jadavix This is the first movie in which Paul Naschy, born Jacinto Molina, donned the werewolf attire to play Waldemar Daninsky, a Pole afflicted with lycanthropy. Naschy wrote the screenplay but was actually not the first choice to play the role that would make him world famous - that would be the immortal Lon Chaney Jr.In this first outing a gypsy couple resurrect another lycanthrope - the werewolf Imre Wolfstein (not Frankenstein - in spite of the film's American title, there is no Frankenstein in this film) who begins killing with savagery. Daninsky is able to stop him, but not before becoming afflicted with lycanthropy himself, here represented in a mark the shape of a pentagram, whereas in other hombre lobo films it was a pentagon - perhaps because that shape is easier to draw?Daninsky seeks help to cure his condition from a pair of occultists who turn out to be vampires, and this is where the movie became confusing for me. What do vampires want with werewolves, anyway? And why do they resurrect Wolfstein (again) so that Daninsky and the other lobo can fight? The actor who plays the male vampire seems unsure of his role as well. He flaps his cape around a bit too much, perhaps looking for inspiration, or distraction for the audience noticing his uncertain eyes. There had to be a reason why the vampires were included aside from plotting. Did the producers or distributors demand it? Either way, el hombre lobo was pitted against the nosferatu in further Daninsky offerings that more than make up for the uneven spectacle we get here. Check out Werewolf Shadow and The Craving if you don't believe me.

MartinHafer This film starts off hilariously bad. First, there is some little prologue about vampire curses and the Frankenstein family becoming were-wolves--now they are the 'Wolfsteins'! Then, as the film opens, you see a ball--at which point, two men do A LOT of exposition--in other words, through their conversation (which sounds totally fake), they explain all the back story. It's really dumb and a terrible way of film making--and boded very poorly for the rest of the film. Soon, satanism was tossed into the mix. About the only things NOT in the first 3-5 minutes of the film were mummies or zombies and I held on---waiting to see if they, too, would be in the movie! Well, soon two old ladies begin talking--again, it was all exposition. They talked and talked about Count Waldemar Daninsky--telling all about him, his family, etc.. Couldn't SOMEONE in the film have a normal conversation that was NOT telling the audience the back story of various characters?!?! Sloppy....very, very sloppy.A bit later, a gypsy and his very buxom girlfriend are stranded in the rain. The Count advises them to take cover in a nearby castle--Wolfstein castle! Once there, they begin looking the old and seemingly abandoned home. They take to opening up family tombs and robbing the dead. However, one corpse looks pretty fresh and when they remove the silver cross-like dagger, he comes to life as a wolf-man and kills them. It was a neat scene--at least until the end, when the lady spasmodically writhes like a go-go dancer who is magnetized to the wall!! Pretty dumb.After these two get torn to pieces, the villagers and the Count go looking for the wolves that supposedly did this grisly deed. The Count is bitten during the hunt...and he's cursed to be a were-guy. Soon we see Count Waldemar turning into a were-wolf--in one of the worst transformation scenes I've seen. "The Were-wolf of London" and "The Wolf-man" did this much better--several decades earlier. His friends try to help him through this, but they seem powerless to do anything.A bit later, Dr. Janos Mikhelov and his wife arrive. They claim to be able to perhaps cure Waldemar! In the meantime, they chain him up so he can't hurt anyone--a prudent thing that they never seem to get around to doing in other films. BUT, unfortunately, it's not because they are saints. On the contrary, they are satanists who wish to use their unearthly powers to turn Waldemar into a servant of Satan! If this doesn't sound dumb enough, later you learn that the Mikhelovs are, in fact, vampire satanists!!!! And, in a never-ending need to feed and make more vampires, they decide to make the moves on Waldemar's friends. In the end, Waldemar takes on the satanist-vampires and it's, of course, a fight to the death (or at least, death for the undead).Overall, the story is bizarre and suffers from the kitchen sink approach--they toss everything into the plot and hope it all works. It isn't a terribly inspired approach and the dialog bogs the film down horribly. However, the film does have creepy music and a nice creepy look to it, so for the less demanding horror fan out there, there is probably enough to merit seeing it. All others, though, should stick to the better monster films from Universal and Hammer--they are light-years ahead of this one.

clint2442000 Despite my summary, the DVD version from Rareflix may be worth buying only for the extras: Sam Sherman's interesting commentary on film distribution rigors to drive-in theaters during the 1960's and early 1970's, and the added original promotional trailers and a copy of the original movie poster inside the DVD box. We learn the reasons Sherman fraudulently hyped this movie as a "Frankenstein" film, as even the title would suggest, despite the fact Frankenstein appears nowhere in the film. I recall when this theater played at the local drive-in in Madison, WI in 1971 when I was a kid. My neighbors, who went to the film, which was on a triple bill with two Hammer Dracula pictures, endlessly complained how the advertising was a complete "rip off" as it was an lousy werewolf movie containing no Frankenstein. Obviously, they did not recommend it, but I remained intrigued all these years only due to that great movie poster referenced above. Sherman states on the commentary that he believed at the time people would see what a good film it was and "forgive him" for the misleading Frankenstein promotion. After buying and viewing the DVD a few weeks ago, I disagree. The film itself is a complete bore, with a plot about as interesting as it is comprehensible. Like many Euro horror pictures of the time, we have a constant repetition of a few seconds of action abruptly interrupted by more inane plot. I'm sure many people's heads were nodding inside of their cars trying to stay awake while attempting to watch this flick at U.S. drive-ins in the 1970's. Again, only interesting as a period piece to catch the kind of unambitious, over-hyped trash all too often once shoveled into drive-in theaters by distributors like Independent-International. Sam Sherman's company nonetheless did bring a handful of good movies to the drive-ins. "Satan's Sadists" comes to mind. This surely ain't one of them.

preppy-3 When I was in high school (the late 1970s) a local TV station showed this on Saturday afternoons constantly with "Dracula vs. Frankenstein". As a teenager I LOVED this! My memories on the plot are kind of vague, but it went something like this: A man is cursed with becoming a werewolf. He has already killed a few people. He hears of a count who can (perhaps) cure him. The count and his wife come--but they're both VAMPIRES!!!BTW--Frankenstein has nothing to do with this movie. The American distributor had promised theatre owners a film with the names "Frankenstein" and "Terror" in the title. Then they got this werewolf-vampire one. So the American version has a silly prologue linking the Frankenstein family to the werewolf!!!Sounds ridiculous but it's played so serious it actually is a lot of fun to watch. The effects (for the 1970s) were good and, surprisingly, this got a PG rating despite some pretty gory parts. Also this played uncut on TV. The acting was actually pretty good and I distinctly remember being terrified by the vampires.I heard the original Spanish one runs 10 minutes longer and was in 3-D and stereo sound! We'll never see that here probably and this version seems to have disappeared completely. Too bad. It was a fun, silly horror film. I give it an 8. Maybe Anchor Bay will find a version of this to release soon.