Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964)

Well, having just previously watched La casa del terror, I now have also seen this-Face of the Screaming Werewolf-which contains footage of La casa del terror and La momia azteca, both Mexican-made horror movies. The Lon Chaney Jr. footage from the former is still not very exciting. Also dull is the new footage directed by Jerry Warren who's the producer who stitched this movie together and not very well since his new segments look very different, lighting-wise, from the Mexican footage assembled with it. The only parts I liked were the ones from La momia azteca which I've yet to watch in its entirety. So on that note, Face of the Screaming Werewolf only gets a 2 from me....

Truly pathetic mess cobbled together by Jerry Warren of footage from a Mexican movie (La casa del terror) with scenes featuring Lon Chaney Jr. (who never speaks any dialogue; I'm not even sure he was the performer under the werewolf make-up in the many of the monster's attack scenes) into an incoherent narrative. Warren doesn't even try and I have contempt for him in this regard. We get the Chaney werewolf transformation and there are a few nasty attacks where the werewolf mauls victims, but that's it. There's something to do with a scientific expedition in The Great Pyramid at the North Yucatan Border (we are also assaulted—erm, I mean treated—to a tribal ceremony once performed by the civilization that once lived in this region of the world, and it goes on forever it seems). Two beings are discovered in the pyramid, a man (Chaney) who is afflicted with lycanthropy (he just turns whenever the film decides) and this zombie mummy from the past civilization I just mentioned. Both beings become associated with scientists who use a wax museum as a front, their laboratory hidden behind a wall that opens. There are two cops (Warren probably hired off the street for a few hours) on the lookout for dangerous fiends terrorizing whatever city this film is supposed to be set in. There are experiments using machinery with knobs and gyros that continue for minutes as the scientists look pleased at their progress (I'm not sure what they are doing exactly, but about five minutes in I gave up caring…) and one opening protracted sequence where a female test subject is put under hypnosis and recalls a past life as the Yucatan priestess, her story inspiring the pyramid expedition. I would like to see a dubbed or subtitled version of "La casa del terror" whose guts were extracted for this abomination just out of curiosity…maybe it might actually have a coherent storyline a bit easier to follow. Milking the iconic status of an actor who had fallen on such hard times he was stuck in low budget stinkers just to make ends meet and support his alcoholism, Warren knows no shame and can't even bother to honor Chaney with a decent use of the footage he took from elsewhere. This might be entertainment for those who cherish bad cinema, but I found this waste of time damn near impossible to get through without feeling pity for Chaney Jr. because you have to recognize a star's career was in the toilet. Thank goodness for Spider Baby, one last great movie for Chaney—I just wish this was his last film instead of that f'n Adamson picture.

This movie presents about eight minutes of scenes with Lon Chaney Jr. and the rest its a long mexican movie pasted with another werewolf movie... and, what about the logic, and the continuity? The best scene of this stuff its at the beginning, the scientist and the mesmerized woman. But, I strongly recommend this movie to all Chaney Jr. fans!

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!