La casa del terror

"La Casa del Terror" was a 1959 Mexican production that managed to wrangle Lon Chaney himself to repeat two characterizations he was best remembered for during his Universal days, The Mummy and The Wolf Man, a special credit for his third billing. Only available in Spanish without subtitles, it remains watchable enough, and is perhaps preferable to its Americanized version from hack director Jerry Warren, 1964's "Face of the Screaming Werewolf," which basically used only Chaney's scenes, combined with an opening culled from "The Aztec Mummy" (1957), totaling only 60 minutes. "La Casa del Terror" in original comedic form ran 82 minutes, introducing mad scientist Yerye Beirute and his two assistants, who steal bodies for experimentation, the unsuccessful results winding up posing as wax figures ala Vincent Price's "House of Wax." Top billed Tin Tan only slows things down with his boring antics as museum caretaker with nagging girlfriend Yolanda Varela. At the 22 minute mark, Beirute learns about the exhibit of Mummy Lon Chaney, which he soon kidnaps, his electrical gadgetry turning the corpse into a normal looking fellow dressed in black. Thinking they've failed the scientists depart, after which a bolt of lightning brings Chaney to startled life, gazing at the moon outside the window, and promptly transforming into The Wolf Man in spirited Universal fashion, though looking more like Bud Westmore than Jack Pierce. For the remainder of the film, we alternate between the hirsute Chaney's wanderings, eventually kidnapping Yolanda for himself, and dreary footage of everyone else. Twice Chaney is allowed some comic business, the first when he catches his mirror reflection, echoing Glenn Strange in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," and knocking over our sadly lacking hero, who winds up clinging to a building clock like Harold Lloyd in "Safety Last" (a stuntman rather than Chaney most likely carries the heroine up the wall). It's not the most dignified dual role, in Spanish and given no dialogue, but Chaney still ably conveys the tragedy involved with the werewolf curse, and at age 53 still makes for a feral monster, looking forward in its surprisingly bloody way to Paul Naschy just 8 years away in "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" aka "La Marca del Hombre Lobo." This long unseen horror comedy sadly marked the last feature to reprise Lon's 'Baby,' The Wolf Man, his Mummy getting shortchanged in less than a minute on screen, the actor donning the makeup one final time for the 1962 ROUTE 66 Halloween episode "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing," doing The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and his father's Hunchback. After completing this obscurity in Mexico, Chaney then journeyed to Sweden to host the equally little seen teleseries 13 DEMON STREET.