The Age of Commercialism

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

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.

Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964)** (out of 4)Scientist make a major discovery when they uncover a mummy (Lon Chaney) but their joy soon turns to frustration when a gang of thieves steal it and turn it over to a mad scientist. The scientist then does some experiments on it, which soon has the mummy returning to life and turning into a werewolf!This Jerry Warren mash-up takes footage from the 1957 film LA MOMIA AZTECA and the 1960 film LA CASA DEL TERROR and blends them together for one cheap and quick sixty-minutes. Obviously adding subtitles to a horror film wasn't the popular thing to do back in the day so producers like Warren would buy foreign movies and then dub them or add narration. I've seen both of the original movies that this was taken from and they're both decent for what they are. You really can't give Warren any credit for what's in this film because he was more or less just an editor trying to mix up some footage and release it as something new. For the most part the film will remain interesting to monster fans as it gives you a chance to see Chaney play a mummy and werewolf for one last time.For the most part it's easy to rip this film because it is another hack job from Warren but I thought it was one of his better pieces of "work," If you're a fan of Chaney then this will be a must see since it allows you to see him in action one last time. Another problem is that LA CASA DEL TERROR is still unavailable in an English subtitled print so this is one of the few ways to understand the film (unless you know Spanish of course). FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF, at the very least, is a quick and fun monster romp that shouldn't be taken too serious.

Well, this was a fabulous as might be expected. A true mess featuring footage stitched together from two other movies, an Aztec Mummy movie and a werewolf movie. It starts with footage from the Aztec Mummy- loooooog, sloooooow footage. As the hardy band of adventurers eventually dodge all the flashbacks and enter the tomb, they cut in a shot of Lon Chaney in bad mummy makeup (his face is just done in white makeup). Then la momia azteca blunders in and is quickly overcome by a flashlight and a plywood sigil-thingy (the flashlight in the eyes caused him to scream and stagger back. Then a scientist throws the plywood sigil-thingy which knocks him over.) Fast cut to a press conference where they announce that two mummies were actually found (not shown). Here's where the werewolf movie footage kicks in. The scientists take the Mummy-Werewolf-Thing to a lab where they proceed to put him into what looks like a large pants press and then some sort of mummyfuge twirly tube thing. The result is the white makeup all falls off and behold—Lawrence Talbot! Then late that night he wakes up and goes to the window where he faces the moon and turns into the werewolf. His first victim is one of the scientists. The Mummy-Werewolf-Thing grabs the scientist from behind, and (from the evidence of a close-up of the victim's face after), apparently yanks his nose until it bleeds. Then just when you wonder how in the world anyone's nose will be safe from this unstoppable horror, the Mummy-Werewolf-Thing clutches his chest like he has bad heartburn and topples over. Later he wakes up and kills another scientist, this time while the scientist's colleague looks on without lifting a finger to help his friend. Once the victim is dead, the peeper overcomes the Mummy-Werewolf-Thing with the time-honored, all-purpose flashlight-in-the-eyes gambit. He locks the Mummy-Werewolf-Thing up and the plot sort of shambles back into the Aztec Mummy movie. Ole Popica hisself is now seen entering the house of the pretty broad from the Aztec Mummy movie. Apparently she has a cute little girl and apparently they gave the little girl a 3,000 year old solid gold Aztec breastplate to use as a teddy bear. Ole Popica carefully extracts the breastplate from the little girl without waking her, then stomps in to carry off the mother (no further sign of the breastplate). They walk right down the middle of a highway and get run over (not shown). Thus endeth the momia azteca portion of the show. Now back to the Mummy-Werewolf-Thing who is stalking around the city at night looking for noses to yank. Eventually, after climbing things and slinking around awhile, there is the big showdown scene. Once more, just when you thought no nose can escape the yanking horror of the Mummy-Werewolf-Thing, he clutches his chest and falls down, turning back into human form. At this point his clothes catch fire, and two policemen show up. The police stand around watching the guy burn up while making "ironic" comments like "All this fuss about a werewolf and turns out he's just a man." Just a man on fire and burning horribly right in front of your unyanked noses. One of the cops then looks at his watch and starts writing in a notepad. End of movie. Joy.

Can a movie, that actually consists scenes from two mexican monsterthrillers plus additional scenes from US for commersial interests, be successful? - Yes! This is a dreamlike and incoherently edited oddity that tells a story of a centralamerican mummy found at the excur- sions of a pyramid. Also there is a mad scientist who in his experiments with revivification, succeeds in waking the mummy. And there´s a thunderstorm! The mummy is transformed into a werewolf played by Lon Chaney jnr! Its wild, suspenseful, trancendental, poetic in its "silents" looks and pace and there is a musical number of exotica style too, with an Yma Sumaclike vocalist in a "flashback" Aztec ritual scene! I was overwhelmed of the total impact of this movie as seen through the eyes of someone who value uniqueness and improvised quality in lowbudgetfantasy that really works as avantgarde poetry. The images and atmosphere of Ancient Civilisation, Pyramids, detectiveworks, a scary rotten walking mummy, a terrifying werewolf,terrified womens faces and all these mysterios cuts between scenes from one film to another creates a nightmare with no other logic than the dream´s own. I recommend this for all who has a vivid imagination and for all of you who believe that insanity can be genial!