Da lacht die Gänsehaut

House of Terror (1959)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Mexican horror film has a group of thieves stealing a mummy (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and handing it over to a weird scientist. The scientist removes the mummy's bandages, which causes it to turn into a werewolf (also played by Chaney). This is the complete, unedited Spanish film but clips of this were used in Jerry Warren's American film Face of the Screaming Werewolf. This version I had to view without subtitles so I'm sure I missed some of the jokes going on inside the museum but even with the lack of subs the film wasn't too bad, although I prefer the American version due to how crazy it is.

Mexican comedian, Tin-Tan, made a number of spoofs of Hollywood genre movies including La Casa del Terror (1960) and El Fantasma de la Opereta (1960). (Both are available on excellent DVD discs). The House of Terror is generally the one that fans go for, because it co-stars none other than Lon Chaney, Jr., as the Mummy who turns into a Werewolf! Lon could not speak Spanish, so he was given no dialogue, but he does seem to be doing his own panting and growling. And he has quite a lot of action footage, although it is Tin-Tan of course who romances the pretty girl (in this case, the lovely Yolanda Varela, whose career, alas, was drawing to a close. She married this film's producer, Fernando de Fuentes, Jr., and virtually retired). Director and co-writer Gilberto Martinez Solares, in collaboration with his brother photographer, Raul Martinez Solares, has brought off some nice action and tingling atmospheric effects, but Tin-Tan's material is somewhat below par. He spends half the film asleep – though these scenes are ten times funnier than some of his boring "comedy" routines, particularly an elongated sequence with a stammering Consuelo Guerrero de Luna.

This film essentially begins with a mad scientist by the name of "Professor Sebastian" (Yerye Beirute) attempting to reanimate dead corpses but finding absolutely no success in his endeavors. To further complicate matters, a large police effort recently been initiated to find the culprits behind the removal of those corpses from the local cemeteries. So, recognizing that his main source of supply has been temporarily negated, he quickly decides to steal a mummy from a local exhibit in order to continue his research. What he doesn't factor into his equation, however, is that this particular mummy had been previously infected with a form of lycanthropy and, when brought back to life, immediately goes on a killing spree. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this basic horror film tried to infuse a little comedy into the mix--with rather limited results as most of it wasn't really that funny and only detracted from the overall movie. At least, that's how it seemed to me. Even so, although it wasn't quite as good as it could have been without the comedic effect, I don't consider this to be a terrible film by any means, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

The first thing I have to say is I don't speak Spanish and the version I saw had no subtitling but I read the summary of the film so I knew pretty much what was going on - from everything I saw and understood about the movie it's actually a decent werewolf (& mummy) film.

Chaney gets a fairly good amount of screen time although he has no lines (from my understanding it was simply because he didn't speak Spanish). The role he was playing (the way the film played out) he didn't have to speak because he was a mummy that became a werewolf. He does get action - lots of jumping around as the werewolf.

Even if you can't understand a word of Spanish but enjoy Chaney then it's a good film to watch - just veg out in front of the TV with it.

Side note: I might have rated this film a bit higher if I understood Spanish. - Also see: Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964)

6.5/10

Lon Chaney Jr. must have been at a low point when he agreed to appear as a "mummified werewolf" in this Mexican-made movie. Since he didn't speak Spanish, he doesn't even have lines! The main star is a comic named Tin Tan. The version I watched on YouTube had an English subtitle option but the words used to translate the Spanish made no sense so I mostly ignored them. Truth to tell, there was nothing funny nor scary here making this a complete waste of time for me. But, despite that, I'm next gonna see and review Face of the Screaming Werewolf which has scenes from both this and another Mexican-made movie called La momia azteca dubbed in English...