First Curse

 

 (imdb)

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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Bluebeard

 

 (imdb-)

BLUEBEARD- 1944-Paris is gripped by the murders of several young women. The killer has been dubbed Bluebeard by police. Gaston Morel (John Carradine), the puppeteer puts on puppet operas in the park. He takes a liking to Lucille (Jean Parker), a dress designer. After he kills his jealous assistant Renee (Sonia Sorel), it's obvious he's Bluebeard, dump-ing victims in the Seine after painting their portraits. He hires Lucille to make dresses for a new puppet show he wants to create. A police in-spector (Nils Asther) deduces that a recently purchased painting is one of the murdered women. Lucille's sister Francine (Teala Loring) helps the police set a trap to catch Morel. Things don't go as planned. Morel kills Francine, then his lackey (Ludwig Stossel) who he thinks betrayed him. When Lucille suspects Morel is the murderer, instead of going to the inspector, she visits Morel who relates a flashback and his relationship with Jeanette (Anne Sterling) which inspires him to paint an award-winning painting. However, when he visits her place, he finds her a “low, coarse, loathsome creature”. So, he killed her and now must kill every woman he paints. 

Moody thriller with a great performance by Carradine and excellent direction by Edgar Ulmer despite the low PRC budget. Also with Iris Adrian, Harry Cording and Bess Flowers. In the same year, co-star Parker was in DEAD MAN'S EYES with Lon Chaney and ONE BODY TOO MANY with Bela Lugosi!

According to an interview John Carradine gave to Dick Cavett around 1981, the actor said director Edgar Ulmer let him direct a scene.

To read about the story this film is based on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard

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