The LA Beat

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“Dr Jekyll and the Werewolf” * (1972, Mondo Macabro) Paul Naschy returns as the mournful Waldemar Daninsky,”who once again seeks a cure for his lycanthropy. The latest attempt comes courtesy of the grandson (Jack Taylor) of Dr. Jekyll, who proposes a sort of supernatural methadone in the family formula, which will turn Daninsky into Mr. Hyde to fight off (one guesses) his werewolf urges. But a jealous lab assistant (Mirta Miller) upends the process, resulting in Daninsky changing helplessly from human to Hyde to werewolf. One of the most enjoyable entries in Naschy’s long-running “Hombre Lobo” film series, “Jekyll” is an affectionate nod to Universal’s WWII-era monster meet-ups, in which plot took a backseat to as much on-screen time to the monsters as possible; a few forays into grindhouse material (Hyde abusing Shirley Corrigan) are detractions/distractions, but these are balanced by some clever and outrageous moments from writer Naschy and director Leon Klimovsky, including Naschy walking the streets of London ’71 in full Hyde makeup and Daninsky cycling through all three of his personas in an English disco. Mondo Macabro’s region-free Blu-ray presents both the original Spanish version of the film (with English subs) and a reconstruction of a more graphic cut exported to other territories; commentary by the NaschyCast crew is typically informative and entertaining,. as are a host of new and vintage interviews with the late Naschy, Taylor, and Naschy’s son, Sergio, and tributes to Taylor and Kilmovsky.

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