Overall: GOOD
Director Rogelio A. González first of two-back-to-back horrorish comedies from the 1960s and the more overtly goofy of them, The Ship of Monsters, (La nave de los monstruos), also fuses science fiction, Westerns, and musicals together in a daft hybrid that is unlike any other campy, Mexican B-movie from the era. Singing cowboys, alien babes from Venus who are also vampires apparently, an assortment of different monsters that are held captive and also all speak Spanish, and a clunky robot all somehow manage to co-mingle in a story that is just as ridiculous as its ingredients hint at, with the scantily-clad Venus women sent on a mission to abduct the most handsome Earth men in order to mate with them. While its camp appeal is undeniable, it works best as a hilarious mix-mash of desperate elements that are each not taken seriously yet also not delivered in an aggressively moronic fashion. Eulalio González is likeable as the gun-slinging serenader, the tacky set and monster design is charmingly D-rent, and the whole thing is intentionally ridiculous enough to keep the viewer's interest. More "What the hell am I watching?" than conventionally funny, but any fan of genre trash will delight in watching several variations of it fight each other for screen time.
(1960)
Overall: GOOD
A delightfully macabre black comedy from Mexican director Rogelio A. González, Skeleton of Mrs. Morales, (El Esqueleto de la señora Morales), is notable for the country's time period, both for its unwholesome subject matter and the expertly handled presentation of it. Made in an era where Aztec mummies and luchador heroes supplied most of the ingredients for genre movies, this adaptation of Arthur Machen's 1927 short story "The Islington Mystery" offers up its disturbed scenario with its tongue in cheek instead of overbearing the audience with low-rent, laughable camp. Though González' take on the material is humorous, the film never lets its comedic elements become overpowering or obnoxiously goofy, instead focusing on a dysfunctional couple that seems to have ensnared itself due to the devoutly religious dogma followed by Amparo Rivelles's crippled, mentally unstable wife. While Rivelle's character is clearly meant to be the domineering one and Arturo de Córdova is set up as the carefree husband whose relatable demands on his marriage are reasonable by comparison, both are self-loathing, selfish, and flawed in their own respective rights, though degrees certainly vary. This makes the final act ghastly and tragic, yet also in keeping with the kind of morally uncomfortable hilarity that only the best twisted comedies can deliver, since we root for the inexcusable actions while chuckling at everyone somehow meeting their maker in the end.
(1968)
Overall: MEH
A color sequel to Miguel Morayta's Dr. Satan, Dr. Satan vs. Black Magic, (Dr. Satán y la magia negra, Dr. Satan and the Black Magic), finds Rogelio A. González taking over as director, though the results have similar weaknesses and strengths. Another mad scientist/supernatural horror/crime movie mash-up, the title doctor, (once again played by a stone-faced Joaquín Cordero), squares off against an Asian practitioner of the mystic arts who also happens to be a vampire that can walk around freely in the sunlight yet still shapeshift into a rubber bat while wearing a Dracula cape. Both parties are after a formula that can create gold, (a formula that Lucifer himself has tasked Cordero with obtaining for whatever reason), and the entire movie plays out as a game of one-upmanship between them. Some of the particulars are quirky and fun like Dr. Satan utilizing two mind controlled women zombies and Noé Murayama's kind-of-undead opponent meeting his doom after upside-down crosses are shown to him instead of the traditional upright ones. The structure is monotonous and grows less exciting as it goes on, with long, unhurried talking scenes making up the bulk of the proceedings. Still, it has occasional moments of atmospheric campiness to admire as did the first entry in the series and it is at least not a complete narrative re-hash.
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