1968
D: Enrique Lopez Eguiluz
S: Jacinto Molina
P: Emilio Foriscot
M: Angel Arteaga
C: Paul Naschy, Dianik Zurakowska, Rossana Yanni, Manuel Manzaneque, Aurora
de Alba, Julian Ugarte, Jose Nieto, Carlos Casaravilla, Gilberto Galban,
Victoriano Lopez
Eastmancolor, 70mm, 3D
Spanish-German coproduction
Running time: 90 min.
Review: A film of major importance, LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO launched the horror career of Paul Naschy and made the Spanish horror film a much more known entity than it had previously been. Naschy handles his acting chores in his first starring vehicle surprisingly well, but he still needed a couple of years to develop into an authoritative presence that could vanquish a height disadvantage and muscle out other actors for the spotlight. In some ways his youthful sheen reminds me of Michael Landon's in I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF. Unfortunately, there is almost no chemistry between him and love-interest Dianik Zurakowska. In his autobiography, Naschy speaks well of everyone on the set except her, calling her "a real bitch," and she does seem quite vapid and disinterested in the proceedings (or is merely a bad actress). Thankfully, the other major female roles are handled with sensual gusto. Rossana Yanni, who would appear in many a Naschy film, makes a striking appearance as the gypsy woman, Nascha, a name with probably the same origin as Naschy's own (taken from a Hungarian weightlifter); and Aurora de Alba, playing the Countess Wandesa, easily joins a delectable list of stunning cinematic euro-femme vampires. A slight, perhaps almost negligible case can be made that homosexuality makes an appearance in certian visuals in the film, courtesy the presence of the male vampire, Dr. Janos de Milhoff. The actor who plays this part, Julian Ugarte, certainly has facial expressions and mannerisms that hint at a "gay sensibility" (I'm using contemporary terms that would have little, if any, meaning during the time the film was made), and the strange ballet-like sequence that he performs as he leads Zurakowska away from her earthly companions near the end of the film merely underlines the effect. It would be interesting to know if Ugarte improvised here, for this "dance of the vampire," though strangely hypnotic and poetic, is rather odd and completely original to this film. But we are in the territory of werewolf movie, of course, and the interest here is in capturing and unleashing the power of the animal in man, and the fear of such unrestrained expression in the individual under the influence of the testosterone-injecting full moon. Naschy wrote the screenplay his real name, Jacinto Monlina, and his spiritual base was the Universal monster mythos, particularly the film FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, which had so affected him when he saw it at an early age. The cinematography delights in evoking mists and entrancing rainbow colors, while the frenetic music of Angel Arteaga, later used in parts of FURY OF THE WOLFMAN, tops of the rigorous proceedings to splendid effect.
Neither LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO or the American cut version FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR have ever been legally available in the United States, so fans in the US must content themselves with bootlegs of generally poor quality. The most commonly sought after version has been the German-language/English subtitled DIE VAMPIRE DES DOKTOR DRACULA, but this video has been so duped down that American Naschy fans have had to deal with sad quality at the expense of seeing the complete film. There is even a version of this video which, falsely claiming to be the most complete version, adds a scene from a later Daninsky film, EL RETORNO DEL HOMBRE LOBO! The new Manga video from Spain simply blows away all previous videos, the print is that gorgeous, though the company makes note that the original film element has suffered some deteriorate, and this deterioration is noticeable on occasion. [The Mark of Naschy site and EuroShades is offering a NTSC copy of this video for interested parties on a non-profit basis.] Seeing LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO in such a print gives us a good sense of the impact that the original theatrical presentation of stereo sound and 3D effects must have had. We can only hope that some day we will be able to see this film the way its makers had intended. The Manga video is a great starting point.
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