FRANKESTEIN, EL VAMPIRO Y CIA.
original production:
Cast: Manuel "Loco" Valdes, Martha Elena Cervantes, Nora Veyran, Roberto G. Rivera, Jose "Ojon" Jasso, Joaquin Garcia "Borolas", Quintin Bulnes, Antonio Bravo, Jorge Mondragon, Julian de Meriche, Alberto "Chiquilin" Villanueva
PLOT OUTLINE:
(from IMDb): Two screwballs get mixed up with monsters, mad scientists and vampires.
REVIEW:
Just from a cursory viewing of the original Mexican film, (generously supplied
by Santo Street's Brian Moran), this rarest of Murray horror films appears to
be the Mexican cinema's answer to ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. It is
remarkably similar in many ways, including scenes that play almost like a
remake.
Manuel "Loco" Valdez (none other than the Ferocious Wolf himself!) and Jose "Ojon" Jasso play a couple of lovable, bumbling cowards, who work for a shipping company but stumble onto two crates with monsters in them (!), and have to spend the night in a haunted wax museum (!).
The monster "dummies", (Frankenstein and Vampire) come to life of course, and scare the wits out of our cajones-challenged heroes.
The vampire seems a bit wimpy, even whimsical (after all, we've been spoiled by German Robles), and the Frankenstein monster has a heavily-puttied face.
There's also a very odd leading man (named Mr. Wolf!) who turns into a strange, but passable werewolf.
Joaquin Garcia, aka "Borolas", (also in BRING ME THE VAMPIRE), plays a chubby, chicken- shit detective named Hercules (!). He does a hilarious drag scene, dressed as a harem girl.
Valdez' comedy seems to be composed primarily of broad mugging and eye-rolling and affected stuttering, a riff on Jerry Lewis with a touch of Joe E. Brown thrown in.
Familiar sets and music cues from other Salazar productions lend a comfortable ring to this film.
As the entire film seems to be set at night, it comes across as quite atmospheric, even with its goofy comedy premise.
The vampire puts Valdez under his spell, and makes him do stupid tricks, in a particularly funny scene.
The bizarre climax involves a woman mad doctor trying to transplant Pepito's (Valdez) brain into the Frankenstein monster. The operation is a qualified success, as Pepito becomes a raving lunatic, and Frankie turns into a prancing idiot!
In the end, Werewolf kills Vampire, and Werewolf and Frankenstein die in a fire.
Some physical comedy bits are reminiscent of the Three Stooges, but the majority of the humor, as in the other Murray horror comedies, resides in the rapid-fire dialogue, which is of course lost to me, in its original Spanish.
Needless to say, the dubbed version of this film, should it ever turn up, promises to be a stunner.
COMMENTS:
* According to Mexican film aficionado and Santo Street proprietor Brian Moran, this ultra-obscure film was a replacement for BLOODY SEA in Murray's "World of Terror" TV package by 1968. BLOODY SEA was pulled from syndication, most likely due to its non-horror subject matter. No dubbed prints of this rarest Murray horror film have been located thus far.