gaos night and day with the help of his two cohorts Pablo (Georgio Casal) and Yvette (Tere Velazquez). At work, a window washer slips into Gaos' office. He and Yvette fight. A bomb the window washer discreetly left in Gaos' office explodes, killing him. The murderer gets away.

 Later Ponce and his assistant Rocha (Raymundo Capetello) share clues with Santo then visit a guy named Henkel (Ivan J. Rado) who claims to have received a death letter and is very evasive about his involvement in WW 2. At night Santo wrestles an ordinary looking grappler called "El Nazi" (Ignacio Gomez). In the audience, a guy wearing a swastika armband and toting a rifle tries to kill our hero (no one in the crowd seems to notice him) but he misses and kills the opponent. Afterwards, Gaos' widow, Ester (Sasha Montenegro) receives a phone call saying she must kill Santo. She tries to give him a poisoned drink but the police call to tell Santo that even though Gaos was blown up, he was also slowly being poisoned to death (?). Santo goes to a warehouse to meet Henkel and is attacked by 3 guys with swastika armbands. Santo gets the better of them. Of course, Henkel is actually Von Struber, a war criminal heading a neo-Nazi party (with Gaos' wife) who escaped justice and is getting revenge on the people who testified against him! 

This isn't bad for a non-horror Santo movie. It was directed by Aldo Monti, who as an actor played Dracula twice in two other Santo movies, SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA (1969) and SANTO AND THE BLUE DEMON VS. DRACULA AND THE WOLFMAN (1973).

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Remade In Mexico

 

LOS QUE VOVIERON-(THOSE WHO CAME BACK)-1948-A plane going from Mexico to Buenos Ares carries an array of rude complaining passengers including a private detective and his criminal, a shrewish old woman and her wimpy husband, a grandfather & grandson and an engaged couple. They discuss fixing the plane, where to get food and argue a lot. They eventually learn to work together (kind of; some have to be forced) and learn late that there are unfriendly natives around. When they are ready to leave, a choice has to be made. 

Excellent Mexican remake of the 1939 US film THREE CAME BACK directed by Alejandro Galindo.

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MMA Fighter Turned Actor

 

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ANTIDOTE-2018-In Mexico, two treasure hunters (former MMA fighter Randy Couture and bodyguard/stuntman Chuck Zito) search for "the white witch". Meanwhile, an American nurse works in a clinic where children are dying of a strange malady. 

Low budget stuff by a guy (Ken Barbet) who wants to be Quentin Tarantino.

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Samson aka Santo 2

 

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SAMSON VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMEN-1963-After 200 years, a vampire queen Zorina (Lorena Velazquez; SHIP OF MONSTERS (1960)) decides to return to hell and be with her husband Lucifer. She puts her priestess Tundra (Ofelia Montesco) in charge of finding a replacement. She sets her sights on Diane (Maria Duval) who's engaged to George. Diane's father, professor Orloff (Augusto Benedico) suspects something. He tells inspector Jackson (Jamie Fernandez) Diane is in danger. He knows Tundra wants his daughter for a ritual that involves Diane becoming the new queen of the vampire women. When Diane sees one of Tundra's vampire men at her window, Dad decides to call in Samson (Santo with an Americanized name) but he's off wrestling. Later the real queen shows up and she and her decrepit minions all drink blood and become young. At a costume party Tundra mesmerizes George and Diane is snatched. However, Samson's timely intervention prevents her from being taken away. Of course, later one of the vampire men pretends to be Samson's masked opponent in the ring. Not much else happens until Samson finds the vampire hideout and sets everything on fire. 

So-so US re-dubbing by K. Gordon Murray, its original Mexican title is SANTO VS. LAS MUJERES VAMPIRO and was directed by Alfonso Corona Blake (THE WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES (1961).

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Not For Cat Lovers

 

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NIGHT OF 1000 CATS-1972-Some nut named Hugo (Hugo Stiglitz) wines and dines women, has sex with them, then strangles them. He keeps their heads on display in his lab and feeds the rest of the body parts to a multitude of cats he has on his property. His demented bald headed servant Dorgo (Geralso Zepeda) helps him. Occasionally he reminisces about killing them. A married woman (Anjanette Comer) foils his plan. 

Pretty crappy production with all the dubbed voices seeming to have been done by two people. Directed and co-written by the prolific Rene Cardona Jr. (TINTORERA (1977), THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE (1978)). Star maniac Stiglitz (SURVIVE! (1976) was in several films by Cardona Jr., who's dad made SANTA CLAUS (1969), NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APE (1969) and many Santo lucha libre movies!

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German Robles

 

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EL ATAUD DEL VAMPIRO-(THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN)-1958-A mad doctor steals the coffin of an infamous vampire Count Lavud (German Robles; returning from the first film) in the sequel to EL VAMPIRO. The doctor's greedy grave robbing companion wants the medallion the vampire wears which is unfortunately partially wrapped around the stake embedded in the vampire's heart. Naturally he pulls out the stake and the count returns, making his savior his slave in the process. A doctor (Abel Salazar; also back from the first film) tries to convince anyone a vampire is loose, to little avail. Meanwhile, the Count hides out in a wax museum and sets his fangs on a nurse (Alicia Montoya; also returning from the first film) who is also a dancer. 

Not bad, although the count is kind of wimpy in his fight with the doctor in the finale. 

Directed by Fernando Mendez (THE BODY SNATCHER (1957); THE BLACK PIT OF DR. M (1959)). Star bloodsucker Robles (in only his second movie) went on to play another vampire Nostradamus in a series of Mexican produced movies.

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It Started Here!

 

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LA LLORONA-1933-In Mexico a man dies on the street after hearing a wailing voice. Then a doctor (Ramon Pereda) and his wife (Virginia Zuri) have a birthday party for their 4-year-old son. The doctor's father-in-law Don Fernando (Paco Martinez) is worried because his own son disappeared on his fourth birthday and was later found dead. Unbeknownst to them, a hooded figure is spying on them. Don Fernado tells the doctor the story of how La Llorona, "the crying woman" came to be, set in " New Spain". After this rather long flashback, in the present the hooded figure kills Fernando and tries to steal the son but is unsuccessful. The police are called in. Another flashback and the hooded culprit is revealed. 

This slow moving, talky Mexican horror tale was the first to use the legendary La Llorona which later was featured in several horror films. It was directed by Ramon Peon.

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Crime Drama

 

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CAGE OF EVIL-1960-Inspector Melrose (John Maxwell) narrates the story of police detective Scott Harper (Ron Foster), a hot-headed jerk, disgruntled at being passed over as he investigates a robbery of diamonds that involves murder. (Robert Shayne plays the owner) His partner Murray Kerns (Harp McGuire) is a little better. Harper winds up falling in love with Holly (Patricia Blair from THE BLACK SLEEP (1956)), the girlfriend of Romack (Howard McLeod), the gangster who staged the robbery. Harper and Holly plot to kill him and keep the diamonds and Harper winds up killing his partner. It ends in Mexico where he finds out once again crime doesn't pay. 

Another crime drama that seems like an overlong TV show by the Robert Kent-Edward L. Cahn-Orville Hampton team after they stopped making horror movies. Several actors appear in un-billed small roles: Ted Knight, Greg Martell, Henry Darrow and Eve Brent.

Star Foster was in THE WALKING TARGET (directed by Edward L. Cahn) the same year. He made appearances in many TV shows and was later in THE HOUSE OF THE DAMNED (1965).

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Warren Strikes Again!

 

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ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY-1964-Dr. Munson relates to a newspaper publisher (uncredited Bruno VeSota) the strange case of Dr. Redding (Ramon Gay) and his regression experiments with one Ann Taylor (Rosita Arenas), a reincarnated Mayan princess. They visit a Mayan tomb and are chased away by a scary looking mummy. 

If this all sounds familiar, it should. This is actually the first Aztec mummy movie reedited by Jerry Warren. He added around 30 minutes of new footage which is basically American actors (including Warren regular Steve Conte) talking endlessly about nonsense. 

The final shot is a wastepaper basket. Rafael Portillo was the original director.

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Ruined

 

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THE RUINS-2008-Some stupid Americans (Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey, Shawn Ashmore) on vacation in Mexico are terrorized by mysterious locals and killer plant roots but it's mostly characters screaming and crying. Carter Smith directed. Co-male lead Ashmore played Ice Man in the original X-Men film series.

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Adventure!

 

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ADVENTURE IN THE CENTER OF THE EARTH-1965-This made in Mexico adventure starts off with a family group taking a tour of some caves. A woman Julia (Carmen Molina) and her fiance sneak off for some hanky panky. They fall down a hole. Just when it seems like they will be rescued the man is killed by a monster but we only see its claw. It leaves a footprint that later gets Prof. Diaz (Jose Elias Moreno) very excited. He thinks it's a great discovery and wants to hear what the woman has to say. Unfortunately she's in shock. They try to get through to her but fail. The professor decides to check out the cave himself. He assembles a group to explore. Once they set up camp one of them croons a song. Later a female photographer is attacked by a one eyed creature. Still later a winged creature with fangs kills most of the party and kidnaps one woman. 

This low budget production, directed by Alfredo B. Crevenna (who earlier made a bunch of movies featuring Santo) is pretty entertaining.

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Killer Dolls

 

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MUNECOS INFERNALES-1961-Two medical doctors Armando (Ramon Gay) and Karina (Elvira Quintana) are invited to dinner by 4 men (and their families) who have recently returned from Haiti. While there not only did they see a forbidden ceremony but one of the eggheads stole a sacred idol for his personal collection. During a power outage he dies mysteriously. Later we learn a revenge seeking voodoo priest Zandor (Quintin Bulnes) is making scary miniature dolls of the victims (dwarf actors or kids in scary masks) sending them to do more killing. 

After completion of their tasks, he calls them back with a flute. Zandor also has a zombie servant who delivers the dolls to unsuspecting victims. The dolls are creepy but they are not all just mindless killers. At one point a doll wants to kill a child but he's stopped by a companion. 

Directed by Benito Alazraki (SANTO VS. THE ZOMBIES (1962) and written by Alfredo Salazar (DOCTOR OF DOOM (1963)). K. Gordon Murray presented it in the US under the title “Attack of the Doll People”.

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Batwoman in Mexico

 

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THE BATWOMAN-1968-In Acapulco, Robles (Hector Godoy), a FBI agent and the local police enlisted the aid of superhero crime fighting lady wrestler The Batwoman (Maura Monti) to help solve a series of killings, all against pro wrestlers and all having pineal fluid taken from the bodies. Batwoman's crime fighting outfit consists of boots, a bikini and cape and cowl that look like a Halloween costume. The killings are all the work of mad scientist Dr. Williams (Roberto Canedo) and his abused assistant Igor (Carlos Suarez) who are trying to create a man-fish. After infiltrating Williams' boat The Reptillicus, Batwoman's caught but escapes after beating up some henchmen. She uses a lot of chops. The gang pursues her. They recapture her but she chops her way out. Later Williams gets a creature to grow man-size and plans on making a fish-woman. Now named Pisces, the creature goes after Batwoman while she's doing some underwater exploring. She is again pursued but an underwater flare and gasoline show that fire is the creature's weakness. Later while Batwoman is wrestling, Williams has a tracking device placed on her cape but she turns the tables on the mad doctor and saves the day. Funny final scene. 

This Mexican production was directed by Rene Cardona (NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (1969) and produced and written by Alfredo Salazar. Star Monti (from Italy) made her last film appearance in one of Boris Karloff's Mexican films (ALIEN TERROR aka INCREDIBLE INVASION) in 1971.

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German Robles

 

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EL VAMPIRO-1957-A young woman Marta (Ariadne Welter) visits her aunt in a small village in Mexico. Due to a mix up there is no one at the station to pick her up. She meets Dr. Enrique (producer Abel Salazar) and together they hitch a ride on a wagon and arrive at the house only to find out the aunt has died. Another aunt is there looking much younger than she should and prowling around at night. Enrique has actually come to help because new neighbor Count Lavud (German Robles) is a vampire! His first victim is a young boy. Then he sets his sights on Marta. 

This is very atmospheric with decent sfx. It started the horror boom in Mexico and was directed by Fernado Mendez (THE BLACK PIT OF DOCTOR M).

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Late Santo

 

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THE FIST OF DEATH-1982-During a very long pagan ritual, a woman (Grace Renat) dressed in black transforms into a monster, a tiger and a snake. Her sister (the same actress), clad in white banishes her for blasphemy and using "the star of great power" for evil. An "oracle" sends El Santo (himself) and his whiny assistant Cliff (Cesar Suarez) to help the good sister who is also trying to protect "The Jungle Girl" who was raised by wolves. She also plans to marry a Chinese prince (Steve Cheng). Both sisters are fairly bursting out of their furry bikinis and the bad one does an erotic dance several times. Santo fights a furry man beast and a tiger. 

The fights and pacing are terrible. The ending sets up a sequel (FURY OF THE KARATE EXPERTS) which was made back-to-back with this film. Both were filmed in Florida by director Alfredo B. Crevenna. 

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Evil vs. Evil

 

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DR. SATAN VS. BLACK MAGIC-1968-Dr. Satan (Joaquin Cordero) is awakened by the real Satan and told to go back to Earth to stop vampire Yei Lin (Noe Murayama) from obtaining a formula that turns metal into gold. I'm not exactly sure why Beazelbub cares about this but he does. Satan hypnotizes two women (who sleep in coffins) to assist him. In a fight Lin almost turns Satan into a vampire but evil triumphs over evil in this Mexican tale directed by Rogelio A. Gonzalez (THE SHIP OF MONSTERS).

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Werewolves In Love

 

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LA LOBA-(THE SHE-WOLF)-1965-In this enjoyable Mexican black & white horror film, a young woman (Kitty de Hoyos) is cursed and turns into a wolf. The doctor (Joaquin Cordero) she goes to for help turns out to be a werewolf himself! They go on a killing spree. 

Despite its low budget restraints, this has great gloomy atmosphere and two fairly scary werewolves. Director Rafael Baledon also made THE HELL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1960) and CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN (1963).

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The Old West

 

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RAIDERS OF OLD CALIFORNIA-1957-Low budget Republic western about unscrupulous ranchers pushing Mexicans off their own land. Capt. McCain (Jim Davis) is their leader and his gang includes Ric Vallin, Lee Van Cleef and Marty Robbins! When a circuit judge (Louis Jean Heydt) and a marshal (singer Faron Young) investigate, McCain uses intimidation and violence to get his way. He also kills his ex-partner Lt. Johnson (Harry Lauter). 

McCain searches for Sebastian (Lawrence Dobkin), a Mexican who supposedly granted McCain his land and has to fight savage Indians. In a shootout of the country-western singers Young beats Robbins. Douglas Fowley is a semi-comical old sheriff. A flashback filled trial and a stampede cap the finale in which McCain is killed by his own cattle. Gerald Mohr is the narrator. 

Director Albert C. Gannaway also made DANIEL BOONE, TRAILBLAZER which also featured Faron Young.

Mexican Werewof

 

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EL HOMBRE Y MONSTERO-1959-In this stylish and eerie Mexican horror film, Samuel (Enrique Rambal) makes a pact with the devil to become a great pianist but unfortunately when dealing with Mr. Scratch there's always a catch. Now whenever Sam tinkles the ivories he turns into a hairy werewolf like creature. He lives with his mom and a young protégé he's training. However a nosy reporter (screenwriter Abel Salazar) learns that Sam has the corpse of a female rival he killed in a room and every so often talks to it. After terrorizing he transforms during a big concert and is shot by the police. Director Rafael Baledon also made ORLAK,THE HELL OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN.

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