El caballo del diablo (1975)

... aka: Devil's Horse, The

Directed by:
Federico Curiel

It's time for the old Monkey's Paw story yet again, this time set around a horse ranch in a small, dusty village in Mexico. After a drunken musical number with a mariachi band, Don Fernando (Narciso Busquets) and his two sons; ladies man Luciano (Jorge Rivero) and married Esteban (Juan Miranda) get into a drunken bar brawl. They're thrown in jail, where the sheriff clues us in that this isn't a rare occurrence for the trouble-making family and makes them pay twice the usual amount for bail. But their wild, irresponsible ways will soon catch up to them after Luciano sneaks away from his father's birthday party to hit the bars and chase some tail. A knock sounds at the door later that night and some men have brought along an unpleasant surprise: Luciano's dead body. Some men beat him so badly that he's now unrecognizable (a bracelet with his name inscribed on it is used to identify the corpse) and then threw his body in a canyon. Irate and inconsolable, Don Fernando denounces God. After the funeral, the distraught father prays for God once again to resurrect his son. When that doesn't work, he threatens to invoke Satan and trade his soul for his son's return. Next thing he knows a majestic black stallion appears in the graveyard, walks up to Luciano's grave and begins pawing at it. Later that night, Luciano returns home, but he's not quite the same...

Now different in both dress and demeanor, the cold, emotionless Luciano saddles up the same black horse that resurrected him and is prone to bouts of rage and violence. Once much loved in the village and desired by all the women, he soon becomes hated and feared by all. Luciano beats a man up for joking about him being resurrected from the dead and then gets rough with a local tart named Maciara (Gloria Mestre); ripping off her clothes, raping and then murdering her. Don Fernando falls ill and is confined to bed, while his beloved son attempts to rape his sister-in-law Luisa (Yolanda Ochoa), who manages to avoid him, at least for a little while. He shoots a wild horse dead when it bucks him off and then watches some teenage girls swimming in a creek, ending in him raping one of them. The victim's father then confronts Luciano at the bar and shoots him three times, but to no avail. Luciano just beats him and the all of the other men at the bar up. His Uncle, local priest Father Marcos (Victor Alcocer), gathers up his crucifixes for the big exorcism finale.

Aside from the horse angle and the western setting, there's next to nothing to help distinguish this predictable, familiar tale. It's tame in the extreme. There's almost no blood, all of the rapes and murders take place off-screen and there are no special effects aside from a couple of crosses glowing at the very end. The photography is boring, the score is boring, the characters are boring and nearly the exact same story line has just been done much better elsewhere many times before and since. Though there's a faint competence to the whole thing, director Curiel (to his defense, working with a tiny budget) does next to nothing to spice things up. Heartthrob Rivero (also the associate producer) is good at scowling and looking evil, though he appears to have been dubbed by someone else to give him a more sinister-sounding voice. The rest of the cast also try their best, but there's not really much they can do to lift this above the ordinary.

Never released here in America, La caballo del diablo is floating around on the internet with fan-made subs, though it's never really going to provoke much interest from fans, and with good reason. I doubt I'm going to remember this thing at all here in about a week. Curiel was a jack of all trades in the Mexican film industry and worked as an actor, director, producer, writer and music composer. He also made Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras wrestling movies, the Mexican Nostradamus series and many others.

★★

Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee (1962)

... aka: Edgar Wallace: Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee
... aka: Gangster in London
... aka: Gangsters in London
... aka: Geheimnis der roten Orchidee, Das
... aka: Mystery of the Red Orchid, The
... aka: Puzzle of the Red Orchid, The
... aka: Red Orchid, The
... aka: Secret of the Red Orchid, The

Directed by:
Helmut Ashley

In Chicago, a group of gangsters led by the notorious O'Connor are playing cards when they're gunned down by a rival gang, who then toss a grenade into the room to seal the deal. A year later in London, someone is using "American methods" to try to extort money from wealthy businessman. Whoever is doing it is sending a letter of warning to each man (fashioned out of clippings from newspapers) that promises death if they do not comply. The same exact m.o. was used by O'Connor, who's believed to be dead. Since all of the bodies had been blown to bits in Chicago, O'Connor is believed to be among the dead... but is he really? That's just what Chief Tetley (Wolfgang Büttner) and Inspector Weston (Adrian Hoven) at Scotland Yard would like to find out. Thankfully, American FBI agent and gang specialist Captain Allerman (Christopher Lee) happens to be in England and is able to assist in the investigation, which first leads him to the shady Gunnar Steve (Klaus Kinski), who used to work for O'Connor in America but has since relocated to London to open a store.

Meanwhile, elderly Elias Tanner (Fritz Rasp) has received a threatening blackmail letter himself. To ensure his "good for nothing" nephew Edwin (Pinkas Braun), who's been spending all his time traveling the globe looking for rare orchids, doesn't try to hone in on his fortune in case he's killed, he signs everything over to his loyal and much-younger secretary and personal assistant Lilian Ranger (Marisa Mell) instead. Good thing too, because a couple of men posing as detectives barge into the home and gun down Tanner before the police can do much about it. Edwin shows up in town from Brazil just in time for the reading of the will, and he's not too happy he's been shut out. Further complicating matters is the presence of Kerkie Minelli (Eric Pohlmann), the gang leader responsible for killing O'Connor's gang in Chicago the previous year, who has also turned up in London for some strange reason along with his annoying, chatterbox wife Cora (Christiane Nielsen).

A third potential target, Mr. Shelby (Günther Jerschke) participates in a police sting operation that backfires when he is shot and killed. Next up is wealthy widow Mrs. Moore (Sigrid von Richthofen), who tries to flee but dies in a car crash when someone puts a giant mirror in the road to cause her to think she's about to have a head-on collision. Bank manager Mr. Dories, big game hunter and army vet Colonel Droog (Herbert A.E. Böhme) and Lilian herself (who's taken a new job as secretary at Dories' bank) are other recipients of the letter. The rival gangs are not only out to extort non-gang members, but are also at each others' throats and the death toll reaches double digits as American-style crime comes to England. Explosives are hidden in flowers and cigar boxes, a car blows up, an airplane is shot down and there's death by flying knife, razor and by other means. There's also some continual comic relief in the form of repeat offender Eddi Arent as an effete butler named Parker, who ends up working for nearly all the victims and earns himself the nickname "The Death Butler."

One of several dozen West German krimi produced during the 1960s, this is definitely not an exceptional example of its type (nor is it a horror film as sometimes categorized), but it's well made, the cast is pretty good, the plot is busy and it's at least lively enough to keep your attention throughout. As usual, it's based on a novel by Edgar Wallace; in this case "When the Gangs Come to London." Because it contains several international stars of the day who were known outside of German, it's been one of the best-distributed of these types of films. Horror fans in particular will not only note the presence of genre icons Kinski (who filled out the supporting roles of many a red herring in these things) and Lee (who also appeared in the Wallace adaptations The Devil's Daffodil [1961] and Circus of Fear [1966]), but also Hoven (Mark of the Devil [1970]) and Mell (from the Edgar Wallace-adapted giallo Seven Blood-Stained Orchids [1972]).

The horrendously-dubbed English-language version was prepped by Copri International and bears a 1965 copyright date. DVD distributor Retromedia uses this print of the film, though a better one was released in Germany. Oddly enough, Lee does his own voice in the German cut, but has been dubbed by another actor in the English one.

★★1/2

Christmas Evil (1980)

... aka: Terror in Toyland
... aka: You Better Watch Out

Directed by:
Lewis Jackson

You could say that Harry Stadling (Brandon Maggart) lives for Christmas. In fact, it's recently become quite an obsession of his. He wakes to a Christmas-themed alarm clock carousel dressed in his Santa pjs and immediately puts on "Winter Wonderland" while doing his stretches. From there, he heads to the bathroom for a shave, while humming another Christmas tune and practicing his best Jolly Saint Nick laugh. But this year, Harry's wanting to take it a step further by actually dressing up as Santa and, just like Santa, he's been making a list and checking it twice... In this case, literally! You see, Harry has been spying on all the neighborhood kiddies, and has kept a detailed log year round about who has been naughty and who has been nice. If you're a good girl like little Susie Lovett, you're branded a "darling" in the "Good Boys and Girls" book, but if you make it into the "Bad Boys and Girls" book you can expect to have such naughty violations as "has bad breath," "uses profane language" and "crosses against the light" to your name. Or in the case of hellion Moss Garcia, who's caught  taking a gander at a Penthouse magazine among other things, "impure thoughts" and "negative body hygiene."

Yes, Harry is not quite right in the head... and it's all about to boil over. A sad and lonely man, Harry works as manager at the "Jolly Dream" toy company during the day and return to his home all alone at night. From all indications, his mental problems started in his youth and his fixation on Christmas and all it should stand for goes back to his childhood trauma of him catching mommy getting frisky with Santa Claus (well, at least his dad dressed up as Santa). At work, Harry doesn't earn much respect from his co-workers and is upset over the cheap toys they've been churning out, as well as a very shady ad campaign cooked up by the new PR man that involves the hard-working employees footing the bill so the company itself looks generous. Harry has no real friends, no wife or romantic interest, no kids of his own; just a brother named Philip (Jeffrey DeMunn) who doesn't have very many nice things to say about him. Philip's wife Jackie (Dianne Hull) thinks he's just underestimating his brother. Boy is he ever!

As he slips further into insanity, Harry skips out on Thanksgiving dinner with Philip and company because he has a lot of work to do to prepare for Christmas. He makes his own Santa costume (going all out with real fur lining), paints a sled on the side of his van and steals a whole bunch of toys from work. By Christmas Eve, he's finally in the holiday spirit and ready to hit the town with his van full of gifts (or a box full of dirt if you have it coming). After donating bundles of toys to a children's hospital (something his company was supposed to take care of), Harry encounters some extremely rude, wealthy snobs outside a church. He's mocked and ridiculed and finally snaps; gouging out an eyeball with an armed tin soldier and chopping up two others with a hatchet in front of the entire congregation. Merry Christmas, indeed! Then it's off to various other places to spread more holiday cheer... or is that fear? Hey, why not a little bit of both?

Originally released as You Better Watch Out and issued on VHS as Terror in Toyland, but best known as Christmas Evil, this is one of the first and best Christmas horror films. It's one part psychological horror, one part dark comedy and, unlike many others of its type, has some interesting things to say about how a season whose message is one of joy, charity and selflessness often times gets really, really warped. It also marked a rare lead role for character actor Maggart and he makes the absolute most of it, giving an excellent performance that's comic and tragic in equal measure. The actor manages to be both creepy and sympathetic; humming a rage-filled "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" while crushing a toy in his hand one minute, and sadly peaking in the window and watching his brother, his kids and his wife interacting as a family the next. Despite some of the horrible things he does throughout the film, our sympathies always lie with the poor guy, and Maggart deserves high praise for wonderfully pulling off this difficult role.

I've seen this get lambasted too many times to count by people expecting another gory Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) style slasher flick, but the film deserves better treatment than that. It's well-made, well-acted, thoughtful, disturbing and often times very, very funny (just check out that police line-up of Santas!). It was sadly the only film for director Jackson, who also scripted. Playing small roles are Joe Jamrog (who gets his throat cut with a Christmas tree topper), Philip Casnoff, Patricia Richardson (the mom from TV's "Home Improvement"), Scott McKay, Peter Friedman, Raymond J. Barry (as a detective), Rutanya Alda and Mark Margolis.

This has been issued on DVD numerous times. The Synapse release is the original director's cut of the film and comes with a great commentary track from famous fan John Waters, who considers this "The greatest Christmas movie ever made."

★★★1/2