60's Mexican Horror Part Seven - (John Carradine Edition)

AUTOPSIA DE UN FANTASMA

(1968)

Dir - Ismael Rodríguez

Overall: WOOF

On paper at least, Autopsia de un fantasma, (Autopsy of a Ghost), may be of interest to horror and B-movie fans as it features John Carradine, Cameron Mitchell, and Basil Rathbone, the latter in his final screen performance.  What an abysmal way to go out though as the movie is relentlessly obnoxious and at a hundred and six "what in the goddamn hell" minutes long, it represents a torturous antithesis of comedy.  Many of the intended nyuck-nyucks are spend up with bouncy cartoon sound effects and the rapid editing allows for all of these poor, poor actors to make wacky faces while continually embarrassing themselves.  The ensemble cast is so prone to behaving like toddlers on Adderall that it amazingly becomes difficult to follow a plot that should be idiot-proof to comprehend.  Something about Rathbone's melancholic spirit needing to make a woman fall in love with him in four days or else Carradine's Lucifer wins.  Meanwhile, Mitchell plays a goofy scientist who makes ridiculous contraptions and flatulent robots, two adult male actors have child's voices, one woman is only allowed to wear a bikini, and Rathbone's skeleton is its own character.  It is a painful mess of juvenile slapstick, (and whatever the hell else is going on), and should advisably be avoided at all costs.

 

DIABOLICAL PACT

(1969)

Dir - Jaime Salvador

Overall: WOOF

 

Mexican horror continues its seemingly unwavering streak of mad scientist romps with Diabolical Pact, (Pacto diabólico); a Jekyll and Hyde knock-off that has some hilarious scenery chewing from John Carradine but is otherwise worthless.  Though the veteran actor spent the last several decades of his career appearing in low-rent nonsense such as this for a quick and easy paycheck, he still maintains an air of professionalism even when delivering preposterous dialog, (dubbed here by a Mexican actor), and participating in laughably stupid scenarios.  For this round, he plays a doctor who needs eyeballs or something to work the kinks out of his old friend Dr. Jekyll's duality formula, but the screenwriters spent less time thinking about the specifics that you do trying to understand them.  Sadly, Carradine takes a backseat for the majority of the film as a younger version of himself ala Hyde quickly shows up to do little more than drink a potion, grow hair on his body, go back to normal, and then stand in rooms talking to other characters in the least engaging manner possible.  It is a colossal bore and one that is very low on violence, sleaze, or anything entertaining even on a camp level save for some of Carradine's noble efforts to camp it up.

 

LAS VAMPIRAS

(1969)

Dir - Federico Curiel

Overall: MEH

 

Cone-bra/spandex suite-wearing vampire babes and an undead John Carradine square off against Mexican lunchador Mil Máscaras in Las vampiras, (The She Vampires, The Vampires, The Vampire Girls), a stupid and largely boring genre romp that still manages to be a hoot in some respects.  Máscaras plays a crime-fighting version of himself who is never seen without one of his dozens of masks on, assisting the police in their criminal investigations even when he is laughed out of the office by bringing up supernatural scenarios.  He generally has the charisma of a beefy landmass who prefers to stand still without saying much of anything, but at least his countless costume changes are fabulous.  Even though he spends half of the movie in a literal cage, Carradine is given the much more hammy role of a presumably moron-brained vampire who turns out to be merely faking his mental illness in an absurdly illogical scheme to become king of his nocturnal species once more.  A good portion of the running time is made up of undead vixens dancing and flapping their batwings around, as well as a five minute wrestling match early on, plenty of stagnant shots of cars either driving around or parked, and a whole lot of repetitive dialog.  It is silly enough to point and laugh at, (plus Carradine seems to be having a ball), so its dumbness is of the harmless variety.

 

LA SEÑORA MUERTE

(1969)

Dir - Jaime Salvador 

Overall: MEH

 

John Carradine wrapped up his time in Mexico filming low-rent horror cheapies with La señora Muerte, (Madame Death, The Death Woman), where he once again plays a mad scientist and opens the movie up as himself.  A dull, proto-slasher that calls to mind Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace in the fact that some vibrant color schemes are used and the killer picks off models or other fashion show employees, it also has its share of lackluster and silly qualities.  Carradine's Dr. Favel has a dim-witted, mute, hunchbacked assistant who is prone to rape and he also easily manipulates Regina Torné into murdering young, attractive women for their blood in a flimsy promise to bring her husband back to life, all after half of her face gets disfigured only whenever the plot needs it to be.  The running time is bogged-down by police inquiries where we know that the people who are being interrogated are innocent, plus there are several completely unnecessary fashion show sequences that serve no other purpose than to allow the viewer a chance to go to the bathroom without missing anything.  Throw in a laughably abrupt ending and a positively odd musical soundtrack and it certainly amounts to some goofy stuff.