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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Monday, October 15, 2018

The Werewolf Vs. The Vampire Woman (1971)

Starring Paul Naschy, Gaby Fuchs, Barbara Capell, Andres Resino, Yelena Samarina
Directed by Leon Klimovsky
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Two young women in search of an ancient vampire's tomb recruit the help of Waldemar Daninsky, not realizing he is a werewolf, nor that they will bring the vampire back to life.

One of several vehicles for the character of Daninsky, starring Naschy as the cursed werewolf, who also collaborated on the screenplay for this picture.  Naschy's portrayals were among the most bestial of screen werewolves, and that's certainly the case here, with plenty of blood spilled and the beast even tearing out a major organ or piece of skin from one of his victims.  In human form, Naschy has a  compelling screen presence well up there with other classic monster portrayers, and although he doesn't have much of a chance to emote in this film, you can appreciate what he brings to the screen.  The showdown between Naschy's werewolf and Patty Shepard as Countess Wandesa, who like Elizabeth Bathory, drinks the blood of young virgins to stay youthful, is a bit brief, but well-staged, and the build-up to their battle is well done, with fog-drenched scenes of Wandesa and her cohort stalking the beautiful Fuchs.  According to film historian Troy Howarth, some more salacious scenes were edited out of this edition of the film, but can be found in a release under the title Werewolf Shadow.

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