Curse of the Devil (1973)
"El retorno de Walpurgis" (original title)

A man whose ancestors executed a witch is turned into a werewolf by modern-day descendants of the executed witch.

Director:

Carlos Aured

Writers:

Edward Mannix (American dialogue), Paul Naschy (story)

Stars:

Paul Naschy, Fabiola Falcón, Mariano Vidal Molina

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Naschy	...	Waldemar Daninsky / Irineus Daninsky / Werewolf
Fabiola Falcón	...	Kinga Wilowa (as Fabiola Falcon)
Mariano Vidal Molina	...	Roulka (as Vidal Molina)
Maritza Olivares	...	Maria Wilowa
José Manuel Martín	...	Bela (as Jose M. Martin)
Elsa Zabala	...	Gypsy Witch
Eduardo Calvo	...	Laszlo Wilowa
Ana Farra	...	Malitza
Fernando Sánchez Polack	...	Maurice, Waldemar's valet (as Fernando S. Polack)
Inés Morales	...	Ilona (as Ines Morales)
Santiago Rivero
Pilar Vela
José Yepes	...	(as Jose Yepes)
Ana Maria Rossie	...	(as Ana Mª Rossie)
Sandalio Hernández	...	(as Sandalio Hernandez)

Storyline

The great inquisitor Ireneus Daninsky has Countess Bathory burned alive and her female followers hanged. Before perishing in the flames the countess puts a curse on Daninsky and his descendants. Four centuries later, Waldemar Daninsky accidentally shoots a gypsy while hunting a wolf. The angry gypsies, who knew of the curse, summon up the Satan and the beautiful Ilona is chosen to seduce the young lord. During a night of love, Ilona bites Waldemar who turns into a werewolf killing his preys on full moon nights. His murders are first attributed to a mad killer escaped from the asylum. Waldemar, who suspects the killer is none other than himself, falls in love with Kinga, the daughter of a professor from Budapest. When Maria, Kinga's jealous younger sister, manages to seduce Waldemar and sleep with him, she is killed by the young man, once again turned into a werewolf.

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Plot Keywords:

werewolf | love | gypsy | curse | killer | 

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Taglines:

Prepare yourself for the HORROR of PSYCHO! The TERROR of EXORCIST!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Spain Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

May 1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Black Harvest of Countess Dracula

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lotus Films, Producciones Escorpión

Technical Specs

Runtime:

73 min 81 min (original uncut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Follows Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (1968)

User Reviews

Not the best, not the worst

This not one of your better Paul Naschy/"Hombre Lobo" movies, but it's not a total waste of time either. It begins in Medieval times where Count Daninsky (a Polish count?--okay, why not) kills his nemesis Count Barthory in a joust and then burns alive his wife Elizabeth, a notorious Satan-worshipper famous for bathing in the blood of virgins. Barthory curses Danisky with the promise that one of her descendants will someday curse one of his descendants with lycanthropy (THAT must have worried him). Cut to more or less the present-day where the modern-day Count Danisky (Naschy again)nearly runs over a woman, who has just left a coven meeting (featuring a naked orgy with the shadow of the Devil). He takes her home and, of course, ends up in bed with her where, after he falls asleep, she takes the opportunity to put a lycanthropic curse on him in an elaborate ritual involving blood and a fake wolf skull (the only potentially greater mystery than why Naschy is catnip to all the beautiful women in these movies is why he keeps sleeping with THEM when something terribly always seems to happen). The woman runs away and is promptly killed off by an axe-wielding escaped lunatic lurking in the woods for no good reason.

The oblivious Danisky doesn't worry too much about what happened to his bed-mate, but immediately falls in love with the daughter of a neighboring landowner. But of course, he also doesn't turn down the charms of her curious younger sister(who puts the "bare" in barely legal). In one the most memorable lines she tells him that she has "come a virgin but (is) not leaving as one". She doesn't have to worry it turns out because he turns into a werewolf in mid-coitus. Soon the bodies begin to pile up. At first, the killings are blamed on the axe-wielding lunatic and even Danisky himself, protected by a loyal servant, remains oblivious, but then the lunatic is found dead too and the angry villagers start howling for werewolf blood. And what about the satanic coven?--oh, never mind.

Obhviously there is no way to tie all the incredibly random threads of this movie together satisfactorily and they really don't. Basically it ends more or less the same sappy and tragic way as all these movies do. Still if you like the "Hombre Lobo" series, you'll probably like it. It's not as good as "Werewolf Shadow" (which it is supposedly a direct sequel of), but better than entries like "The Werewolf vs. the Yeti" or pretty much all the "comeback" films Naschy did in 80's and 90's. Recommended to Naschy fans if no one else.