REVIEWED BY DAN STUMPF:


FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF Diana Films, 1960. Jerry Warren Productions, 1964. Lon Chaney Jr, Yolanda Varela, Rosita Arenas and German Valdez (Tin Tan.) Written by Juan Garcia, Gilberto Martinez Solares, Alfredo Salazar, Fernando de Fuentes and Jerry Warren. Directed by Gilberto Martinez Solares, Rafael Portillo and Jerry Warren.

   Some films amaze the viewer by the very fact of their existence; they stretch the boundaries of Cinema and Reality to become not just movies but memorable experiences in themselves. Thus it is with Face of the Screaming Werewolf.

   A bit of backstory here: In 1960 popular Mexican comedian Tin Tan (German Valdez) starred in La Casa del Terror, as a sleepy wax-museum worker whose boss is actually a mad scientist trying to raise the dead. (His failures get covered in wax and put on display; well, what else would you do with them?)

   The mad doctor brings a mummy (Lon Chaney Jr.) back to life only to find that it was actually a mummified werewolf (also Lon Chaney Jr.) Got that? Hilarity ensues as the werewolf goes on a rampage and everybody chases everybody else around in the South-of-the Border equivalent of Abbott and Costello Meet Godzilla. “And so much for that movie,” you might think.

   But a few years later, American Producer Jerry Warren bought Casa del Terror, cut out almost all of Tin Tan’s scenes, spliced in some footage from The Aztec Mummy (1957) re-dubbed the whole mess into English (of sorts) and sprang it on an unsuspecting public as Face of the Screaming Werewolf.

   The results recall the eerie surrealism of early Cocteau melded with the gritty feel of Italian neo-realism. A bit of synopsizing is in order here, so I’ll insert a “SPOILER ALERT!” even though I have see the film twice and still can’t figure it out.

   We open with a couple of doctors hypnotizing Rosita Arenas into recalling a past life as an Aztec Princess. A young boy sneaks into the lab to eavesdrop and later stows away with the doctors and Rosita when they explore the lost temple (actually a Mexican tourist spot) and find the Aztec Mummy. Who is the boy and how does he figure in the interrelationships of the other characters? We never know because he drops out of the story as the scientists discover another mummy (Lon) and take them both back to civilization for study.

   Then, as the Scientists are exhibiting their mummified relics (to other scientists I guess; the writers never bother to tell us) the lights go out, shots are fired and gangsters make away with the Lon-mummy, which turns up in the Mad Doctor’s laboratory/wax-museum, is brought back to life and promptly turns into a werewolf. Occasionally we get a glimpse of someone sleeping in the Museum, whom I later discovered was Tin Tan.

   Are you following things so far? Good, because at this point it all gets a bit confusing. The werewolf is subdued by a flashlight and locked up in the lab where it turns back into Lon Chaney Jr, looking sad and agonized as ever. Meanwhile the Aztec Mummy (remember him?) also comes back to life and carries off Rosita (remember her?) and they both get run over in traffic.

   We now cut to a pair of detectives investigating all this and we find out Rosita has a sister (Yolanda Varela.) Lon turns back into the Wolfman, breaks out, carries off Yolanda and Tin Tan charges off to the rescue.

   Clearly this is a complex story, and one that will take several viewings to fully comprehend and appreciate. I should note that the DVD I watched had some jarring breaks and hesitations toward the end that tended to vitiate the experience. I consoled myself by reflecting philosophically that I could have paid more for a better copy, but it would still be Face of the Screaming Werewolf.