Tag Archives: 1977

2021 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 10: The Inquisition, aka Inquisición (1977)

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DAY 10 — RITUALS: It’s good to have a routine, even if it’s evil.

It’s an “Antichrist” movie because I say so!

The 1970s were a time of “witchhunting,” with such film as Michael Reeves’s The Conqueror Worm (1968), Michael Armstrong’s Mark of the Devil (1970), Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971), and Otakar Vavra’s Witchhammer (1970). So Paul Naschy answered call — to the exploitative extreme — with his Spanish-Italian produced directorial debut (very loosely) based on Spain’s Grand Inquisitor Toma de Torquemada — who advocated burning the guilty at the stake. Naschy — again, in his debut behind the camera — does a solid job in scripting the serious-classic side of the subject matter from the British-made Witchfinder General (aka The Conqueror Worm) with the sleazy-trash side of the German-made Mark of the Devil — without delving into the Ken Russell arty or Vavra exactness — with a nudity and gore-filled romp rife with solid, period-correct set design.

As plague and pestilence ravages 16th century France, Paul Naschy’s sexually depraved and spiritually corrupt Bernard de Fossey (who can teach a lesson or two in the depraved shenanigans department to Vincent Price, Herbert Lom, and Oliver Reed in their respective films) leads a trio of witch hunters who strike fear in the countryside as they judge, torture and condemn those they suspect of witchery. While staying at the home of the local magistrate, de Fossey falls in love with his host’s daughter, Catherine, who, in turn, is in love with another. When her lover is murdered by thieves (paid for by de Fossey), she makes a pact with The Devil (Paul Naschy, in a dual role, as our resurrected faux-Antichrist; he appears in a third role as The Grim Reaper) to extract revenge.

What’s great about Naschy’s scripting, here, is the ambiguity.

Sure, de Fossey is a sadist out to satiate his fleshly desires, but he believes what he does is truly called on by the Lord. (Remember: Adolf Hitler, while inherently evil, neither saw himself as such, but a just man in a cause for the common good of Germany’s citizens.) Then there’s Catherine, who, so as to deal with her depression and nightmares over her lover’s death, allows herself to be doped up by Mabille, the local witch-alchemist — who may or may not be a witch (with lesbian tendencies) — using Catherine as a vessel to kill de Fossey. So, is Catherine really possessed by The Devil and did she really conjure-resurrect Him, or is she simply psychotic? Then there is Renover, the local town (one-eyed) rapist. His rejection-fueled misogyny, which rather see those he lusts after burn at the stake than to be with anyone else, fills up the dungeons with plenty of (fully) naked women — their bare breasts ready for (nasty) torture, as well as rack stretchings and charcoal burnings.

Naschy’s scripting, albeit more graphically than it should be (be prepared to close your eyes for the rotating gear/breast-clipping device), balances the perverted dichotomy practiced in the name of Catholic Church (again, back to the sick bastard that was Torquemada) with the ongoing quest of female liberation — who still need to sell their souls to men (or The Devil, in this case), to be “liberated.”

To say I love the pseudo-Hammer and Amicus Brit-vibes of Inquisition is an understatement. It’s a well-researched, well-made, historically accurate and intelligent film that ranks alongside Naschy’s interpretations of the atrocities of Gilles de Rais in two of my personal, Naschy favorites: Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973) and Panic Beats (1983) — with an honorable mention to his zombie-apoc’er, The People Who Own the Dark (1975). Otakar Vavra’s previously mentioned Witchhammer chronicles the real life exploits of serial killer, uh, Witchfinder Inquisitor Boblig von Edelstat, who cut a horrific swatch across 1600’s Czechoslovakia.

The trailers are age-restricted, so you can watch them as account log-ins on You Tube HERE and HERE.

The Mondo Macabro Blu-ray on Inquisition— as is the case with all of their Naschy reissues — is excellent, with its features of an introduction by Paul Naschy, an interview with star Daniela Giordano (as Catherine), an audio commentary by Rod Barnett and Troy Guinn from The Naschycast, and the inclusion of Blood and Sand, a mini-documentary on Spanish horror films.

For the true Paul Naschy fan in you — oh, it’s in each and every B&S About Movies reader, admit to it — pick up the two-box Shout Factory! The Paul Naschy Collection. (One day, we’ll crack these open and review them, in full.)

The five discs of set one features:

VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES
HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB
BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL
NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF
HUMAN BEASTS

The five discs of set two features:

HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE
THE DEVIL’S POSSESSED
THE WEREWOLF AND THE YETI
EXORCISM
A DRAGONFLY FOR EACH CORPSE

In addition to an upload of Blood and Sand on You Tube, there’s also an upload of the feature-length documentary on Paul Naschy’s career, The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry, which we reviewed, HERE. Also be sure to check out our “Exploring: Paul Naschy and El Hombre Lobo” chronicle on Naschy’s love of portraying The Wolfman.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.

Achtung! The Desert Tigers (1977)

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Okay, we are cheating with this review.

This Nazisploitation entry isn’t — officially — on the U.K.’s “Video Nasties” list that we’ve been reviewing all this week, but after showing the B&S love for expatriate American actors Richard Harrison and Gordon Mitchell in our review of Three Men on Fire (1986) — along with this theme week’s “official nasties” reviews of Lee Frost’s Love Camp 7 (1969), Sergio Garrone’s SS Experiment Camp (1976; whose artwork this film pinches in its VHS reissues), and Cesare Canevari’s Gestapo’s Last Orgy (1977) — you can’t overlook this Luigi Batzella warm up for his notable nazisploitation’er The Beast in Heat, aka SS Hell Camp, aka S.S. Experiment Camp 2 (1977).

Batzella’s resume is a slight one: Out of the 15 films he wrote, he directed 10 — sometimes under the celluloid de plume of Yvan, aka Ivan, Kathansky. Of those — most of which are stock footage mash-ups — we care about two: the Gothic horror Nude for Satan (1974) (that, for my money, screams “Bill Van Ryn must review this for the site!”) and the aforementioned The Beast in Heat. (Okay, three: The Devil’s Wedding Night, his 1973 Gothic take on the Lady Dracula legend.) And as for Richard Harrison: I’m just happy to see him in a film without “Ninja” in the title (he did 19 of them, thanks to the Philippines film industry, if you’re counting).

The movie isn’t as shocking as the theatrical one-sheet

So, if you’re a fan of The Beast in Heat — and expecting your rocket to leave the pocket, stow that flesh torpedo, my friend. For the caveat emptor, here, is that Batzella pulls back the reins on this Nazi warm-up, loosening ever so slightly to see just how far he can push the bad taste. (Then, if you know his next Nazi ditty, he lets the reins go for full-on sleaze.) So, this time, don’t be duped by the “shocking” theatrical one-sheet or the “Nazisplotation” genre description, for this is just another World War II flick, one that’s heavily influenced by John Sturges’s The Great Escape (1963) — via about 20 minutes of (well-shot, well, sort of) stock footage (from who knows where) of a North Africa war campaign on a German Tank division and the sabotage of a desert fuel depot.

Then the proceedings take a hard left turn into the “women in prison” genre, because well, by this cinematic point: when we see Nazis, we’re home video-conditioned to expect sexploitation — with heaping helpings of gratuitous nudity (breasts and triangles of death), brutal whippings, and yes, as always, at least one castration (after the fact) and the old urine-is-whiskey gag.

While you wouldn’t know it from the stock footage, Richard Harrison’s U.S. Major Lexman was in charge of that desert raid of blazing flame throwers. Now Lexman’s thrust into the middle of a coed POW camp run by Gordon Mitchell’s Kommandant von Stolzen. Of course, any good camp commandant must have a lesbian sidekick with a medical degree . . . and Dr. Lessing, of course (Lea Lander, of Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace and Rabid Dogs, the Italian Exorcist rip The Tempter), loves her leather strips to whip out the pain upon Jewish and Arab women with sadistic equality. Oh, and Lesser enjoys a bit of the ol’ whip across her own flesh from time to time by way of her sexy, Jewish nurse. Oh, and we can’t forget about Lessing’s obsessions with the “hygiene” of her charges via a nice, hard scrubbing on what is best described as a “shower stockade,” or something. And yada, yada, yada . . . Major Lexman teams up with the camp’s Brits to take Lessing as their hostage and make their “Great Escape,” with the German’s hot on their trail.

Oh, do we care about the romantic subplot of Lessing’s nurse cheating on her with an American G.I. (expatriate American actor Mike Monty of my beloved Philippines junk flicks!) in on the escape . . . that gets Lessing hot and bothered in a tongue-wagging and breast fondling delight?

Nope. I’m bored.

So, amid the 80-minutes stock and dubbing and mismatched scenes, we get about 20 minutes of the sleazy Nazizploitation we came for vs. the 60 minutes of World War II war beeboppin’ and scattin’ that we didn’t come for — perhaps if it was original footage shot for the film and not by stock footage . . . nah, this is a Luigi Batzella production and he is Italy’s “Godfrey Ho” in my cinematic eyeball; he’d never pull off any original war footage.

And the music . . . well, I’ll be 12-barred déjà vu’d . . . this movie is now truly complete, as that’s Marcello Giombini’s soundtrack from my ol’ Uncle Alfonzo Brescia’s Star Odyssey!

One of the most infamous Nazi baddies!

So, you need to complete your Richard Harrison and Gordon Mitchell two-fer fix? In addition to Three Men on Fire and Achtung! The Desert Tigers, look for the Turkish-made (back by Italian money) Four for All (1974), the German-made Natascha: Death Greetings from Moscow (1977), and again with Luigi Batzella in Strategy for the Death Mission, aka Black Gold (1979). And for you Fred Olen Ray fans — and aren’t we all — the duo cameos in Evil Spawn (1987). Yes, Olen Ray with Harrison and Gordon. And the brain whirling dervishes in a junk cinema delight.

You can watch Achtung! The Desert Tigers as an age-restricted freebie on You Tube (whateva . . . it’s not that “nasty,” kiddies). Don’t forget that there’s more Nazisploitation to be had with the genre documentary Fascism on a Thread: The Strange Story of Nazisploitation Cinema (2020).

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.

Jungle Holocaust, aka Cannibal (1977)

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As Sam the Bossman pointed out in his review of Cannibal Holocaust: Jungle Holocaust is where Ruggero Deodato cut his teeth on the human flesh eating film — bringing along Me Me Lai (her second of three cannibal flicks; the first was Umberto Lenzi’s Sacrifice!; the final was Lenzi’s Eaten Alive!), Ivan Rassimov (also of Eaten Alive! and The Humanoid) and Massimo Foschi, (the Italian voice of Darth Vader, 1977’s Nine Guests for a Crime) — and pretty much cemented the genre with that film’s 1980 release.

Jungle Holocaust was originally slated to be directed by Umberto Lenzi as a follow up to his cannibal flick progenitor, Man from Deep River (1972). Depending on how you consumed Jungle Holocaust, as an ’80s “Midnight Movie” or home video rental, it’s also known as Ultimo mondo cannibale, aka Last Cannibal World, Cannibal, and The Last Survivor.

Nice deal, Code Red.

So, what can we possibly say — as with our reviews of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead — about this film that hasn’t already been said by others, ad nauseam? However, for site prosperity — in our quest to catalog all things “video nasty” (this made it to the U.K.’s “Section 3” list) and “cannibal,” and with this being our “Video Nasties Week” tribute — let’s rip it open.

As in the 1976 King Kong remake (ugh), the greedy search for black gold sets off our horrific chain of events. When two oil prospectors and their team travel to a company outpost on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, their plane sustains damage from a rough landing. Then they discover the camp abandoned — with rotted human remains.

Then the “ensues” that we expect from cannibal flicks, begins: A team member goes missing. Booby traps — such as a large mace — are tripped. A raft built to escape down river, falls apart. People are separated. People are eaten. “Death Cap” Amanitas are foolishly consumed. People puke. There’s leech-sucking body bathing. There’s civilized human-on-native rape. People are captured, stripped, and forced to eat rotten, raw animal entrails and internal organs. There’s more cooking and consuming of humans. Cobra-venom laced spears fly. Civilized humans take to eating livers. Two men survive. One man dies.

Ah, the ratty cardboard sleeve VHS I remember. Heaven.

While shocking in my “Midnight Movie” days and 5-5-5 VHS-binging weekends with my fellow ne’er-do-well brothers reading all things Circus and Fangoria, revisiting Jungle Holocaust all these years later — and applying my now hipster-critical eye — once you take away the shock value, this really isn’t a very good movie.

Sure, it’s nasty as hell and fucking savage: but that’s all it is. There no real story or characters to latch onto. There’s barely any dialog and what dialog there is, the dub stinks. So it’s just a whole lot of running around in the jungle. There’s no deeper meaning, no takeaway from the film concerning the state of modern man invading lands — as in Werner Herzog’s superior Aguirre, the Wrath of God — that he shouldn’t; the modern vs. native juxtaposition isn’t explored.

But, being the critical hipster hypocrite that I am, I still love it; for it is the sweet smell youth.

Man, being old sucks the offal.

Ronin Flix reissued Jungle Holocaust and it’s sold out, but copies are still available in the online marketplace via other retailers. You can learn more about the Blu-ray’s technical aspects at Blu-ray.com. Sorry, no freebie streams to share. Yeah, there’s some overseas streams, but when it looks sketchy, don’t hyper that link, my friend.

We did a whole week of cannibal films with our “Mangiati Vivi Week” tribute back in February 2018. You can also learn more about the genre with our review of the documentary Me Me Lai Bites Back (2021). And there’s more “nasties” to be found with our “Section 1,” “Section 2,” and “Section 3” explorations.

About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook.

The Gestapo’s Last Orgy (1977)

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Can you get anymore “grindhouse” in the alternative titles department as Caligula Reincarnated as Hitler?

Nope.

Was this re-released in the U.K. after it’s initial “Section 1” banning?

Nope.

Italian writer and director Cesare Canevari gave us a mere nine films across 20 years, beginning in 1969. It was his final three films that received the widest distribution outside of his homeland and Europe: a piece of erotic-drama, The Nude Princess (1976), the psuedo-giallo-cum porn Killing of the Flesh (1983), and this Nazisploitation entry.


A Jewish WWII survivor revisits the ruins of a hellish concentration camp, and the memories are still vivid. How did she escape the humiliation, the tortures, and the destruction of human flesh? How did she flee from the Gestapo’s last orgy? are the questions asked in this film’s promotional materials.

That survivor, Lise Cohen, was an inmate at a special prisoner-of-war camp for female Jews, a camp run as a bordello to entertain the German officers and troops going in to battle. Commandant Conrad von Starker (Adriano Micantoni, credited here as “Marc Loud,” also of the notable 1962 Italian space slop Planets Around Us and the 1963 Goth-horror Tomb of Torture), as do all Commandants, runs the camp with iron fist — through the assistance of Alma (one of Maristella Greco’s six films; the other notable renter is the similar, 1980 Italian-Spanish women-in-prison flick Hotel Paradise). Starker’s game is instilling fear in his charges — but Lise proves to be tougher than any before her, so Straker devises even crueler experiments to make Lise yield to his desires, while Alma’s jealousy serves to increase Lise’s pain. Lise instead turns the tables and plays along with Straker’s twisted, insane atrocities, which results in her earning privileges others prisoners do not, to the chagrin of Alma, once Straker’s favorite.

While Gestapo’s Last Orgy well earns its “X” rating, it’s also a very well-made film (of the squeamish-intellectually quality of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom) and the flashback framing device of the now reformed and society-integrated Straker and Lise reuniting at the camp (the same seaside fortress seen in the 1970 Giallo In the Folds of the Flesh) to unfold the past as they explore the ruins, gives it a quality (and reminds of Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard) — and deeper meaning — that rises it above most films in the genre. Yeah, and Spain’s Eloy de la Iglesia claimed a “deeper meaning” into the terror rout by President Richard M. Nixon’s buddy, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, in the frames of The Cannibal Man (1972; itself a “U.K. Video Nasty”) . . . so your opinions on Cesare Canevari’s social commentary and subtext via his Nazisploitation narrative delivery device, may vary.

Due to the content, the trailer is only available upon account sign in to Severin Films’ You Tube page. You can purchase copies at Severin Films. You can learn more about The Gestapo’s Last Orgy as part of the genre documentary Fascism on a Thread: The Strange Story of Nazisploitation Cinema (2020).

Complete and uncut in a new, 2K Restoration from the Negative.

As of November 2021, Gestapo’s Last Orgy has been re-issued to Blu-ray by 88 Films. Sam gives you a run down with his review. Another Naziploitation entry on the U.K.’s “Video Nasties” list with a Blu restore is The Beast in Heat.

About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook.

Fight for Your Life (1977)

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The racist language used by William Sanderson — yes the guy from TV’s Newhart — as he attacks a black family is probably why this movie ended up as a section 1 video nasty. I first discovered this movie thanks to Cinema Sewer, which is where I learned of many a disreputable film.

Sanderson plays Kane, a hate-fuelled racist who somehow has found it in his heart to break out with an Asian man and a Mexican fellow, so there’s that. They break into the home of kindly Ted Turner (Robert Judd, who was Scratch in the non-Britney Crossroads) and proceed to use every racist term in the book when they aren’t beating down the black family.

Director Robert A. Edelson refused to do a commentary track when this was re-released by Blue Underground but he was kind enough (I guess) to an interview in Steven Thrower’s Nightmare USA in which he re-watched the film with his maid Dorothy. So…yeah. He only made one other movie, The Filthiest Show in Town.

Much like how the old Mom and Dad theatrical showings used to divide up audiences, the marketing of this film had black and white versions, including the title Staying Alive that was just for black audiences and unique trailers for each race. There’s also a trailer that’s just a still photo with no sound at all for thirty seconds, then the title and rating. Wild.

Many of the video nasties seem quaint today, as you ask yourself, “Why did they ban this?” This is the kind of virulent piece of hate that wouldn’t even get near a screen these days. Sure, it ends up with the catharsis of seeing the criminals pay for all of the verbal and physical terror that they unleash, but man…getting there is none of the fun.

The Beast In Heat (1977)

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I have no idea who this section 1 video nasty was made for. It presents a world in which all of Europe feels stretched across ten city blocks, where German soldiers have Southern redneck accents and Dr. Ellen Kratsch (Macha Magall, Private House of the SS, The Daughter of Emanuelle) believes that her creation — the titular beast (Salvatore Baccaro, who used the amazing stage name of Boris Lugosi in Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks; his IMDB acting roles are often things like “Neanderthal Man” and “Neanderthal Prisoner” and “Lupo cattivo” which means “Bad Wolf”) — can help her move upward in the German army hierarchy by assaulting female prisoners one at a time and being dosed on large quantities of Germanic Spanish Fly.

I’m not saying it’s a good plan. It’s a plan. It’s just…I have no idea how it’s scaled for success.

beast-in-heat-the-300l

Also known as SS Hell Camp, SS Experiment Part 2 and Horrifying Experiments of SS Last Days, this is a movie that knows that it doesn’t have much to offer the world in terms of art, so it piles on the mayhem, like people’s fingernails being ripped clean off and a monster that seems to subsist on a diet of pubic hair.

Director Luigi Batzella started his career directing The Devil’s Wedding Night alongside one of our site’s patron saints, Joe D’Amato. He also made Nude for Satan, Kaput Lager – Gli ultimi giorni delle SS (Achtung! The Desert Tigers) and Strategia per una missione di morte. He directed this movie under the name Ivan Kathansky, which suggests the menace of Russia telling us of the doings of the last war, I guess.

Using war scenes cut from Batzella’s 1970 film Quando suona la campana (When the Bell Tolls), the lone American on hand is Brad Harris as the priest who everyone wants to either make love to or kill, but he’s too busy trying to ask God what to do. I mean, your enemies do stuff like throw babies in the air and machine-gun them as well as place rats on a woman’s stomach and then have a metal chamber heated so the rats eat through their victim. But by all means, ask God what the right thing is to do.

Unlike most of the video nasties that concentrate on sadistic sex, this one didn’t upset me because it’s just so patently ridiculous, so clumsily made and, well, so driven to entertain you by any means possible and necessary.

Beast in Heat Fascism

You can get a copy of The Beast in Heat from Severin and it comes complete with the great documentary Fascism On A Thread – The Strange Story of Nazisploitation Cinema, along with an interview about the genre with Stephen Thrower, who is always beyond insightful. Another Nazisploitation effort also now out on Blu-ray for November 2021 is Gestapo’s Last Orgy.

Tutti defunti… tranne i morti (1977)

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After The House with the Laughing Windows, Pupi Avati decided to make fun of the giallo while also sending out gothic horror and Agatha Christie while bringing back most of the cast from that past giallo masterwork.

The results are…mixed to say the least.

An author named Dante is trying to sell a book all about the noble families of Emilia-Romagna to the descendants of the very rich and elite he’s written about. Yet when he arrives at their castle, he learns that one of their number has already died. Seeing as how his book has a dreadful prediction that there will be nine deaths and only one of the family will survive. That survivor will gain the key to a treasure, which seems to be the reason why the killing has started.

The writers — Avati along with his brother Antonio and Gianni Cavina — and the actors were trying to outdo one another with outrageousness, but a lot of the slapstick falls flat. Maybe it was a much more fun movie to make than it is to watch.

Alternatively known as Nine Deaths a Week and All Deceased Except the Dead, this movie feels like if it had been a bit more serious, it would have been a lot better. Too bad Avati was mad about being compared to Polanski, so he decided to make his own The Fearless Vampire Killers.

Nove ospiti per un delitto (1977)

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I get it — 1977 is late for the category and Ferdinando Baldi is better known for making weird westerns — like Get Mean and Blindman with Tony Anthony, not to mention two 3D movies with the very same actor, Comin’ At Ya! and Treasure of the Four Crowns — than giallo. But hey. when you’re trying to watch every one of them made, you watch them all.

Known in Italy as A Scream in the Night, in Spain as Death Comes From the Past and Nine Guests for a Crime in other markets, this movie follows the Agatha Christie model of nine people — wow the title actually is logical — showing up on an island that has a killer stalking about.

Well, get this. There are thirteen murders in a movie with nine guests, so how about that?

A wealthy family has departed for a two-week break at their private island estate, which primarily involves plenty of balling, as The Pink Angels trailer would say. Ubaldo (Arthur Kennedy, who won a Best Supporting Actor Tony for Death of a Salesman and was nominated for five Oscars before making movies like The Humanoid, The Sentinel, Cyclone and being one of the worst cops ever in The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) has taken his new wife Giulia (Caroline Laurente, who played three different roles in Emmanuelle 2, 3 and 7) along with his sister Elizabeth (Dania Ghia, Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eye), his sons Michele (Massimo Foschi, Holocaust 2000) and his wife Carla (Sofia Dionisio, Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man), Walter (Venantino Venantini, Beast in Space) and his bride Patrizia (Loretta Persichetti) and Lorenzo (John Richardson, Black Sunday) and Greta (Rita Silva, Gunan, King of the Barbarians).

Michele has been doing two-person pushups with his stepmother. Walter has been threading the needle with Greta. But then Baldi goes from ripping off Bava’s Five Dolls for an August Moon — which yes, is also a Christie pastiche — into full A Bay of Blood and even the supernatural theory that Elizabeth’s dead lover Carlo is back from the dead (and the Tarot reading sequence, which gets stolen even better in Antropophagus).

This movie has reminded me that I want nothing to do with rich people or island vacations. Nothing ever works out and I’d rather stay alive and undramatic for the short period I do have left in this dimension.

La Mansion de las 7 Momias (1977)

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Everyone knows Santo. Most people may know Blue Demon. But this one has Superzan in it.

Superzan* was created by Rogelio Agrasánchez to be a movie luchador, but don’t judge him. Aftet all, Huracán Ramírez, Neutrón and Sombra Vengador all got their start in the movies before they became real wrestlers.

Tinieblas was originally cast to play the character in Superzán El Invencible, yet delays led to wrestling becoming more important for him. He introduced the producers to Alfonso Mora, who took over he role for half of the first movie and then totally became Superzan. He was trained by Dick Medrano and El Gladiador, often teaming with Tinieblas and wrestling in Guatemala. After a short comeback to introduce El Hijo de Superzan, a wrestler who was not truly his son. Instead, it was Rafael Garcia Sanchez, whose father was the exotico Bello Greco and later Karis La Momia in AAA. He eventually got the gimmick that made him an international star as Super Calo (he also wrestled as El Greco Jr., El Diabólico Chucky, Love Warrior and Jordy Stone, as he is the brother of Chris and Alan Stone).

Anyway, Superzan and Blue Demon teamed up in this movie to battle Satan himself, who was quite ably assisted by a literal cadre of mummies. More than seven, let me tell you that much.

We start at the funeral of Sofia’s father, during which she is dismayed to hear her father begin narrating the story of his life. If you think it’s kinda crazy that obviously Laurie Strode can hear the music in Halloween 2, just imagine how absolutely extraña it is to hear a dead man give exposition and one of the characters be able to hear it!

The curse that cost his life has now been passed on to his daughter. And to make matters worse — or more interesting — she’s also inherited his mansion, which sits on top of a treasure chest full of cursed gold. Yes, anyone who claims that gold must give his or her soul to Satan, who totally wants people to come and get it.

So, one of Satan’s men makes a challenge to Sofia that she must conquer three challenges in order to obtain her father’s inheritance. And oh yeah, go into the Mansion of the 7 Mummies. If only her wrestling boyfriend Rodrigo just hadn’t been wacked about the head by a hunchback with a shovel! Luckily, his friends Superzan and Blue Demon show up to help.

The first challenge to Sofia is choosing one of seven doors. Only one has the jeweled scepter that will allow her into the mansion. The other six? Death. I mean, those are bad odds, yet our heroine and her friend Isabella go for it. Just when Sofia finds the right door, seven mummies appear out of nowhere and descend on her and her friend. And that’s when our masked men show up and save the day, bringing the joy to our hearts that can only come from luchadors beating the sand out of mummies before Sofia finally grabs the scepter.

I neglected to reveal that there is also a bad guy who is an old woman in a wheelchair and that there is a horrible comic relief character named Manolín whose death you will beg for.

So where did these mummies come from? Well, it turns out the Sofia’s ancestor — back in the days of the conquistadors — had made a pact with the devil to gain wealth at the cost of his people. He tried to stop the pact with an exorcism, but his seven most trusted servants all turned on him and they are the mummies we’re up against today. Oh yeah — in case you wonder why Sofia wants the treasure so badly, which seems against character, she hopes that by giving it back to the descendents of who the money was originally taken from, she can break the curse. Hey, get that. Reparations actually make sense. Hmm — what a concept.

Without any further exposition, our heroine must cross a swamp to grab the head of her long dead ancestor, while also battling her now possessed boyfriend. Yes, a flying zombie mummy head that wants to kill her!

As for the last challenge, well, it’s basically a battle royal against Satan and all the mummies. The odds are, as always, never on the side of good.

Director Rafael Lanuza also made Superzan y el niño del espacio and  El triunfo de los campeones justicieros. He’s working from a script by Rogelio Agrasánchez, who was behind plenty of lucha movies, but you should seek out his totally weird Macabre Legends of the Colony.

You can watch this on YouTube on the White Slaves of Chinatown channel, which always has something interesting.

If you wonder, haven’t I seen a movie where luchadors fight mummies, you may have been watching Los Momias de Guanaujuato, El Robo de los momias de Guanajuato, El Castillo de los momias de Guanajuato, Las momias de San Ángel or even The Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy. Or perhaps Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy.

*If you need lucha info, always go to Luchawiki.

Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977)

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Take a look at that poster for this and ask yourself: Is Dean Jones giving Don Knotts a physical or mental stroke?

Dean is back from the first movie as Jim Douglas and Knotts is his mechanic Wheely Applegate and together with the car who can kinda be a person, Herbie the Love Bug, they’re racing in the Trans-France Race from Paris to Monte Carlo, a distance of 594 miles.

Somehow, this movie was such a big deal that Mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley proclaimed July 11, 1977 as “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo Day” and a parade on Hollywood Boulevard led to Mann’s Chinese Theater where the car’s tire prints were made in the cement.

The opponents in this race include Bruno Von Stickle (Eric Braeden, Victor himself), Claude Gilbert (Mike Kulcsar) and feminist Diane Darcy (Julie Sommars). Herbie pretty much has a car boner for her car Giselle, which leads to all manner of hijinks that include Herbie trying to lose the race to win that car over.

Can cars be people? You have to accept that if Herbie is going to work for you. How do these cars get human feelings? Have they become self-aware? Are they the possessed souls of dead race drivers trying to win one more race so they can get to the other world? Am I reading too much into a Disney formula comedy from 1977?

Not only do the humans and the cars get together, but there’s also a jewel theft subplot. I am certain that when I saw this at the drive-in as a five-year-old, I could care less about the humans holding hands and the cars holding doors and just wanted Herbie to drive through a lake and upside down through a tunnel. Things were simpler for movie-watching Sam back then.