WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: The Loreley's Grasp 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:15.520 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.520 Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And today we're 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:24.400 gonna be looking at a nineteen seventies euro horror movie. Uh. 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.480 This one is called The Laurelized Grasp, Rob, How did 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.440 you come across this movie? Well, in a previous episode 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:36.760 of Weird House Cinema, we watched Spanish hard director Amando 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:41.120 Dio Sarios film The Return of the Blind Dead, the 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:45.760 second in his Blind Dead trilogy, in which undead templars 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.120 return from the grave and torment the living, but also 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.240 you know, stumble around and can't see what they're doing 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.160 exactly right. This is the one where like skeletons come 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.640 out of the ground with swords and they go around 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.600 stabbing towns people. And then there is a sexy American 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:06.440 fireworks salesman who like charms the local women and somehow 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.039 defeats them in the end. Yeah. Yeah, and that that 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:13.600 of course that character is played by Tony Kendall. Uh So, I, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.119 you know, I really loved Return of the Blind Dad, 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:17.360 and I was like, I want to watch something with 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.440 that kind of vibe to it. So I was poking around, 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:25.440 uh uh Diasaurios filmography, and here's this film, the Laurelized 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:29.600 grasp Um. I had earmarked it to come back to later, 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.240 and yeah, it totally delivers. It came out the same year, 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.440 seventy three. And while Return of the Blind Dad again 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:43.720 is about undead templars and local corruption in Portugal, corrupt mayor, yeah, 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.920 this one is about mythic monsters on the German Rhine. 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.800 So we have a Germanic tale here. This movie also 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.640 has an ineffectual mayor, but not uh as far as 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.160 I recall, not evil like the other one. Like in 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.040 Return of the Blind Dad doesn't the mayor. You're at 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.760 some point he's like, I know how I will escape. 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.400 I will send the blind dead after a little child. Yeah, 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.480 he's basically Mayor Quimby. In fact, he attempts to flee 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:12.840 with the money. At one point he's like he's going 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:14.960 to go to another town, become mayor and send for 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.400 the rector, stuffing suitcases of cash into a golf cart 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.600 while he's sending the skeletons after the kid. Yeah. So yeah, 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:25.720 this is a This is tremendously fun movie. Because it's 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.440 got it's got the German mythology, it's got some really 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.240 bad science in it. I mean, you can't even it's 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:36.520 almost it's just ridiculous science. Um. And then you also 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.799 have room for a little romance. You have essentially kind 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:44.880 of a werewolf movie going on here, except it's a lizard. Uh. Yeah, 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.160 there's a lot to love. This movie has science on 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.280 the level of the Exorcist to where there's that line 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:54.480 he's like, this machine has scientifically proven that there is 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:58.880 an ancient demon locked inside her in this one, it's 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:03.280 my experiment, have scientifically proven that the that the Ryan 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:06.440 Maidens are real, and that the Laurel I does transform 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.480 every full moon and devour hearts. Oh yeah, I can't. 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:13.360 I can't wait to discuss that sequence now. So this 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.560 movie is not only a monster movie. It's an example 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.960 of a particular sub genre that we might call the 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:27.400 doomed monster romance, where these are movies where a human 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.840 of some sort falls in love with a monster or 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:35.800 cursed entity and we watch their relationship just plow toward 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:40.080 its inevitable destruction because in the end it cannot be 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:42.960 And there are plenty of examples of this that come 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.240 to mind. I was just noting a few that that 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.560 popped into my head. The Francis Ford Coppola version of 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:53.080 Dracula bram Stoker's Dracula a great example here In this movie, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.840 Mina Harker played by um oh what's her name? Win 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:02.160 Owner Writer? Right, yeah, Mina is not just like hypnotized 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.880 and transformed by Dracula. You get the sense that they 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:09.520 are genuinely in love. But of course it cannot continue 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.000 because the beast must be destroyed, and he is evil. 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:15.640 And it's been a long time since I read Dracula. 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:17.920 But if I recall, there's really not any hint of 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.159 this whatsoever in the original novel. Right, Like in the novel, 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.960 Dracula is just a nasty demon and and nobody would 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:26.839 have a reason to be in love with him. But 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.480 in this movie they decided, well, yeah, Gary oldman is 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.479 rather charming guy. Let's make it so that Dracula and 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:37.160 Mina are actually faded lovers across centuries. Oceans of time 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.240 have been traversed so that they could be reunited. See. 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:45.040 I really need to watch rewatch Coppola's Dracula um as 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:46.839 a grown up, because I I think I only saw 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:48.839 it as a kid, and at that time I was 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.000 just like, I don't really like this romance Dracula bad. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:54.120 Can we go back to the creepy old man and 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:56.599 the wolf monster and the bat monster and all that 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.520 other stuff? You like, the butt hair Dracula and not 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.240 the not the suave londoner. Yeah, the Yeah, the big 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.400 hair Dracula with a weird shadow. There's always licking razor blades. 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:09.360 That was my Dracula. But I imagine the film would 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.520 speak to me differently as as an adult. I mean, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.120 both are great, but yeah, when Gary Oldman transforms into 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.760 the young, suave Dracula, especially because he's got hippie sunglasses on, 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:23.279 it's wonderful. But but other examples that popped into my 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.240 head American werewolf in London here, you know, in the 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:28.680 middle of the movie, they introduce a sweet love story 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:33.039 between this this American backpacker and a British nurse. But 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.200 of course they're They're romance is doomed because the boy 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.120 is a werewolf. And uh, it's there in The Fly 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.800 as well. Cronenberg's The Fly. You know, Gina Davis must 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.480 choose between her love for a hunky young Jeff Goldblum 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.000 and the fact that he is now vomiting digestive enzymes 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.320 on donuts and will probably at some point dissolve her 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.760 as well. Right, So, I would say common features of 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.279 the doomed monster romance movie are there's an element of 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.400 tragedy to them that is not always present in a 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.880 horror movie. Often, though not always, the human who falls 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:11.960 in love with the monster also has another mundane human 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.120 to human romance on the back burner. So in Bram 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.800 Stoker's Dracula Mina, while she's having this sort of ethereal 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.520 love affair with Dracula, is also technically still engaged to 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:25.599 Keanu Reeves, and so she's got that to fall back on. 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.880 I guess when when Dracula is destroyed uh. In the Fly, 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.560 they flip it around with a with a really horrible 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:35.000 twist by making Gina Davis's human back burner dude and 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.560 absolutely loathsome creep, which really heightens the desperation and horror 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:41.240 in the movie when she has nobody to turn to 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.200 but him. And in the movie we talked about today, 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.440 it definitely has this angle. Tony Kendall is pursuing two 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.520 romances at the same time. One a monster one just 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.880 a sort of disapproving lady. Yeah, and I guess this 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.000 sort of plot line you often get into the situation 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.800 where it's essentially like you must choose between the good 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.039 guy and the bad guy, the good girl and the 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.599 bad girl, and you know, and there's a fair amount 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.239 of moralizing that goes on there, especially when you're dealing 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.559 with with like, oh, well, it has to choose between 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.080 the monster is feminine and uh and this idealized version 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.560 of femininity. You know, it's it gets complicated. But also 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:19.520 there's a kind of irony in a lot of these 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:24.160 movies where it's like the monster is evil. So on 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.800 one level, you know, you technically should go with your 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.720 backburn or human romance, but on the other hand, it's 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.960 clear that the monster romance is the one that's more 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:37.000 meant to be. Yeah. Yeah, there's a sense that it's 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.400 a it's a part of fate. And by teaming up 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.679 with the like, by by entering into relationship with the monster, 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:47.120 you're you're either becoming immortal or you're becoming part of 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.920 a of a timeline that goes beyond just mortal existence. 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:55.040 You're achieving your true potential. Yeah. Uh, And In fact, 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.880 along with those fatalism themes, I would say a lot 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:01.040 of these movies also have something like a reincarnation plot, 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.080 So sometimes the movie presents the human in the relationship 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.320 as the reincarnation of a lover that the monster had 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.280 deep in the past, some kind of recurrence of fate. 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.720 So Coppolis Dracula does this. Mina Harker in the movie 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.120 appears to be the reincarnation of Prince of Lads Beloved, 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.320 and many versions of The Mummy movies do this, like 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.720 the Mummy will be some figure from ancient Egypt who 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.160 was cursed or suffered some terrible fate, but once he's 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.520 revived in the modern world, he encounters a beautiful woman 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.080 who seems to be the reincarnation of his one true love, 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.240 and often uh the original reason he was cursed in 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.680 ancient Egypt has something to do with this woman, like 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.000 they had an illicit affair, or he tried to revive 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.880 her from the dead using forbidden magic or something like that. Now, 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.240 the Luralized Grasp does follow some of these conventions as 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:55.000 a doomed monster romance movie, but it also, i would argue, 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.040 fails to capture one of the primary themes, which is 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.720 that sense of tragedy. Uh. And it fails to capture 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.880 that sense of tragedy, I think because the parties in 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:09.720 this monster love affair have really hilarious, out of place vibes, 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:14.400 both individually and in combination. Yeah, yeah, I think that's 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.080 a good point, um now on the romance here in 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:19.959 a way, it's kind of fitting. But then also it's 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:24.079 it's even more pronounced that that deal. Sorry, it doesn't 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.839 really follow up on this themes of the tragic themes 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.800 here because, as I discussed in Wednesday's Monster Fact episode, 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:35.040 the lorelie monster emerges not really out of old German 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.200 myths and legends per se, but out of German romanticism 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.280 of the nineteenth century, popping up in a pair of 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.520 famous poems from from that time period. Uh, generally concerned 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.120 not so much about a monster woman that's going to 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.559 come out and rip your heart out, but more about 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.720 like a tragic woman who has thrown herself off the 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:58.959 cliffs above the Rhine uh haunts the cliffs above the Rhine. Uh. Though, 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.559 on the other hand, the other thing that I discussed 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.719 in that is that there is a Lorelei Rock overlooking 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.600 the Rhine and I think we see this in the movie. 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:13.920 This is the physical location that inspired the poets in question, 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.880 and it has a long tradition of strange echoes that 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:21.559 were tied not to mysterious siren type beings but to 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.280 tales of dwarves and gnomes and the cavern depths. Is 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.680 this the rock they blow up with dynamite later in 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.320 the movie, Um, I don't think they quite well, they 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.640 blow up something. They blow up something underneath the rhine, right, 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:37.280 some sort of subterranean realm. But but yeah, there are 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.320 scenes where there's some wonderful scenes in the film where 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.679 where we see these kind of depressing rhine vista's with 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:48.240 you know, big container ships moving this sluggishly down the rhine, 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:55.080 some very dismal um rhine uh riverside locations that could 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:59.080 look like very lonesome places to die the thing. But 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.280 then also occasion only a shot of a neat castle 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.880 or these looming cliffs. This movie does have a lot 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.679 of wide shots and landscape shots, and most of them 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:13.320 are not very beautiful or picturesque. Most of them are depressing, right, 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.199 but it creates a vibe which I think mostly works 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.480 with this film. Yeah, alright, so here's the elevator pitch. 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.360 It is a lizard werewolf movie full of Germanic mythology, 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:28.040 made up science, and early seventies euro horror sex appeal. 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.480 That sounds about right. All right, let's hear the English 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:45.880 language trailer. A girls boarding school is living a nightmare? 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:57.319 Who will be the next pict to me? The clause 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:06.600 of Laura La the heart was gone. It sounds like 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.920 a very old story I once heard that was told 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:10.679 me when I was a child. I still can't get 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.840 it out of my mind. What story the loyal I 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:25.120 the monster stocks terror dominates their lives. The legend has 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:28.679 turned into reality. Laura I will be transformed into an 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.480 obscene beast. She must devour human hearts in order to 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:36.680 return to her centuries old dream. He will stay with 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:48.840 throughout eternity. The clause of Laura La next on this screen. 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.360 All right, let's discuss the people involved here, so once again, 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.160 the director and writer on this one is Amando Diosareo, 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:04.000 who lived through two thousand and one. If you want 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:06.360 to hear more about him, you can go back and 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.520 listen to that episode we did about the Return of 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.360 the Blind Dead, also known as Return of the Evil Dead. Uh. 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:14.800 He was Disorio here was one of the key names 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.080 in the nineteen seventies Spanish horror resurgence. He did the 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.800 Blind Dead trilogy, directed a number of action and horror films, 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:24.679 and as we discussed in that last episode about him, 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:26.400 he he seems like a guy who always had these 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:31.240 big ideas and inevitably ran up against severe budget constraints. Uh. 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.560 And I don't think was ever completely happy with with 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.240 how he was able to realize these dreams on the screen, 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.840 particularly when it came to effects and so forth. Um. Still, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.920 I think this is another example of a film where 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.000 he's he's able to deliver some some quality action thrills 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.719 in dark fantasy, despite the at times very obvious limitations 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.559 of what they were trying to achieve. Here, I think 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:53.360 I'm gonna have to go on record and say the 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:57.400 monster in this movie is not super impressive. No, but 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.079 at least at least I think they realized it didn't 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:06.880 look good and so they rarely show it, uh for 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.760 for too long. It's often obscured, or it's in the shadows. 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.480 Except for the glove, the monster glove it it gets 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:15.679 a lot of screen time, and and even that could 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.880 at least from from our perspective. From modern perspective, it 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.360 could have been battery. It would have been nice to 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:25.560 have had to have a more convincing reptilian human hand there. 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.360 But despite it not looking good, I didn't enjoy every 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:30.560 time it showed up because you would always see the hand, 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:32.680 and I think it was always the same hand. It 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:34.680 was always the right hand. So I wondered if they 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.040 only made one lizard glove. Maybe so all right, So 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.800 that's the director and writer. But let's get to the cast. 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:46.360 The lead here is Tony Kendall born died two thousand 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:50.680 and nine, playing Sigurd the Hunter. Yes, Sigurd as in 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:56.400 the Germanic hero Sigurd or Sigfried from from the Song 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.880 of the Nibelung, from the Volsunga saga and from the 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.880 poetic Edda. Uh. This is our our hero of mythic proportions. 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.280 The main thing this movie wants you to understand about 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:12.360 secret is that he is attractive. Yes, yes, women, avert 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.320 your eyes because Tony Kendall has ventured onto the premises. See. 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.800 I mean, he was charismatic and Return of the Blind Dad, 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.120 but in this yeah, it's like it's overt, like When 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.520 we first see him, he rides in on a motorcycle 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.800 and and he is just you know, decked out and 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:32.280 stylish garb. Yeah. Well, so the movie casts him as 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:34.680 a hunter. The whole point is that he's supposed to 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.880 be a sort of loner outdoors type. He's he's the 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:42.440 most experienced hunter in the whole town. But it's just hilarious. 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.680 He does not read as a hunter at all. He 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:47.840 reads as a guy who would be hanging out of 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.800 the disco trying to buy you a drink, right right. 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:52.920 So yeah, and and to be clear, like I said, 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.360 with a motorcycle and so forth. This does not take 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:58.040 place during mythic times. This is very much a film 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:02.200 set in like early nineteen and D's um. So, yes, 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.240 he has the name of the mythic Hunter, but does 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.760 not look like a mythic hunter, does not carry himself 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:09.680 like a mythic hunter. And I don't think we ever 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.200 see him actually shoot anything. I mean, he shoots at 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.400 a few things, but we never see him hit. No. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:18.240 He he looks dresses and acts like Elvis, not like 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:23.240 a hunter. So just imagine like seventies Vegas Elvis, but 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:25.840 carrying around a gun all the time, and I want 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:28.440 to talk about how he behaves with that gun later 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.360 on and we get into the plot. This is incredibly inappropriate. Yeah, 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:36.320 like a like a prop for handsomeness. Yeah. So, so 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.000 Kendall was a former model turned actor and did quite 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:43.000 a few Spanish action movies. He was in Italian films 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.400 as well. He was in seven movies in nineteen seventy 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.960 three and this is yet again one of them. Um. 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.600 He was in a string of commissar x action movies 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:53.520 in the sixties. He went on to do a lot 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.800 of spaghetti westerns, including Oh I love some of the 0:16:55.800 --> 0:17:01.960 titles on these nineteen sixty nine, Hate is My God. Uh. 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:04.920 He did some yellow work. He was in Mario Baba's 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.760 The Whip in the Body opposite Christopher Lee in nineteen 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:11.760 sixty three. So again clearly very charismatic screen presence that 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.040 that worked well with films like this. You know, he 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.240 gets to be a man of both action and romance. 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:18.200 He has a lot of swagger, he gets to bring 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.080 that to the screen. So yeah, Tony kindles a lot 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.560 of fun in this. He is groovy. Oh but so 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.000 that's the human side of our doomed romance. We got 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.960 to hear about the monster side. Yes, Laura Lae herself 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.800 is played by Helga Lenney born one and and as 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.320 of this recording, I think is is still still alive. 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.040 Um and I don't think this can possibly be a 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:43.679 spoiler because this film is not subtle about this. But 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.879 yes she is. This beautiful redheaded actor. Helga Lenney plays 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.919 the seductive human form of our monstrous murderer here. So 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.600 she was born in Berlin, but her family fled during 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:56.960 I fled Germany during World War Two and she grew 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.359 up in Portugal, where she worked as a dancer a 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.679 circus for former and not the not the last former 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:07.119 circus performer reference in this movie. Uh eventually been a 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:11.040 model and an actress. She worked from roughly one through 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:15.040 two thousand six, played a lot of film fatales characters 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:18.639 and horror movies, various genre films. I think she's pretty 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:21.240 big in Spanish cinema during this time period, and she 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:23.159 was all She also has a role in the weird 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.360 nineteen seventy two train flick Horror Express, which of course 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.840 stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Kelly Savalis, and Sylvia Tortosa 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.919 Oh who's also in this movie. As Tony Kendall's other girlfriend. 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.639 But but Linnay is great in this, Like she's you know, 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.520 vamping it up most of the time. Um. I think 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.679 I read somewhere that she did not particularly enjoy this 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:50.360 this shoot and did not like the director. Um. But 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:52.720 if that is the case, I feel like she was 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.320 able to channel that energy into this role because you know, 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.000 she's not she doesn't really like the mortal world. She's 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.000 just here too, you know, you know, collect a number 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:03.480 of blood sacrifices and then go back to sleep, right, 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.080 she just needs some human hearts and eventually she can 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.879 take Elvis back to Valhalla with her exactly alright. So 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:15.960 Sylvia Tortasa again plays the the good girl love interest. Uh. 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:20.360 This is a character named Elki Ackerman, the teacher. She's 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.560 essentially the headmaster of a private girls school in this 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:26.520 though we never see any classes going going on here, 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:28.600 I believe the prime subject of this school is just 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:33.000 bikini studies. Yeah, Rachel and I were really confused about 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:34.879 what the school was supposed to be. So it's like 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.720 a mansion on top of a mountain full of like 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:41.440 women who just hang out of the pool all day. 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.840 But they call it a school. Yeah, it's the school. 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:46.359 We never see the classroom. We've just see them hanging 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.600 out at the swimming pool. So. Uh Tortosa Spanish actor 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.880 who worked I think roughly nine four through at least 0:19:55.400 --> 0:20:00.320 uh born Uh still alive as of this recording. U. Yeah, 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:04.680 and she's she's our our our heroes main mortal romantic interest. 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:07.960 But they do the classic romance movie thing where when 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:12.120 when they first meet, she disapproves of everything about him. Right, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:17.520 we'll get into that. That is hilarious. Okay, you can't 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.800 have a villain without a hinchman and uh. And in 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:24.959 this the lorelized servant is a character named Alberi, played 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:30.520 by Louis Barbou. Uh. Barbou live through two thousand one. 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.840 Barbou was also a circus performer at one point and 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.639 had a long career playing mostly heavies. He played the 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:39.879 executed templar in the Return of the Blind Dead, and 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.440 he also pops up in Conan the Barbarian. He was 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:44.960 a gang member and a fist full of dollars and 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:48.360 he appears and I think ten difference movies from Spanish 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:52.080 exploitation King Jess Franco. I don't want to spoil all 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.760 the details about this character in the film, but he's 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:57.040 a really fun Hinchman and there's some there's some neat 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.080 stuff surrounding his character. I don't know why, but he 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.200 always kind of reminds me of the pirate the Glenn 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.760 Close plays in Hook. I haven't seen Hook in in 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.000 a very long time. I didn't realize she played a 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:12.840 pirate with a beard. Is this is it supposed to 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:14.760 be a costume or is it just a character she plays. 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:17.600 I think it's it's just a it's a cameo, like 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.240 she was on set for some reason, and she's she 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:22.399 plays the pirate who they put into the box with 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.359 all the scorpions. That really scary scene. You remember that, No, 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:28.639 I don't. The only thing I remember about Hook is 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.240 Phil Collins showing up as a police officer. Weirdly enough, 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.639 I don't know why that stands out the most to me. 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:38.640 Remember Bob Hoskins, come on, yeah, no, no, just Phil Collins. 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:41.960 That's the only thing I remember. I remember Bob Hoskins, 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:44.879 uh and and the Glenn Close pirate and a lot 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.399 of food that doesn't look like food, like they're in 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:49.600 they're eating a big feast, but it mostly looks like 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:53.679 play dough Alright. Another actor in this film worth noting, 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:58.280 a guy by the name of Anjel Menendez, plays Professor 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:02.639 von Lander. Uh eights unknown on this guy birth or death, 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:05.320 but he plays I think my favorite character in the 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:09.080 whole film, a scientist and Laura la expert who kind 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:12.240 of reminds me of Colonel Sanders. He has the armed 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.879 awkward in a way that ultimately makes the character absolutely work. 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:18.480 Uh And I think some of it was perhaps intended. 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:20.840 Um and Indez was in a ton of Spanish and 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:24.399 Spanish language films in the sixties and seventies, including nineteen 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:27.960 sixty nine Santo Faces Death. Uh so a lot of 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:32.120 Westerns and horror in his filmography. Wait, Santo faces death 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.679 like the Grim Reaper? Do Santo wrestle the Grim Reaper? 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:38.160 I don't know. I haven't seen this one. I think 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:41.600 this one was It was either a Mexican Spanish co 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.040 production or just a Spanish film because they noted some 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:48.320 other familiar faces from Spanish genre films of the day. 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:50.760 But I'm not sure you have he's actually facing a 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:54.000 supernatural death figure or if he's just getting in a 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:56.399 deathly situation. You never know. With Santo, he might be 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:58.840 fighting him crime, he might be fighting the forces of evil, 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:00.480 might be doing a little bit of both. Who I 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.520 would be so ready to do another Santo versus the 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:06.600 supernatural movie. That's yeah, we should do it. We need 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:09.000 to go back to the Mexican cinema. Always a fun 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:12.639 time alright. Finally, the music for this film is once 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:16.840 more the music of Antone Garcia Abril, who lived through 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:20.800 an acclaimed Spanish composer and longtime head of the Department 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:25.040