Mexican comedian Clavillazo stars as a funeral parlor employee who comes to the aid of a penniless girl burying her last relative but their budding romance is interrupted when she's kidnapped by a mad scientist and Clavillazo must enter the monsters' castle to get the damsel in distress back. Once inside, he battles Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Mummy, and even the Creature from the Black Lagoon as he dodges all sorts of mayhem in what's basically a south-of-the-border ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN with "everything but the kitchen sink" thrown in. "Mexico's Christopher Lee", Germán Robles, guest stars as the vampire, a signature role for him. I fully expected "painfully unfunny" but it wasn't that bad if you're in the right frame of mind for this sort of nonsense and I guess I was. Otherwise, it's strictly "kiddie matinée".
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melvelvit-12 December 2016
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JohnHowardReid25 December 2017Clavillazo was most amusing in some of his early films like El Fantasma de la Casa Roja (1954) in which he played a bumbling 'tec named Diogenes Holmes. But success seems to have gone to his head. In El Castillo de los Monstruos (1958), he is unbearable.
When filming with other players, he insisted that he always be photographed full face. While obeying this egotistical edict to the letter, veteran writer/director Julian Soler has even made a joke of it. In one early scene, the actor conversing with the swell-headed Clavillazo has to twist himself around at such a ridiculously awkward angle to face the "comedian", he falls off his stool!
Unfortunately, Soler and his co-writers have failed to give their star any witty or risible lines. He talks and talks and talks, but failed to amuse me one iota until he finally confronts the castle monsters in the last reel. And it's not until this finale, that we finally get a good look at his co-star, the lovely Mexican singer, Evangelina Elizondo, who at last has a scene (with the villain) in which Clavillazo does not appear. Of course, she doesn't sing in this movie, more's the pity. In fact, aside from the credits sequence and the last reel, it's a Poverty Row piece through and through. -
Most reviewers of this Mexican horror-comedy tend to get their facts wrong. Despite what almost every synopsis of this film claims, the story is NOT about "a couple having car trouble who are forced to spend the night in a spooky castle."
Here's the real story: Mexican funny-man, El Clavillazo (ANTONIO ESPINO), is in love with a seamstress named Beatriz (EVANGELINA ELIZONDO), and also hangs out with a variety of odd characters, including a newsboy and a mental patient. Meanwhile, at a nearby castle, a mad scientist named "Dr Sputnik" and his scarred, hunchbacked assistant are busy making monsters. The doctor poses as a blind man in town but uses hypnosis to lure Beatriz to his castle and makes her believe that she is his own love named "Galatea". El Clavillazo, with an assist from his friends, blunders his way into the castle, where he spends most of his time being chased around by various monsters. There is the Frankenstein-like butler, GERMÁN ROBLES (star of several serious horror films) as a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy, and a gill man (clearly patterned after "Creature from the Black Lagoon"). There is also another, unidentified monster being kept in a cell, which is referred to as a "gorilla" in some reviews, although it appears to be more of a Neanderthal-like creature, perhaps based on Mr. Hyde. The usual mix of horror and hi-jinx ensues. -
BandSAboutMovies20 June 2022Everyone is in love with Beatriz (Evangelina Elizondo). Like the goofy El Clavillazo (Antonio Espino, Conquistador de la Luna) and the sinister Dr. Sputnik. The latter uses hypnosis to convince her that she's really Galatea and his lover, while the former has to make his way into the mad scientist's castle and do battle with the Frankenstein's Monster-like butler, a werewolf, a gillman, a strange caveman kept behind bars and a vampire played by German Robles, who was usually a very serious vampire in movies like El Vampiro and the Nostradamus series.
The monsters in this movie are all dispatched in some interesting ways and mostly by accident. The gillman gets turned into a fish, the caveman chokes out the wolfman, the hunchback shoots the mad scientist who stabs him before he expires, the modern Prometheus electrocutes himself which doesn't seem possible but maybe I'm basing that on Japanese Frankenstein being able to absorb electricity, the mummy gets eaten up by alligators and the vampire forgets that the sun rises.
Julián Soler also directed Pánico, Santo vs. Blue Demon in Atlantis and El Hombre y La Bestia. Producciones Sotomayor, who produced this movie, also made the similar movies Santo and Blue Demon Against The Monsters and Ship of Monsters, two films that I love with every chamber of my heart. -
insomniac_rod28 October 2006Fantastic Horror/Fantasy movie for children and adults with imagination. The movie isn't scary by any means but it shows monsters, a haunted castle, and many hilarious scenes.
This is an entertaining old Horror movie, when the genre was very tender in Mèxico. The music is very good also, and the direction is perfect.
This movie seems to have vanished from earth, so if you have the chance, please watch it. But remember, this movie is for a younger audience and for people who enjoy movies with low budget.
The monsters are cheesy but fit perfect for the movie's atmosphere. This is a very recommended movie for fans of Mexican horror.