Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964)

Directed by:
Rafael Portillo (uncredited)
Gilberto Martínez Solares (uncredited)
Jerry Warren

"Heinous Chills in the Lab of Death!" Heinous is right! Here's another thoroughly inept Jerry Warren patchwork, this one swiping most of its footage from Rafael Portillo's THE AZTEC MUMMY (1957) and Gilberto Martínez Solares' HOUSE OF TERROR (1960). For the record, both of those films had already received a Spanish language only theatrical release here in America but that didn't deter Warren any. He took what he wanted from each, shot his own new footage (mostly people sitting around talking), edited it all together and had the whole package English dubbed, resulting in a "new" movie he could make some quick cash off of. To no one's surprise, the whole thing is a cheap, clunky mess. Even though the original Mexicans films were low budget schlock themselves, they were still made with far more skill than what Warren is able to muster up with his long, static, poorly-written and dull medium-shot dialogue scenes.

We open with a six minute block of footage from Aztec as test subject Ann Taylor (uncredited Rosita Arenas) is being hypnotized by "naturalist scientist" Dr. Edmund Redding ("Raymond Gaylord" / Ramón Gay) and his assistants (Crox Alvarado and Jorge Mondragón), working on behalf of the Pasadena-based Cowan Research Foundation. Ann has visions of "the ancient land" and a "city of stone." She is now, "part of the past and of the city in which I place myself in obedience to the ceremony of devotion and to the opening of hope before the shrine." Ann in her past life is told not to enter a sacred pyramid but she does anyway. We then cut to an utterly pointless new scene of newscaster Douglas Banks (Chuck Niles), who discusses Redding and his experiments currently taking place in "the Yucatan."

We then return to a huge straight block of Aztec footage as Ann, Redding, his son Kenny (Jaime González Quiñones) and the two assistants go to the pyramids. Ann looks up at one, her voice-over says "Yeah" and then we're in for a longgg and dialogue-free flashback scene of an ancient ceremony that goes on for six+ minutes. Afterward, the present day expedition explore the pyramid and make it to the temple, where they not only use footage of the Aztec Mummy but also splice in a shot of Lon Chaney Jr.'s mud-covered mummy from Solares' House of Terror. The scene ends with Redding throwing something at the Aztec Mummy. He's next sitting at his desk listening to a radio news broadcast. We then cut to a new scene at the radio station for an interview with "science editor" Dr. Frederick Munson (George Mitchell), who informs us that Redding has returned from his travels with two "embalmed creatures." One is an actual mummified resident of an ancient civilization. The other is a mummified modern man who was placed in the pyramid only recently "after an exchange of body fluids with the mummy" (!!)

During a press conference with the Chaney mummy on display (which poorly edits together footage from both of the Mexican sources), the lights go out, Redding is shot dead (off-screen, of course, since he doesn't die in the other film) and the mummy is stolen. Now we get a big block of straight House of Terror footage as the criminals take the Chaney mummy to their lab, which is hidden inside a wax museum. Ringleader Professor Janning (uncredited Yerye Beirute) wants it for his regeneration experiments. He and his assistants ("Donald Barron" / Alfredo Wally Barrón and uncredited Agustín Fernández) put it in several big steel contraptions, hook it up to oxygen, inject it with blood and then uses electricity to try to bring it to life. Unfortunately, they lack the voltage in their lab to make their experiment a success. Never fear, it's nothing a little lightning surge can't fix! When a bolt strikes the lab, Chaney is brought back to life. Since it's a full moon, he then transforms into a werewolf and goes on a rampage that includes killing one of Janning's assistants before it can be restrained.

Another new scene has been grafted on where Janning's associate calls up a thief (Steve Conte) and orders him to steal the second (Aztec) mummy from Cowan Research Foundation. When he shows up and tries to break into the center, he encounters the mummy and is thrown against a tree and passes out. The mummy then goes to visit Ann Taylor, snatches her up after she passes out and then starts walking down a road. The thief reawakens, gets in his car and starts frantically driving. Next thing we know a newspaper headline screams "Ann Taylor Killed; Mummy Destroyed" so I suppose we're to fill in the blanks here and assume the thief ran over the mummy and Ann. That's followed by (boring) new scenes where Detective Hammond (Fred Hoffman) goes to the research center and then interviews Dr. Munson.

Back to the House of Terror footage, Chaney pops off the operating table long enough to kill Janning's other assistant, but the scientist manages to corral the creature into a cage with a light. However, the full moon makes him transform back into a werewolf and he easily breaks out of his cell. He then escapes the lab, runs down a busy highway, kidnaps a woman in the park, scales a building while being pursued by the wax museum night watchman (uncredited Germán Valdés), scares a bunch of people, pursues another young woman ("Landa Varle" / Yolanda Varela), chases her around her apartment and eventually grabs her and drags her back to Janning's lab for the final confrontation. 

A few snippets of newly-added footage is edited in here and there, which includes a shot of a woman in an elevator screaming, she and other eyewitnesses tipping off the cops and Det. Hammond and his partner seeing Chaney dead. While some of the reused footage is actually a lot of fun, what Warren added to the works and how it's all edited together is the pits. Strangely, with endless footage used from two sources plus the new scenes added, the full running time is just a little over 59 minutes. A true blessing in disguise, folks!

Of course, you're missing out on nothing by pretending like this abomination doesn't even exist and you'd be better off checking out the originals in their unaltered form. This played theatrically both as a standalone feature and as part of an A.D.P. (Associated Distributors Pictures) double bill with Warren's Curse of the Stone Hand (1964), which utilized footage from THREE otherwise unreleased-in-the-U.S. Chilean films. Warren also reused Aztec Mummy footage for his Attack of the Mayan Mummy (1964). Something Weird and Sinister Cinema both offered this on VHS and it's now easy to find online. A fan-made composite utilizing restored footage from the Mexican films (the hopeless Warren scenes still look like crap, though) with the English audio track is also available.

NO STARS!