One single chance day can set an unexpected directional course for someone’s life. That can happen even when the person is a child and doing something as mundane as visiting the local movie theater. When the late Paul Naschy saw Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in theaters, he developed an incredible love for classic horror films. However, they weren’t “classic” but contemporary to the nine-year-old Naschy. Seeing a horror film in Spain was rare in the 1940s, as Francisco Franco’s censorship-driven regime restricted horror films, but mercifully didn’t ban all of them.
Naschy went on to live his dream in the film business, a life that had its career ups and downs. Naschy passed away on November 30, 2009, and his cinematic output in the 1960s and 1970s is far from forgotten. Blu-ray releases do rabidly well, with limited editions selling out quickly.
Paul Naschy appeared in over 100 films, starting as an extra in the seminal biblical film King of Kings (1961) and later starred in 45 films. Horror fans can check out five of his most revered works where he didn’t merely copy classics. He put his unique mod-gothic spin on them.
1. The Mark of the Wolfman (1968)
The Mark of the Wolf Man unexpectedly launched a horror icon's career. Naschy wrote a screenplay homage to Universal Monster classics and debuted his long-running character Waldemar Daninsky, the tortured werewolf who appeared in 12 films. The producers loved the screenplay - what's not to love? You get a werewolf battle, manipulative vampires, and a Universal homage updated with a cool mod-Euro flair. Visually, The Mark of the Wolf Man captures the brilliance of 1960's gothic cinematography with action, chills, and memorable special effects.
Initially, Naschy hoped the film would be a vehicle for Lon Chaney Jr., but the producers asked Naschy if he would consider starring. Or rather, they asked Jacinto Molina Álvarez if he wished to star - although producers wanted a stage name that would work better in international markets and censors were skittish about a Spanish werewolf. So, the writer/actor adopted the celluloid moniker “Paul Naschy” and altered the script to make the werewolf Polish.
The Mark of the Wolf Man did well in Europe, with no interest in the film in the United States until 1971. Independent-International pre-booked theaters to run their Z-Grade opus, Dracula vs. Frankenstein, but couldn't get the film back from the lab in time, so they looked for a substitute. Since the other werewolf was named "Wolfstein," Sherman changed the feature’s title to Frankenstein's Bloody Terror, adding a goofy prologue explaining that the Frankenstein clan moved east, got infected by werewolfism, and changed their name to the more appropriate Wolfstein. Good enough! (At least good enough for theater owners who paid for a Frankenstein film) FTB had a troubled initial release and, ironically, would see a re-release on a double bill with Dracula vs. Frankenstein to great success.
2. Hunchback of the Morgue (1973)
Naschy riffed on classic horror for influence. This outing draws from the hunchback mad doctor assistants that originated as Fritz in Frankenstein before becoming a stock character while also featuring a weirdo monster-behind-the-locked-door similar to the 1962 bizarro masterpiece The Brain That Wouldn’t Die. Brain also featured an assistant with a physical disability who sticks with a mad doctor lying about helping his assistant only to use him for nefarious purposes while stringing him along. (In Hunchback, Gotho believes the evil doctor will bring his deceased true love back to life.) The film also boosts Brain’s gore content, shocking in its day, to wicked 1970s levels.
What makes the film unique is Gotho the Hunchback is the lead character, and the tale focuses on his plight while the mad doctor and his mysterious flesh-eating humanoid blob monster (!) play secondary roles. We get a fleshed-out version of Gotho that shows him slowly realizing an evil scientist is using him until finally rebelling - a classic B-movie trope. Naschy’s pathos makes Gotho a standout character, with the notorious rat attack scene and a fiery ending similar to Brain’s (with the addition of a deadly vat of acid) cements it as a Naschy classic.
3. The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman (1970)
Naschy’s momentum after La Marca del Hombre Lobo stalled after the troubled productions of The Monsters of Terror (Assignment Terror on U.S. television) and the execrable Fury of the Wolf Man (1970), rebounding after the MASSIVE hit under the title Night of Walpurgis in Spain. Director Leon Klimovsky did about as well as anyone could do with such a low budget, creating a creepy atmospheric gothic chill fest where two young ladies, Elvira and Genevieve, search for the lost tomb of the vampire Countess Wandesa Darvula de Nadasdy, but discover Waldemar alive and not well, squatting in a rural castle.
Wandesa’s resurrection prompts Waldemar to become a hero because, when Walpurgis Night arrives, she’ll unleash satanic mayhem on earth….unless stopped.
Let’s not overlook the prologue, in which coroners lament how pervasive “ignorance and superstition” led villagers to believe the body on the slab was a werewolf. Removing the silver bullets from Waldemar’s heart mocks such superstitions. Bad move.
The film relaunched Naschy's career and led to a multi-picture deal with Profilmes of Spain and one wild outing after the other. The U.S. release The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman played drive-ins and even had a paperback novelization tie-in. (It’s considered one of the worst adaptations ever written. (Author “Arthur M. Scarm” where have you gone? ) The 2021 Vinegar Syndrome 5,000-copy limited edition slipcover Blu-ray release is now sold out. I got my copy.
4. The House Of Psychotic Women (1973)
Realizing he couldn't play a monster in every film or risk burning out his audience, Naschy opted to try his hand at a Giallo film. Giallos were popular atmospheric Italian murder mysteries featuring over-the-top kills. In this opus, Naschy is an ex-con going straight - straight to a mansion occupied by three twisted sisters with something to hide. Hired as a handyman, Naschy’s drifter becomes an amateur sleuth after blonde-haired women turn up deceased sans eyes.
The muy-Giallo Spanish title - The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll - is far better than the exploitative one Independent-International devised for the United States. However, the attention-grabbing name and sleazy poster had better grindhouse/drive-in marketing potential, pegging the film as prurient, not the stylish, intriguing feature it is.
5. Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973)
A mind-bending classic. Frantically written by Naschy when commissioned to rush job a script in 36 hours, the potboiler debuts the warlock/satanist Alaric de Marnac, the only character he would reprise in a later film, 1983’s Panic Beats. Unlike Waldemar Daninsky, Alaric de Marnac has no redeeming qualities. The vicious antagonist shows beheading a satanic warlock in the 1450s doesn’t mean his severed head isn’t coming back to life to wreak havoc in the 1970s.
Gore, zombies, and a moody atmosphere round out this wild romp. Naschy loved the character - perhaps because it gave him a chance to play a pure villain. While the proceedings don’t always make linear sense, the film delivers desired shocks at the right moments.
Honorable Mention: Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf (1972)
Naschy-philes fans may wonder why this film gets an honorable mention when others rank higher like Nights of the Werewolf (1981) or The Mummy’s Revenge (1973). Better films? True. Quirkier? No. The insanely absurd premise of a werewolf traveling to Victorian England to visit the grandson of the late Dr. Jekyll for a lycanthropy cure—only to find himself also turning into Mr. Hyde due to the botched attempt—risks being maniacally lousy. Or so people think, because had this been made today and popped up on streaming services, it’d likely be a campy, Z-grade, one-joke movie stretched to a painful runtime. Not under Leon Klimovsky’s direction.
Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf plays everything straight, and Naschy and Klimovsky opt for horror over humor, which works. The film takes the angle that Mr. Hyde is worse than the Wolf Man because werewolves are feral predators while Hyde is a sadistic human monster - a unique spin.
Speaking of unique spins, everyone knows what it is like to avoid staring at someone in the elevator, an experience that also gets a unique spin. Imagine avoiding looking when the other person on the lift turns into a werewolf.
Gnashing on Naschy Discs
Interest in Paul Naschy films, like Waldemar the Werewolf, periodically rises again among long-time horror fans and curious discoverers chomping on special editions. If you are new to Naschy, his monster romps, like Werewolf and the Yeti (1975) and Count Dracula’s Great Love (1973), are worth checking out. Once you become a fan, you may seek out quirkier outings like Human Beasts (1980) and People Who Own the Dark (1976). You may dig them.
In a tragic Daninsky-style lament, new fans will never dig the surreal experience of seeing these movies roll out on drive-in screens or late-night UHF. You’ll have to settle for one excellent Blu-ray release after another that might inspire you to make films and become the next Paul Naschy.