Las ratas no duermen de noche

Euro-cult icon Paul Naschy plays Jack Surnett, leader of a criminal gang. After a botched heist, the gang heads for the hills, and Surnett is seriously wounded by police during the getaway. Only a brain transplant can save Surnett now, and, as fate would have it, there is a professor (Ricardo Palmerola) out there specializing in that sort of thing. Surnetts' gang goes out and steals a donor brain, from none other than Surnetts' biggest rival, a goon dubbed The Sadist (Roberto Mauri). Naturally, as Surnett revives, he comes under the influence of The Sadists' brain, becoming even more depraved & violent.

This sounded like it had the makings of a solid exploitation-crime flick (with a touch of horror), but alas it's all rather flat and unexciting. Director Juan Fortuny relates the story at a snails' pace, with too many unnecessary detours. Worst of all, this is a Paul Naschy film in which Naschy BARELY APPEARS, at least until the final 20 or so minutes as Surnett begins to unravel.

There is *some* decent gore, and there are certainly *some* amusing moments (such as two henchmen, Paul (Claude Boisson) and Karl (Victor Israel) getting squeamish in regards to severing The Sadists' head. So they wait for a train to do the job for them!

The cast is good, although the English dubbing is pretty cheesy as it is for so many of these types of movies. Carlos Otero is especially effective as the pathetic Doc Ritter, while Israel, sporting glasses and a bushy mustache, amuses as the weaselly Karl.

This likely won't appeal to Naschy fans across the board, although I *will* say that, yes, it is indeed an atypical effort for the Spanish genre star. People bemoaning the dearth of sex & nudity should be aware that there IS an alternate cut running about 10 minutes longer that has more of what they want.

Six out of 10.

This is the finest bizarro Euro-exploitation piece that I have seen in a long time.

Certainly, Quentin Tarantino is a fan of this wild 1973 Franco-Spanish co-production starring horror legend Paul Naschy. Few films can successfully combine a botched jewel heist, a brain transplant and a mysterious character known only as "The Sadist." Naschy's role, though pivotal, is actually minimal, with few lines and only a few key scenes. The real story is played out by a gang of motley character types, of which the females are especially malicious and memorable.

Crimson has the right combination of impossibly contrived storyline and dazzling color visuals that one looks for in this kind of movie.

The Image Entertainment DVD (for sale on Amazon, though not linked to this page) is a sharp widescreen print, with a few nifty extras, including the alternate "erotic scenes" (not featuring Naschy, but the switch over to the bad body double is hilarious!).

Highly recommended

I am a Paul Naschy fan and he is always worth watching.

No, this will not garner any awards, but I bet it is on Quentin Tarantino's shelf. A perfect combination of crime and horror and a bit of Frankenstein thrown in, this is the perfect film to sit around and get drunk to with a group of friends.

Silvia Solar, Euro-trash veteran, and remembered for her role in at least one video nasty, is the wife of a mad scientist (Ricardo Palmerola), called upon to save Naschy, who was injured in a botched robbery.

They have to find a brain for a transplant. These hardened killers don't want to cut the head off the person they found, so they put him on train tracks to let the train do it. LOL Gilda Arancio (Zombie Lake) plays Naschy's girl, and plays a crucial part in getting the head they need, as she used to be the girlfriend of The Sadist (Roberto Mauri), the man who's brain they took.

Things don't turn out as planned - do they ever? The Sadist brain turns Naschy into a madman.

Just pure fun.

A robbery goes wrong and one of the gang, Jack (Paul Naschy), is shot in the head by the police but is taken to a doctor for some experimental brain surgery, this involves obtaining the fresh brain of a rival criminal known as The Sadist. Jack inherits his sadistic ways. French/Spanish crime thriller/horror, shot in France, it also packs in plenty of sex and nudity. Spanish barrel chested horror legend Naschy is billed under the name Paul Nash but that won't fool any fan of Euro-horror! I watched the English language version and the dubbing is hilariously bad, plus it has some very poor continuity and editing, for example a police car pulls up, the cops all jump out and open fire. Then seconds later the we see it repeated. What's more a man is shot multiple times yet not a single bullet hole can be seen! As for the sex we get this at 7, 34, 74 and 89 minutes. As is usual for the time the women get completely naked but the men (with one exception) keeps their clothes on, one man says "Don't be deceived by appearance and certainly not by women", pretty much sums up the sexism of the time. For fans of trashy Euro movies this is an enjoyable film that is in all honesty rather bad.

Crimson (1973)

** (out of 4)

Paul Naschy would often borrow elements from the Universal monster movies and he does so again, although with this film it borrows from BLACK Friday. In the movie Naschy plays a gangster who is shot in the head during a heist. His crew manages to find a doctor that could save his life but he's going to need to brain from another human. The crew decide to get the brain of a rival gangster known as The Sadist and while this transplant saves their bosses life, it also causes him to be even more dangerous to those around him. CRIMSON is also known as several other titles including THE MAN WITH THE SEVERED HEAD as well as THE RATS COME OUT AT NIGHT. Those expecting a straight horror film are going to be disappointed as will those coming into the picture expecting to see a lot of Naschy. The Euro legend gets top billing but sadly he appears in very little of the actual picture and it almost seems like his scenes weren't a part of the original screenplay and were just added to try and cash-in on his appeal at the time. CRIMSON isn't a bad movie but it is a rather needless one that doesn't add up to much in the end. I think the biggest problem is the screenplay that just doesn't know what it wants to do. The Euro-Crime genre is certainly on full display here but all of the elements are rather weak here. The stuff dealing with the gangsters really isn't interesting and you certainly never fear these guys. The horror elements are also incredibly weak because very little is done with them. Naschy has a bandage on his head, screams about his brain not working right and every once in a while he briefly acts out. He certainly doesn't get much to work with performance wise and that's true for the rest of the cast. To be fair, the English dubbing certainly doesn't help because it makes all of these tough gangsters sound like school girls. When the film was released in France it contained some more graphic sex scenes but this wasn't the version I watched but I'm going to guess that these scenes certainly livened up the picture a bit, which is something it certainly needed.