Il prezzo del demonio

This is another south of the border horror flick. Actually it isn't too bad. A pianist sells his soul to the devil to become the greatest composer/conductor/musician in the world.The catch is (and there always is) that his greatest song is his downfall. Whenever he plays it he turns into a drooling snarling, hairy wild monster.(I'm not talking teenager here).

Of course maestro has a beautiful young protege that he is in love with. But he is compelled to play that funky music white boy and try to kill her.Will he kill her before she gives a world wide recital? Will the hero be in time?Will the monster break out into a rendition of "Hair"?

The dubbing on this one is much better than usual. The sets are used to a nice advantage and the musical score is well done. The acting is good(as far as you can tell from the dubbing).The monster looks like Scooby Doo in a tuxedo at times. Overall a bit above average.

"The Man and the Monster" (El Hombre y el Monstruo) was an Abel Salazar production from the prolific pen of his younger brother Alfredo, an ambitious exercise in musical proficiency that began shooting for director Rafael Baledon on June 23, 1958 (not released in Mexico for over a year). The producer once again takes the heroic lead role, his Dick Sandro coming upon the corpse of a female motorist who made the fatal mistake of crashing in front of 'Enchanted Ranch,' the home of Maestro Samuel Manning (Enrique Rambal) during a ritualistic nighttime recital watched over by his mother Cornelia (Ofelia Guilmain). The police blow off any suggestion of foul play, Manning carefully grooming young Laura (Martha Roth) as his new protégé, claiming to be unable to play piano anymore despite her assurances that his talent remains intact. The reason for his understandable reluctance is explained by the halfway point: watching his rival Alexandra (also played by Roth) earning accolades for her performance of an unpublished concerto, the envious Manning rashly calls upon Lucifer himself to make a Faustian deal in exchange for his soul, becoming the world's most accomplished pianist at the cost of his humanity, for every time he tinkles the ivories he transforms into a Mr. Hyde-like werewolf with bushy eyebrows and prominent proboscis (makeup by Armando Meyer). Once Dick discovers Alexandra's long missing corpse in a locked closet by the Maestro's piano, he starts to piece the mystery together but must rely on a brave Laura to unmask the monster that her benefactor has become during the climactic concerto. The most unbelievable aspect of the story is Laura's willingness to go on after being attacked multiple times by the Maestro/Monster, unaware that the devil made him do it! Gustavo Cesar Carrion deserves much of the film's success for his excellent musical score, several pieces of Tchaikovsky most familiar to anyone who has seen Edgar G. Ulmer's "The Black Cat." Perhaps the most heinous crime committed is the temptation to play for an aspiring child prodigy (Ana Laura Baledon), whose murder fortunately takes place off screen, lap dissolves similar to Universal's Wolf Man to effect each transformation from various difficult angles. Enrique Rambal's Maestro is no match for Lon Chaney's Larry Talbot, (both have no knowledge of what their bestial selves were up to during the night), though it appears that the powers of darkness set up Manning at poor Alexandra's expense (more deserving of audience empathy is his long suffering mother, initially cold and imperious). This was a rare horror title for lovely Martha Roth, who had previously worked opposite Chaney himself in 1954's "The Black Pirates," shot on location in El Salvador, where he was cast against type as a sympathetic priest.

A friend of mine found this DVD at a flea market, and thought the cover looked pretty cool. He popped it in while I was there, and we prepared for a gorefest. What we didn't prepare for was a 50's mexican horror about someone selling their soul. Not bad, actually, except the dubbing sounds silly sometimes, and the monster is more laughable than frightening.

However, this film gets props as having the funniest methods of having a cat jump out of a womens arms. Three times throughout the movie, a woman is holding a cat, and instead of just letting it down, the filmmakers decided to tie some fishing line to the thing, and yank it out of her arms. The funniest thing had to be the noises that came from the cat. That alone made this movie more than worth it. If you can ever find it cheap, it's worth a good laugh.

El Hombre y el Monstruo, known to English audiences as The Man and the Monster is a great little horror flick. Raphael Baledon was responsible for a few great horror films during this period and this is one of them although the makeup used on the monster is often criticized because of a lack luster job they did on it. All I can say is, if you can get passed the corny mask it's a very well made horror movie. See the monster for what he is and get into the whole faustian story of the film. I think it's very well directed, edited and photographed. THe Man and the Monster is very brooding, serious and morbid and contains all the great elements that Mexi-horror had to offer at this period. Enrique Rambal is a joy and gives a fantastic performance as the isolated, desperate and jaded man willing to sell his soul to the devil for a shot at greatness. If you like classic horror then El Hombre y el Monstruo is a perfect film for one of those evenings when your in the mood for something different.

Rafael Baledón's The Curse of the Crying Woman was practically unknown until it received a DVD release from the now defunct Casa Negra; and ever since has been considered something of a classic by the majority of horror fans that have seen it; myself included. I didn't go into his earlier film "The Man and the Monster" expecting anything near as good; and it's a good job really because while this film has its moments and is certainly a worthwhile slice of Mexican horror; it's also rather flawed and borrows from a lot of better films. The plot focuses on Samuel Magno; a failed pianist who, dismayed by his lack of talent, makes a pact with Satan himself. He gets to become the greatest pianist in the world; but the catch is that every time he plays the piano, he turns into a monster. With help from his mother (who is the only one that can tame him while he's a monster), he tries to break the curse by training a young girl in the art of the piano; but an enthusiastic journalist threatens to expose the whole thing.

The plot is fairly interesting and features enough different elements to ensure that there's always something going on. However, the film moves rather slowly and we're never really made to care about the central character, which can make plugging into his plight a problem. The central plot takes obvious influence from the classic 'Faust' story; but it doesn't work as well here. The fact that Satan makes the central character turn into a monster every time he plays the piano really just makes The Lord of Darkness seem petty since he's not actually getting any benefit from it (unlike Faust, whose soul he bought). The make up effects are not great and look rather like an over the top version of the monster effects in The Wolf Man; although I did actually find them rather easy to get on with. The film is rather artfully done and several sequences are really good; the all-explaining flashback sequence being among the best of them. Overall, this is still a decent horror film and one certainly worth seeing; but it's hardly among the best to come out of Mexico and I wouldn't give it high recommendations.