Paul
Naschy had a lot of success in a wide range of film genres,
playing an even wider range of characters, but he is mostly remembered for his
brand of gritty and beautiful Spanish gothic horror films. These movies had their
low budget and pacing issues, but there was still something so attractive about
them, with a reverence for the classic monsters, most especially the
wolfman, and the inclusion of plenty of female vampires and femme fatales in
general. Plus, with his charisma and sincerity to the material, it’s always a
joy just seeing Naschy; whenever he
makes an entrance in these movies, he causes viewers’ eyes to light up like
they’re seeing a dear old friend. For me, it was always interesting to see what
a zombie movie, or a mummy movie, or a cannibal movie, or even a giallo would
be like after getting the Paul Naschy
treatment.
It was my tendency to read other people’s takes on Paul Naschy movies, be they positive or
negative, that inspired me to eventually take up the quill to see if I’d have
anything interesting to contribute as a genre film blogger.
With Count Dracula’s Great Love, a costume
horror drama with a satiable amount of violence and eroticism that according to
Naschy in his memoirs was a critic
and box office success,* we have one of my favorite classic monsters done by one
of my favorite filmmakers. It was directed by Javier Aguirre (Hunchback of
the Morgue) but was written by Paul Naschy
who also stars as Dr. Wendell Marlow and (forgive the spoiler) Count Dracula. I
believe it is also the first in a short but notable line of horror films with Naschy and actor Victor Barrera (sometimes credited as Vic Winner or Victor Alcazar);
the other three Naschy movies with Barrera are Hunchback of the Morgue (1973), Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973), and Vengeance of the Zombies (1973).
I think It’s been too long since I last covered a Paul Naschy movie, and to make up for
this, I’ve chosen to cover one of the best and easiest to recommend, aside from
Horror Rises from the Tomb, that you
Naschy fans out there have no doubt
already seen.
Vengeance of the Zombies
aka La Rebelion de las Muertas is a
huge slice of awesome from Naschy and
director Leon Klimovsky that delivers
a good deal of bloody fun to go with its heavy-handed themes of religion,
betrayal, and vengeance, partly thanks to some extraordinary gore and plenty of
sassy female zombies in see-thru negligees who’ve managed to maintain fabulous
looking hair despite being dead and partially decayed. It’s also a Spanish
horror babe-fest, complete with some of the best from the era: Aurora de Alba (Mark of the Wolfman), Maria
Kosty (A Dragonfly for each Corpse),
my personal favorite from the movie Mirta
Miller (Count Dracula’s Great Love),
and an adorable redhead lead actress that just seems to go by Romy.
This one’s notorious for having an
off-kilter score, by Juan Carlos Calderon,
but I rather like it. I personally don’t think it’s bad; it just has a tone
that some may find mismatching. With the fearsome personality of the picture,
one could say that the upbeat, jazzy score seems intrusive and misplaced at
times, overthrowing suspense and possibly inciting failed restrained laughter
from some of the more uninitiated audience members (as an aside I want to mention that the sounds heard during the morgue scene, as the zombies rise, are some of the most eerie and unnerving I've ever heard and fit in perfectly; listen for it). But this is part of what
makes cult film so fascinating and kitsch. I was initially hooked at the
beginning when a resurrected zombie lady (Norma
Kastel) began running over concrete graves in slow motion. The credits roll
over an up-close shot of this creepy living dead woman walking a fixed distance
from the camera, as dark, reality transcending jazz music can be heard before the movie
transitions into a bright and cheerful day in London with a another hip Jazzy
piece and some embarrassingly catchy “dow-dow-dow” vocals that are a bigger
earworm than Gangnam Style. It’s my kind of way to start a horror film. Totally
off the wall!
