Probably the most famous of the Méxican 1960's Trash Cinema horrors
and legendary schlock maestro René Cardona's
re-make of his own 1963 "Doctor of Doom / Las Luchadoras vs. el
médico asesino".
This US dubbed version with alternate scenes from the Méxican
export version contains nudity and gore with scenes
of Open-heart surgery (maybe ? Unclear WTF it is, provided by Jerald
Intrator ?). Anyway, it's very gory and almost
on the Herschell Gordon Lewis level so. Trashy, violent and sleazy this
version became a Cult movie in the USA.
This is the US version with dubbed english audio and differs from the
Méxican version with all alternate scenes
of gore
and nudity inserted from various sources. This release of "Night
of the Bloody Apes" is coupled with René Cardona's
first version of the film, the 1963 "Doctor of Doom", also
the first film in his awesome Las Luchadors series - read more
about these amazing wrestling women further down on my Méxican
Film Page.
René Cardona co-wrote the script with his son René Cardona,
Jr.
This release from VCI Entertainment comes with "Night
of the Bloody Apes" (with gore and nudity ) and "Doctor of
Doom"
in Blu-ray versions on Disc 1, and with "Night of the Bloody Apes"
on a Disc 2 DVD.
Maybe this film is considered to be the 6th film in René Cardona's
"Las Luchadoras" series, i'm not sure ? There are No
Lorena Velazquez or Elizabeth Campbell in this movie, but only one wrestling
woman, Lucy Ossorio (played by Norma
Lazareno) and she can be seen in the nude in this version of
the film.
Reversible sleeve
Night of the Bloody Apes
(La horripilante bestia humana) -
The Story:
The film starts at the wrestling arena where a cop,
lieutenant Arthur Martínez (Armando
Silvestre) is cheering on his
beautiful female wrestler/luchadora girlfriend Lucy
(Norma Lazareno). (Amando Silvestre played a cop and boyfriend of
la luchadora Velazquez in the first two Luchadora movies). Lucy wins
the match but her opponent fractures her skull
in a bad fall out of the ring and is taken to the hospital where she's
about to be operated on (by Dr. Krauman).
The Surgeon Doctor Krauman/Krallman (played by José
Elias Moreno) works at a hospital where his son Julio is treated
for leukemia and is about to die. The Desperate doctor abducts a Gorilla
from the Zoo and with the assistance of his
limping assistant Goyo (Carlos López Moctesuma), mad surgeons
always have a limping assistant, he transplants the
monkey heart into his son Julio. Good news: He survives the surgery.
Bad news: He turns into a Human Ape Monster.
Even worse news: He turns into a Human Ape Monster with a craving for
attacking nude women.
The Julio-Ape attacks are gory with knife stabbing and
eye gougings and the question is, can Martínez and Lucy stop
it ?
Ex-wrestler Gerardo Zapeda plays the Apeman in both 1969
Night of the Bloody Apes and in 1963 Doctor of Doom, and
Gina Moret plays his victim in the apartment scene.
Leaflet with text
La Horripilante Bestia Humana - The Méxican original
version of "The Night of the Bloody Apes" was released on
DVD
in 2007 by US BCI Deimos in the non-nudity spanish audio version, and
it was coupled with the 1960 Muñecos
Infernales
(The Curse of the Doll People) by Benito Alazraki.
The VCI Entertainment bluray presents the
film in - ratio not stated - in english dub audio with english subtitles,
region all
Extras: Audio commentary by Travis Crawford, Video essay on Night of
the "Bloody Apes" and "Doctor of Doom" by Dr.
David Wilt, one of the leading authorities on Mexican Film History (35
+ 23 minutes and yes, Great info about the Mexican
Trash Cinema we all love, photo gallery, Original theatrical trailer
and a leaflet
.................................................................................
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Doctor of Doom
(Las Luchadoras vs. el médico asesino)
- Direction: René Cardona 1963
Above: The old US Something Weird Video DVD edition
Lucha Libre and Luchadoras Sci-Fi Horror,
couldn't get any better and maybe this is the Greatest Film Genre ever
?
Unique Méxican Trash horror with unbelievable heroes as the wrestlers
El Santo or The Golden Rubi (Elizabeth
Campbell) fighting against mad scientists, Panther women, aliens, vampires
or Aztec mummies.
Yes, how could they let the old boy rest in his Sarcophagus and it was
time to reanimate the Aztec mummy from
Rafael Portillo's 1957-1958 Mummy Trilogy with "Las Luchadoras
contra la momia" in 1964.
I found it charming that when doing the real wrestling scenes our model
thin heroines clearly are substituted by
much shorter and more muscular female wrestlers, the real Luchadoras.
But, i think that Elizabeth Campbell as
Golden Rubi actually with time (in later films) managed to do some somewhat
realistic looking grips and throws.
The Story:
The first film with the female mexican wrestling champion
Gloria Venus played by bonita Lorena
Velazquez, and in
some of the Luchadoras films she's called Loreta Venus instead, and
the amazing Gringa La Brilliante Rubia or The
Golden Rubi/Ruby, played by the tall, strong and Gorgeous american Elizabeth
Campbell, and they are fighting the
crazy surgeon Dr. Ruiz / Professor Wright (Roberto
Cañedo) and his creature, superwrestler Vendetta.
Note that the names differ from the various english dubbed versions.
Poster pic
Dr. Ruiz / Professor Wright is a mad man, experimenting
with brain transplants and his patients/prisoners tend to die.
Why ? Maybe they had to low IQ for the experiment to succeed. He needs
more women to operate on and this time
his henchmen kidnaps a smart scientist, Alicia (Sonia Infante, who played
the wrestler Sonia La Borrada in 1964 "Las
Lobas del Ring) but guess what, she dies too. Maybe a strong woman is
needed, as a .... female wrestler.
But, Alicia was the sister of the famous wrestler Gloria Venus and this
means the beginning of the end for the Mad
doctor's brain transplant experiments.
A new girl arrives to Glorias wrestling team - The Golden Rubi from
USA and Elizabeth Campbell speaks her own and
charming gringa colored spanish in all of her Luchadoras films. Aaaah,
Elizabeth you were so Lovely, where are you now?
Above from left to right: Chucho Salinas, Elizabeth
Campbell, Lorena Velazquez and Armando Silvestre
Dr. Ruiz / Professor Wright has an Ape
Man dressed in an armour suit in his cellar who he uses to kidnap victims
and
the police bullets just ricoshets from him. The doctor need a strong
specimen for his transplants to succeed and tries to
abduct Gloria and Rubi, without success. But he manages to snatch a
girl from the wresting team, Carmela (Chabela
Romero) and this time he succeeds with the brain transplant. She gets
the apemans brain and an deadly strong an
unbeatable superwrestler woman-ape Vendetta
is born.
Gloria and Rubi makes a crime-fighting
Quartet Team together with the police captain Mike Henderson (Armando
Silvestre) and his supposedly funny Comic Relief guy assistant Chucho
(Chucho Salinas). Will they solve The Case
of the Missing Women and get their hands on the Mad Doctor, El
Médico Asesino y soy banda and will Gloria win the
superfight against La Terrible enmascarada Vendetta
?
René Cardona re-made Doctor of Doom
in 1968 as Las Luchadoras vs. El Robot Asesino, but without both Campbell
and Velazquez, and then yet again in 1969 as Night of the Bloody Apes.
Gerardo Zepeda who plays the Apeman in
this film also plays the apeman in the latter film.
The
VCI Entertainment bluray presents the film in 4:3 fullscreen
original ratio with english dub audio and with english
subtitles, region all
