Senor Dracula

DRACULA-(Spanish Language Version)-1931-So much has been made of this once lost film and how “superior” it is to Tod Browning's classic English language version but let's face it. It's all bullshit. It's almost a scene for scene copy except the actors are speaking Spanish. The direction isn't any worse or better than Browning’s. The Spanish film crew which shot their scenes at night had access to Browning's dallies and took it from there. The acting of Carlos Villarias as Dracula and Pablo Alvarez Rubio as Renfield are so over the top and comical that they render the whole movie as one big laugh riot. I know in his own way Villarias was trying to imitate Lugosi but he fails miserably. Critics are quick to criticize the Lugosi version for it's flaws but this thing has gotten too much praise for too long!

Thanks for reading!

Body Snatcher

LADRON de CADAVERES-1957-Strange Mexican horror film has a mad scientist Don Panchito (Carlos Riquelme) experimenting with the dead bodies of atheletes and apes in some kind of brain transplant to conquer death. A police captain Carlos Robles (Crox Alvarado) recruits a luchador named Santana (real wrestler Wolf Ruvinskis) to help him set a trap but the wrestler dies in the ring from poison administered by the scientist's henchman. 

The detective's friend Felipe (Arturo Martinez), who for most of the movie is romancing the detective's secretary, disguises himself as the dead wrestler but is killed and turned into a super strong monster with the brain of a gorilla! Naturally the scientist sends his creation into the ring where kills his opponent and runs amuck as the crowd panics. The creature transforms into an ugly hairy man beast with fangs. He impales the scientist on  hook (great bloody scene) then kidnaps the secretary after a lot of climbing. He's shot by the police and falls to his death.

The director Fernando Mendez went on to make other horror movies like EL VAMPIRO and THE BLACK PIT OF DOCTOR M. Wrestler Wolf Ruvinskis created the superhero Neutron and played the lead in several movies featuring the character. Co-star Martinez was later in the Aztec Mummy series.

Thanks for reading!