The Mark of the Wolfman (), is a 1968 Spanish horror film, the first in a long series of films about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. The film was also known as Hell's Creatures, The Nights of Satan, The Vampires of Dr. Dracula and Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (the latter despite the fact that the film has nothing to do with either Frankenstein or his "bloody terror"). Naschy originally suggested actress Barbara Steele for the part of the vampire countess Wandesa, but Aurora De Alba wound up getting the part.
The film was in production from February to March 1968. It was first released theatrically in Spain (on July 29, 1968), in West Germany (on February 7, 1969), in the U.K. in February 1970 (on a double bill with The Night God Screamed (1970)), and finally in the U.S. in a slightly shortened version as Frankenstein's Bloody Terror in 1971. It was released to late-night television (edited) in the U.S. in 1974. The film was shot in Hi-Fi 70mm 3-D, but was only shown that way at a brief engagement in Munich, Germany, and in several select theaters in Hollywood (reviews mentioned the 3D effects looked somewhat shoddy).
The film is available on DVD from Shriek Show as Frankenstein's Bloody Terror, as well as on a German Blu-Ray (Region 2) under the title Die Vampire des Dr. Dracula.
Naschy claimed he followed up this film with a 1968 film Las Noches del Hombre Lobo (which is today a lost film, if indeed it was ever completed at all, since no one has ever seen it) and his 1969 film Los Monstruos del Terror.
Plot
A drunken Gypsy couple spending the night in the abandoned Castle Wolfstein accidentally resurrect the werewolf Imre Wolfstein when they remove the silver cross from his corpse. Once alive, he not only kills the Gypsy couple, but also wreaks havoc on a nearby village. The villagers attribute the attack to ordinary wolves, and in response, form a hunting party to kill off the animals. While on the hunt, Count Waldemar Daninsky is attacked by Imre Wolfstein and is afflicted with lycanthropy. After killing innocent victims in the midst of his transformation, he seeks help from specialists, Dr. Janos de Mikhelov and his wife, who turn out to be two vampires, who then prey on both Janice and Rudolph, Waldemar's friends. The vampires revive the first werewolf, Imre, from the dead, and force the two werewolves to battle each other. Waldemar kills Imre Wolfstein with his fangs and then destroys the two vampires, only to be killed in turn by bullets fired by Janice, the woman who loved him most.
Cast
Paul Naschy as Count Waldemar Daninsky
Manuel Manzaneque as Rudolph Weissmann
Dyanik Zurakowska as Countess Janice Von Aarenberg
Julian Ugarte as Dr. Janos Mikhelov
Aurora de Alba as Wandesa
Rosanna Yanni as Nascha
Gualberto Gualban as Gyogyo
Jose Nieto as Count Sigmund Von Aarenberg
Carlos Casaravilla as Judge Weissmann
Antonio Orengo as the butler
Angel Menendez as Otto The Forest Keeper
Milagros Ceballos as Magda
Beatriz Savon as Frau Hildegard
Victoriano Lopez
Maria Teresa Torralba
Angela Rhu
Pilar Vela
Juan Medina
Antonio Jimenez Escribano
Production
Paul Naschy was the stage name of the late Spanish screenwriter and actor Jacinto Molina. The film's German distributors felt that Molina needed a more Teutonic-sounding pseudonym. “Paul” was an homage to the Pope at the time, Paul VI, and “Naschy” was inspired by a well-known Hungarian Olympic athlete, Imre Nagy. La Marca del Hombre Lobo was the first in a long line of werewolf films that would make Paul Naschy world famous.
Naschy wrote an autobiography, which included his first encounter with the werewolf mythology in a movie theater as a young child in 1945. He described the first time he saw the Lon Chaney Jr. classic, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man:
Naschy got the idea to make the first Spanish werewolf film while he was working on Agonizing in Crime in 1967. He broached the idea to the director of that film, Enrique Eguiluz, who initially tried to dissuade him from doing it. Naschy tried to interest Spanish director Amando de Ossorio in the project, who also tried to dissuade him. Finally, Eguiluz reconsidered and helped Naschy to find an interested Spanish film producer.