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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Paul Naschy's monster mash..., May 10, 2006
Originally released as La Marca del Hombre-lobo (1968), aka The Mark of the Wolfman, this Spanish horror production found great popularity on the American drive-in circuit under the title Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (1972), distributed by producer Sam Sherman through his company Independent International Pictures, which was the company primarily responsible for inflicting Al Adamson's brand of cinematic pain on unsuspecting movie patrons with such features like Satan's Sadists (1969) and Dracula Vs. Frankenstein (1971). Directed by Enrique L?pez Eguiluz, the movie was written (and starred in) by Jacinto Molina, better known to his many fans as Paul Naschy (The Werewolf Versus Vampire Women, Doctor Jekyll and the Werewolf, Curse of the Devil), a prolific actor/writer/director/producer sometimes referred to as `the Spanish Lon Chaney' due to his penchant for playing the monster in a great many European horror films (this was the first in a lengthy series of wolf man films featuring Naschy). Also appearing is Manuel Manzaneque (Hotel T?voli), Dyanik Zurakowska (Terror of the Living Dead), Juli?n Ugarte (All the Colors of the Dark), and Aurora de Alba (Vengeance of the Zombies).
Naschy plays Count Waldemar Daninsky, a man who becomes enthralled with a local woman named Countess Janice von Aarenberg (Zurakowska) who has recently returned home from school. Seems the Countess already has a suitor named Rudolph Weissmann (Manzaneque), but Waldemar's manly charms prove too strong so Rudi gets the boot. Meanwhile, a couple gypsies (one overly laden with bosom...homina homina) seek refuge in a nearby abandoned monastery to wait out a storm and discover an underground crypt. Being the opportunistic sort, the gypsies decide to relieve the occupants of the crypt of their valuables, but in the process one of them makes the unwitting mistake of pulling a silver cross/dagger from the chest of a well-preserved corpse, thereby unleashing the curse of the werewolf upon the land once again...smooth move, Ex-Lax. The subsequent maulings lead the villagers to believe wolves have come down from the mountains, so they form a hunting party, including Waldemar and Rudi, the latter soon suffering an attack from the hairy, toothy, slavering beast recently brought back from the dead. Waldemar saves the day (and Rudi), his reward a good-sized bite to the chest prior to putting the creature down. Both Rudi and Janice vow to help the now cursed Waldemar, scouring the monastery for any information, eventually coming across a correspondence from a Dr. Janos Mikhelov to the original wolf man. Apparently the good doctor has since passed, but his son, who shares the same name, has taken up his father's work and agrees to help the despondent Waldemar, arriving in short order with his really hot wife (who, like the gypsy woman, is loaded with bosom), both of whom prefer to work only at night...and here's where things get weird...turns out the doctor and his wife are a pair of swinging vampires, and while I'm unsure what their plans for Waldemar involve, there's no mistaking their interest or intent for both Rudi or Janice...
The one thing many people will notice while watching this film is while it has both wolf men and vampires, there's no Frankenstein monster anywhere to be found, which is curious given fact the name Frankenstein is so predominant in the title. Apparently distributor Sherman had promised a Frankenstein film, and when he couldn't come up with one, he did the next best thing by tacking on a Frankenstein angle to this import, adding a bit of narration up front trying to marry both the Frankenstein and wolf man mythos together, the result being a plot point that makes no sense. Actually, there were a few areas in the plot that were a bit fuzzy, but I attributed much of this to the actual Spanish to English transition. The trick here is to not get so hung up on various story details, otherwise you'll end up missing out on the aspects that made this feature as much fun as it was, specifically the natural atmosphere, the location shots, the vibrant visuals, and the monsters. The inclusion of the vampires seemed odd, but not unwelcome. The movie has a really strong gothic vibe throughout, primarily due to the extensive location shots populated with appropriate set pieces. The performances were better than I expected, and I especially liked how Naschy took it to the hilt during his transformation sequences (check out the muscular physique on Naschy during his shirtless scenes...someone had been pumping the iron). The actual transformation sequences themselves were strictly low budget, as they basically involved someone moving a smudged filter in front of the camera's lens, but it came off pretty effective. I particularly liked the fangs on Naschy's wolf man, as they were quite the honking set of choppers. The actual eviscerations aren't shown, but these sequences are handled in such a way as you get a pretty good idea what's going on, even if you don't see the rendering of flesh. As far as action goes, there's a few lusty maulings, some monster on monster stuff (ever wonder who'd win in a fight between an werewolf and a vampire?), neck biting, impalements, and so on...there was one sequence I found pretty funny, and that was when the wolf man broke into a meager dwelling and attacked the two residents. He went after the man first, and then pounced on the woman (given the attractiveness of the woman, she would have probably been the one I would have went after first). After beating on the man for a bit, the beast picked him up and chucked him on an open fire, to which the poor fellow landed seat first, did a little bouncing around, and then spewed blood from his mouth. It sounds gruesome, but I couldn't help laughing just because it looked so odd. The liner notes indicate that at some point this film was released in 3-D, and some parts of the movie seem to confirm this as there appears to be an inherent blurriness normally associated with the process, but I guess it didn't go over so well at the time, so that aspect of the release was canned (much of the American promotional materials indicate the movie was shot in Chill-O-Rama, but I'm unsure if that was relating to the 3-D process of something else).
This DVD release from Shriek Show/Media Blasters includes a decent looking, anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) picture. There are flaws present (lines, specks, etc.) and the picture, at times, looks a little washed out, but for the most part, it came across well enough. The Dolby Digital audio track also wasn't spectacular, as the audio level seemed to fade in and out at times, but was serviceable for the most part. There are a good deal of extras including a commentary track with Sam Sherman, who was the U.S. distributor, TV and radio spots, deleted and extended scenes, an original trailer, a photo gallery, and interview with Paul Naschy, liner notes by George Reis of the DVD Drive-in website, and trailers for other films including The Being (1983), Just Before Dawn (1981), Anthropophagus (1981), and Golden Temple Amazons (1973). My only beef with this release is it would have been nice if the original version of this film had been included, but perhaps that wasn't available.
Cookieman108
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Perfect DVD transfer of a lost classic!! , October 31, 2005
I've been waiting for this one for years. I fell in love with this film years ago when it was one of those creature feature films on late saturday nights in the late 70's. Apart from the silly and misleading title, as a horror film this is damn near perfect. This film has a great plot, beautiful use of color and lighting and an awesome gothic backdrop. This was the first film to star Paul Naschy as the werewolf and it was most definately his best. I have been buying different versions of this film on both DVD and VHS for many years and all have been disappointing either in content or sound and picture quality. To be honest, most of them were unwatchable. This DVD is just beautiful. The colors are bold and vivid and the picture quality is near perfect for a film of this age. This is also a longer cut of the U.S. version i remember seeing on TV all those years ago. Many of these scenes were available only on the original Spanish version of the film, La Marca del Hombre Lobo or Mark Of The Wolfman. I have two versions of this on VHS but one of them is in German and the other in Spanish. These unfortunately both had very, very poor audio and video. Here most of those scenes were added back to the U.S. version and dubbed in English. These scenes fit perfectly into the shorter version i remember and make this classic even better. If you are a fan of this film and have purchased any different versions of it in the past, throw them all out and buy this DVD. It put them all to shame. This is the ultimate euro horror film and it has never looked better. Thank you Media Blasters and Shreik Show for doing such a beautiful job with this long forgotten gem. BUY THIS DVD NOW!!!!!
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Long awaited DVD version of horror classic, November 16, 2005
The first in a long running series of werewolf films is presented here in widescreen format, which is a big plus and a revelation to those of us who have only seen the awful cropped prints.
The extras are fantastic, especially the commentary by Sam Sherman and the easter egg featuring the recording session of the advertising campaign (easily found).
The only downside is that while the film was shot in 3-D and the elements still exist, this presentation is strictly flat only, but as Sherman says in the commentary he'd love to re-release the 3-D version to midnight shows!
To the person who complained the Paul Naschy interview is only in Spanish.... Sir, turn on the English subtitles!!! The interview is subtitled. LOL.
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