Face of the Screaming Werewolf

If you read Rudolph Grey's excellent "nightmare in ecstasy", you will find a passage that refers to Edward D. Wood Jnr. directing Lon Chaney Jr. as a wolfman climbing up the outside of a building for promotional reasons. Is this a previously uncredited entry in the Wood CV?

A bad movie can be fun--especially if the film doesn't take itself seriously or is so over the top that you cannot believe they'd make such a monstrosity. However, many times they're just bad--devoid of fun in any way. Into which category would I put "Face of the Screaming Werewolf"? Read on...

Some scientists head to Mexico for archaeological doings. There, a group of Aztecs (???) dance about in long, boring choreographed production numbers. The scientists discover a couple mummies and take them back home. For kicks, they revive one of them and it turns out he's ALSO a werewolf!! Then, after ripping off one of their friend's faces, he faints--exhausted from all that face- ripping. So what do they do? Work harder to revive the monster! And, wouldn't you know it, the other mummy wakes up and has a really bad attitude as well.

Does ANY Of this make the least bit of sense? Not at all--which isn't surprising considering the film's pedigree. Jerry Warren Productions took two Mexican films (one of which I saw and it was the god-awful original "Aztec Mummy" film--the other "House of Terror") and chopped them to pieces and added a bit of new material with a very faded American star, Lon Chaney Jr.--who at this point was a rather sad alcoholic. The film is just as awful as you'd expect given the circumstances under which it was made! And, as a result it's rather random and incomprehensible at times.

So is this one bad enough to enjoy? Yes and no. Yes, you and your friends could watch it together and laugh at how incompetent the mess of a film is. However, I also say no because it's even more fun to watch original film "The Aztec Mummy" because it's unintentionally hilarious--as are the follow-up films (especially "The Aztec Mummy Against the Humanoid Robot"!).

This film begins with a young woman by the name of "Ann Taylor" (Rosita Arenas) being hypnotized by a scientist named "Dr. Edmond Redding" (Ramon Gay) in order for her to recall a past life involving an elaborate Aztec ceremony in which she is soon to be sacrificed. Also being sacrificed at that time is an Aztec warrior whose body is subsequently mummified. Not long afterward, Dr. Redding organizes a field trip to that exact Aztec pyramid described by Miss Taylor. Once inside one of the secret chambers, however, they are attacked by an ancient mummy who they manage to subdue and subsequently transport back with them. Likewise, they also transport another mummy which appears to be more modern in appearance as well. Naturally, quite pleased with their discovery, Dr. Redding immediately calls in various members of the scientific community to show off his findings. As it so happens, however, another scientist named "Professor Janning" (Yerye Beirute) has managed to infiltrate the meeting and, after killing Dr. Redding, has his men steal the more modern mummy on display. Once the mummy is in the lab, Professor Janning tries to revive the mummy--but he is unsuccessful due to the lack of enough electricity needed for the procedure. At least, that is what he thinks. So, in his eagerness to continue his research, he hires a man to steal the ancient mummy while he and his associates deal with other matters outside of the laboratory. Meanwhile, a lightning burst from a thunderstorm reinvigorates the first mummy who then turns into a werewolf and begins to terrorize the town. At the same time, the ancient mummy is also revived and heads directly toward the home of his long-lost love--Ann Taylor. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this movie essentially spliced two previous films of Mexican origin titled "La Momia Azteca" and "La Casa del Terror" together in order to come up with something entirely new and different. Unfortunately, the result turned out to be quite bad as the two films simply didn't mesh well together at all. That being said, if the viewer is curious, I would recommend the two original films in question over this particular one as--like I said before--it is quite bad.

This is not a Mexican movie. It contains footage from two films made in México, but the concept, butchering of the original material and lousy additional scenes are the work of L. A. film peddler Jerry Warren. It is better to find good copies of the first entry of the Aztec Mummy trilogy directed by Manuel Portillo and the comedy "La casa del terror" starring Tin Tan and Lon Chaney under the direction of Martínez Solares. Both movies were very popular in their time, and with a bit of creative marketing they could have made a little more money for Warren than whatever he got from this horrid junk.

According to various sources, the hour long version of Face Of The Screaming Werewolf that I have just suffered through was cobbled together from two unrelated Mexican films, La Casa del Terror (1959) and La Momia Azteca (1957), with added footage from director Jerry Warren; this goes a long way to explain why it is a complete and utter mess from start to finish—although I have a sneaking suspicion that neither of the original Mexican films are all that great either (I'm sure I'll find out one day, being the movie masochist that I am).

It's always a tough job to summarise any film that is such a complete dog's dinner, but here goes…

Under hypnosis, Ann Taylor (Rosita Arenas) recalls a previous life where she took part in a ceremony in a pyramid in the Yucatan. Keen to investigate further, Ann accompanies a team of scientists to the ancient Mexican monument where they discover two mummies, one really old, the other more recent. Both are taken to the scientists' laboratory/wax museum (?!?!) for examination, where they come to life and wreak havoc, with the most recent specimen (played by Lon Chaney Jr.) also proving to be a werewolf. Ann is abducted by the ancient mummy and is killed, while the werewolf mummy goes on the rampage in the city before being cornered in the lab and set on fire.

In addition to the terrible editing, nonsensical story and poor acting, Face Of The Screaming Werewolf also suffers from plenty of padding, most notably the native ritual at the beginning of the film that seems to go on forever. Just think how (mercifully) short the film would have been had the editors been a bit more judicious with the scissors for that scene.