La casa del terror

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

To be fair, this review is based on a Spanish language version of this Mexican horror-comedy film, without dubbing or English subtitles -- and I don't understand Spanish. But in a way, it's a credit to the movie that I still consider it an "okay" time-killer for a monster movie, despite not being able to comprehend a word of dialogue.

The main interest in viewing this is for a chance to see Lon Chaney in the parts of a werewolf and a mummy for one last time in a feature film. He doesn't have any lines anyway, so you're not missing anything there. Though this is supposed to be a comedy (and may very well be if I could register the jokes), it also plays pretty well as a straight-ahead horror feature. There's a comical character played by Mexican comic Tin Tan, who seems to hang out in a museum full of wax figures. Then later on, a really bloated mummy (Chaney) is featured on display but gets stolen by a team of scientists. Back at their laboratory they un-bandage the carcass and he turns out to be a regular guy who resembles an over-fed version of Larry Talbot from the old Universal Wolf Man pictures ... even wearing his same dark shirt and pants. When the full moon rises, Chaney is at his old stuff again, transforming into a werewolf and causing mayhem. Considering this had to be made on a low budget, it's not too badly shot. The Chaney werewolf scenes are the main reason to watch this, and Lon looks good and fierce during his initial transformation, even adding a pretty terrifying growl. Luckily there is a lot of wolf man time on display, though once he's up and stalking around it is debatable whether it's all a stunt man or sometimes a mix, with Chaney alternating in the makeup.

There's more history to this movie. Later on, hack director Jerry Warren tried his hand at Americanizing this by cutting out all the comedy, slicing the running time by about 20 minutes, dubbing it into English, and adding different scenes from some other foreign mummy movie, which made no sense and dragged on. That version can be seen under the title THE FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF, but most fans (including myself) would recommend LA CASA DEL TERROR as the more desirable of the two. It would be nice though if an English dub or subtitled version would be made available one day. Might even boost the rating by a half star. ** out of ****

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.

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...

"La Casa del Terror" was a 1959 Mexican production that managed to wrangle Lon Chaney himself to repeat two characterizations he was best remembered for during his Universal days, The Mummy and The Wolf Man, a special credit for his third billing. Only available in Spanish without subtitles, it remains watchable enough, and is perhaps preferable to its Americanized version from hack director Jerry Warren, 1964's "Face of the Screaming Werewolf," which basically used only Chaney's scenes, combined with an opening culled from "The Aztec Mummy" (1957), totaling only 60 minutes. "La Casa del Terror" in original comedic form ran 82 minutes, introducing mad scientist Yerye Beirute and his two assistants, who steal bodies for experimentation, the unsuccessful results winding up posing as wax figures ala Vincent Price's "House of Wax." Top billed Tin Tan only slows things down with his boring antics as museum caretaker with nagging girlfriend Yolanda Varela. At the 22 minute mark, Beirute learns about the exhibit of Mummy Lon Chaney, which he soon kidnaps, his electrical gadgetry turning the corpse into a normal looking fellow dressed in black. Thinking they've failed the scientists depart, after which a bolt of lightning brings Chaney to startled life, gazing at the moon outside the window, and promptly transforming into The Wolf Man in spirited Universal fashion, though looking more like Bud Westmore than Jack Pierce. For the remainder of the film, we alternate between the hirsute Chaney's wanderings, eventually kidnapping Yolanda for himself, and dreary footage of everyone else. Twice Chaney is allowed some comic business, the first when he catches his mirror reflection, echoing Glenn Strange in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," and knocking over our sadly lacking hero, who winds up clinging to a building clock like Harold Lloyd in "Safety Last" (a stuntman rather than Chaney most likely carries the heroine up the wall). It's not the most dignified dual role, in Spanish and given no dialogue, but Chaney still ably conveys the tragedy involved with the werewolf curse, and at age 53 still makes for a feral monster, looking forward in its surprisingly bloody way to Paul Naschy just 8 years away in "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" aka "La Marca del Hombre Lobo." This long unseen horror comedy sadly marked the last feature to reprise Lon's 'Baby,' The Wolf Man, his Mummy getting shortchanged in less than a minute on screen, the actor donning the makeup one final time for the 1962 ROUTE 66 Halloween episode "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing," doing The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and his father's Hunchback. After completing this obscurity in Mexico, Chaney then journeyed to Sweden to host the equally little seen teleseries 13 DEMON STREET.