L'homme à la tête coupée

I have been a great fan of the late Spanish Horror/Exploitation legend Paul Naschy for a long time now. While not all of his films can be described as great (though some can), they are entirely entertaining. Juan Fortuny's "Las Ratas No Duermen De Noche" aka. "Crimson, the Color of Blood" (I bought it under the title "The Man With The Severed Head") of 1976 is doubtlessly one of the cheesier and more confused flicks in Naschy's wide repertoire, and yet it is an amusing little film that my fellow fans of the man might enjoy.

During a heist, a gangster (Naschy) is shot in the head. In order to safe the man's life, the members of his gang force an obsessed doctor to perform an operation which requires parts of another human being's brain. Not so cleverly, they choose to take the brain of their biggest rival, a criminal aptly named 'The Sadist'...

The film, which starts like a heist-flick, is, more or less, a Spanish 70s take on a concept popular in the classic Horror era. Films such as Karl Freund's fantastic "Mad Love" of 1935 (starring Peter Lorre) or "Black Friday" of 1940 (starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) had topics about body parts being replaced with those of brutal criminals, which inevitably lead to fatal results. Unfortunately, "Crimson" is an overall rather messy, yet very predictable film that features no surprises and a regrettably short screen-time for its star Paul Naschy. The film still guarantees a fun time, however. There are some moments of gore as well as some sleaze and female nudity (depending on which version you see). Naschy is cool as always, though his screen time is limited. One should try and get hold of the Spanish version, since the English dubbing is one of the most horrendous I have ever heard (which, then again, contributes to the 'camp' factor of the film). Overall, "Las Ratas No Duermen De Noche" is cheesy fun that is mildly recommended to my fellow Naschy-fans.

What we have here is an example of what happens when a crime film meets horror - it's a bungled heist, and the result is not jail time or dead gang members, but a transplanted head! Yep, that's the premise of Juan Fortuny's weird little horror film that features the talents of the ever-popular Paul Naschy as the lucky recipient of a radical new operation. Obviously the major inspiration for this film is Mary Shelly's all-time classic horror story 'Frankenstein' as we've got a mad scientist, a 'monster' and some new medical breakthrough. The main story focuses on the fortune of Jack Surnett, played by Paul Naschy. He and his gang decide to pull a jewel heist, but when one of them cocks up, the alarms start ringing and the cops turn up. This is bad news for Jack as he gets shot in the head and it looks like his time may be up. However, his gang aren't ready to just sit back and watch him die so they take him to their own doctor and soon it transpires that the only way to save him is a brain transplant, and the only brain available used to belong to "The Sadist"...

It's probably obvious from the plot summary, but Crimson really is a bizarre film. Quite how anyone thought these elements could come together well is beyond me, but actually the result isn't as bad as thought it might be; although it's not really as fun either. It's clear that this film was never really meant to be taken seriously and it's a good job it doesn't take itself seriously. The best thing about most of Paul Naschy's films is Paul Naschy, although that's not really the case here as he spends most of the film lying in bed. However, when he finally does get up the film really takes a turn for the better as we get to watch Naschy with a bandage round his head running all over the countryside getting up to no good. The film isn't especially gory, but there's a fair bit of that cheap looking bright crimson blood to keep horror fans happy. It's clear that the film is never really going to go anywhere, and it really doesn't...but I only saw this for a fun time and it just about delivers that much. I wont call this brilliant or a must see, but its decent stuff and I can recommend it.

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

After being shot in the head by police, a criminal (Paul Naschy) winds up in the hands of a mad doctor experimenting with transplants.

Oh no!

The drunken doctor's hands have been damaged, leaving the surgery to his wife! Through a chain of absurd events, the brain transplant is completed. This leads to the inevitable, blood-soaked finale.

CRIMSON, THE COLOR OF BLOOD is a fantastically cheeezy mix of horror and crime drama. Lovers of mad science, gore, and / or Paul Naschy should be in ecstasy over this movie!...

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.