Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1972)

(Dr. Jekyll vs. the Werewolf ) This Paul Naschy horror flick not only features a werewolf but also Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde... as well as a gothic castle and Swingin' London.  Let's have a look...

Imre Kosta (José Marco) is a wealthy businessman traveling to his home town of Baliavasta, near Transylvania.  He's brought along his lady, Justine (Shirley Corrigan), who happens to be a stone cold fox.

As tends to happen in these parts, their car breaks down. And as tends to happen in these types of movies, ladies like to wander off alone.  Justine ambles into an abandoned castle and gets frightened by a homeless person with a skin condition.

Cue next scene.

The car is repaired and, Imre, ever the romantic, takes Justine to the creepiest cemetery on earth to visit the graves of his murdered family.

But it's not vampires or zombies the couple needs to worry about in this Romanian graveyard.  A band of thugs starts messing with Imre's Jag.

Imre attempts to stop the hooligans, but they beat the shit out of him and try to rape Justine. Thankfully, someone comes to her rescue...

If you don't recognize the guy giving the ruffian the Hug of Death, it's the undisputed king of Spanish horror cinema, Paul Naschy.  Paul puts a beat-down on these thugs like I've never seen - going completely medieval on their asses.

Justine's out cold.  This mysterious karate chopping, head smashing badass carries her to a castle which looks down upon the cemetery - The Black Castle.

I am digging Justine's jacket (ostrich feather?), knee-high boots and, of course, miniskirt.  Sadly, when she awakes in the castle, there's been a change of wardrobe...

... which is kind of creepy, because that means Paul had to have changed her clothes while she was KO'd.  Anyway, Justine explores the premises holding a candelabra; a necessity in a Gothic horror film.

Justine eventually learns that the castle occupants consist of a witch and her savior, the studly Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy) who always wears a groovy leather jacket with turtle neck.  She also learns that Imre is six feet under.

Note: Every time they said"Waldemar" in this film, it sounded like "Voldemort" to my Harry Potter tainted ears.

Waldemar happens to be a werewolf who has a nasty habit of killing idiotic villagers.  Eventually they've had enough of his shit, and drive him out of town.  Yet another well-worn old-school horror trope is in full effect: the angry villages bearing torches and pitchforks.  Waldemar and Justine haul ass out of this dreary Romanian village and don't look back.

On to Swingin' London...

...well, it's 1972, so London isn't exactly swingin' anymore.  Anyway, Justine visits her old flame, a certain Dr. Henry Jekyll (Jack Taylor).  She tells him the whole story, include the little detail about her new friend, Waldemar, being a lycanthrope.

The intellectual Jekyll is curious.  He wants to study Waldemar, and invites him to the hospital to run some tests.  There's a full moon tonight.  Perfect timing.

Houston we have a problem. Waldemar gets trapped in an elevator with a nurse. They spend a few awkward hours together until the full moon hits, and then he transforms into a werewolf and.... well, as you can predict, things escalate from awkward to deadly real fast.

The werewolf escapes from the elevator, kills a back alley prostitute, then disappears into the night. I think it's safe to say Jekyll's plan was a failure.

Later that evening at the Jekyll estate, no one is particularly concerned by the dead nurse and prostitute.   It's time to move on to Plan B...

Jekyll will inject Waldemar with a chemical formulated by his grandfather, which will turn him into a being of pure evil - Mr. Hyde!

The purpose (in case you were wondering): When Waldemar turns into a werewolf, he will also turn into Hyde, who will drive away the werewolf part of him.  It's brilliant!.... wait, no.  It's a terrible idea.

It gets worse.  Jekyll injects Waldemar with the Hyde potion, but his plans are sabotaged by his lab assistant, Sandra (Mirta Miller), who literally stabs him in the back.

Tip of the Day: Mad scientists should not hire ex-mistresses as lab assistants.

The jealous bitch Sandra and the pervy lech Hyde take poor Justine to the basement where she's tortured.  It seems like only yesterday she was being assaulted by Romanian hooligans, now this.

Hyde, looking a lot like a gross Batman TV show villain, enjoys a night on the town, taking in some London strip clubs, before killing another prostitute.

He returns to Jekyll's estate, kills that jealous bitch Sandra, then decides to go back out - this time to a London discotheque.

While at the club, Hyde turns into the werewolf, scaring away all the happenin' young kids.  If you haven't caught on by now, this movie is certifiably batshit crazy.

The werewolf then makes it back to the Jekyll estate to dispatch with Justine.  No idea how the werewolf got back home - maybe he took a cab, or took advantage of the public transportation system, maybe?

The werewolf attacks Justine, delivering a lethal blow, but before she dies, she fills him full of lead... er, silver.  Everybody's dead.  The end.

All in all, it was a fun ride.  With precious little on-screen gore, scares, or nudity, the film could have benefited from kicking it up a notch. Instead, it all seems a little silly, but gets points for including every horror trope under the sun, with werewolves, dark castles, mad scientists, damsels in distress, Jekyll and Hyde, and even a Jack the Ripper element.  Add to that a London discotheque and the smoking hot Shirley Corrigan, and I suppose there's not too much to complain about. Recommended.

★★★★★★★☆☆☆