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Paul Naschy
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Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina on September 6, 1934 in Madrid) is a Spanish movie actor, screenwriter, and director working primarily in horror films. His portrayal of numerous classic horror figures--the wolfman, a hunchback, Count Dracula, a mummy--have earned him recognition as a Spanish Lon Chaney. King Juan Carlos I presented Naschy with Spain's Gold Medal Award for Fine Arts in 2001 in honor of his work, which still continues to this day.
werewolf Waldemar Daninsky is without a doubt Paul Naschy's most famous horror character, since he played him in 12 different films. In fact, Naschy holds the record for playing a Wolf Man the most number of times, easily beating out even the great Lon Chaney Jr.
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Encyclopedia
Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina on September 6, 1934 in Madrid) is a Spanish movie actor, screenwriter, and director working primarily in horror films. His portrayal of numerous classic horror figures--the wolfman, a hunchback, Count Dracula, a mummy--have earned him recognition as a Spanish Lon Chaney. King Juan Carlos I presented Naschy with Spain's Gold Medal Award for Fine Arts in 2001 in honor of his work, which still continues to this day.
Naschy's Most Famous Characters
The werewolf Waldemar Daninsky is without a doubt Paul Naschy's most famous horror character, since he played him in 12 different films. In fact, Naschy holds the record for playing a Wolf Man the most number of times, easily beating out even the great Lon Chaney Jr. (who played a Wolf Man only seven times during his career).
His only other recurring character was the villainous medieval warlock Alaric de Marnac (who appears in Naschy's Horror Rises From the Tomb (1972) and returns again in Panic Beats (1982). Naschy claims he based this character on a real-life medieval nobleman named Gilles de Rais, a bizarre serial killer on whose life story Naschy also based the lead character in his film The Marshall From Hell (1974).)
The "HOMBRE LOBO" series (featuring the Waldemar Daninsky character)
Naschy's twelve "Hombre Lobo" movies do not seem to be connected to each other plotwise, nor can the films be placed into any sort of chronological order. Their only common thread seems to be that they all revolve around the character of a werewolf named Waldemar Daninsky. In no two films, however, does the character have the same origin; each film seems to start the story off anew, as if the screenwriter was unaware of the earlier entries in the canon. This becomes more peculiar when one takes into account that Paul Naschy was heavily involved in the writing of the screenplays.
The fourth film ("La Noche de Walpurgis") starts off with some gravediggers accidentally reviving the Wolf Man in his crypt, thereby appearing to be a sequel, but a sequel to which previous film? A later film entitled "The Return of Walpurgis" may in fact be a prequel to the earlier "Walpurgis" movie. Flashbacks in "Fury of the Wolf Man" (1970) showing the origin of Daninsky's lycanthropy seem to refer to plot elements in the later 1975 film "Curse of the Beast", in that both films involve an arctic-type expedition.
The fact that these films have also been retitled by the various film distributors many times over the years only adds to the confusion. Only 11 of the films actually exist today: all traces of the 1968 "Nights of the Wolf Man" apparently vanished before the film was ever released, and it remains a mystery to this day whether or not the film ever really existed at all! Despite the numerous plot inconsistencies and convoluted flashbacks, however, Naschy's Wolf Man series as a whole is still considered his most famous work by most of his many fans.
In order of production, the "Hombre Lobo" films are as follows:
Other Paul Naschy Werewolf films not involving the Waldemar Daninsky character:
- Buenas Noches, Señor Monstruo/ "Good Night, Mr. Monster" (1982) Naschy played a werewolf in this children's musical comedy
- El Aullido del Diablo/ "Howl of the Devil" (1987) co-starring Caroline Munro & Howard Vernon, directed by Paul Naschy (Naschy played a man who dresses up as a werewolf and other monsters in this film)
- Um Lobisomem na Amazônia/ "A Werewolf in Amazonia" (2005) aka "Amazonia Misteriosa" (Naschy played a mad doctor who transforms into a werewolf in this remake of H. G. Wells' "Island of Dr. Moreau")
Paul Naschy's Other Horror Films
Paul Naschy starred in other horror films that did not feature werewolves, as well as a number of crime dramas, action films, etc. Below is a list of his other horror & science fiction movies, in chronological order of production. This information was taken from Naschy's own autobiography and the information is much more accurate than that found on imdb.com and other such websites....
- Jack el Destripador de Londres (Jack The Ripper of London) 1971
- El Gran Amor de Conde Dracula (Count Dracula's Great Love) 1972
- El Jorobado de la Morgue (The Hunchback of the Morgue) 1972 (one of Naschy's all-time greatest horror films)
- Los Crimenes de Petiot (Petiot's Crimes) 1972
- La Orgia de los Muertos (Orgy of the Dead) 1972 (aka "The Hanging Woman", aka "Return of the Zombies")
- El Espanto Surge de la Tumba (Horror Rises From the Tomb) 1972 (perhaps Naschy's all-time best horror movie; this film introduced the medieval character of Alaric de Marnac, who returned later in Naschy's 1982 sequel "Latidos De Panicos")
- La Rebelion de las Muertas (Rebellion of the Dead)(1972) (aka "Vengeance of the Zombies")
- Los Ojos Azules de la Muneca Rota (Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll) 1973 (aka "House of Psychotic Women")
- La Venganza de la Momia (The Mummy's Revenge) (1973)
- Las Ratas no Duermen de Noche (Rats Don't Sleep At Night) 1973 (aka "Crimson")
- Una Libelula Para Cada Muerto (A Dragonfly For Each Corpse) 1973
- El Asesino Esta Entre Los Trece (The Killer Is One of The Thirteen) 1974
- El Mariscal del Infierno (The Marshal From Hell) 1974 (aka "The Devil's Possessed") (story was based on the real-life medieval witch-hunting activities of Gilles de Rais, who was Naschy's inspiration for his character Alaric de Marnac)
- Todos los Gritos del Silencio (All the Screams of Silence) 1974
- Exorcismo (Exorcism) 1974
- La Cruz del Diablo (The Devil's Cross) 1975 (Naschy wrote the original screenplay for this movie, but hated the way the film turned out due to outside interference & later wanted his name removed from the credits)
- La Diosa Salvaje (The Savage Goddess) 1975 (aka "Kilma, Queen of the Jungle")
- Inquisicion (Inquisition) 1976
- El Ultimo Deseo (The Last Desire) 1977 (aka "The People Who Own the Dark" or "Blind Planet")
- El Carnaval de las Bestias (Carnival of the Beasts) 1980 (aka "Human Beasts")
- Misterio en la Isla de los Monstruos ("Mystery on Monster Island") 1981 (based on a Jules Verne story)
- Latidos de Panicos (Panic Beats) 1982 (featured the return of Naschy's medieval character Alaric de Marnac)
- El Ultimo Kamikaze (The Last Kamikaze) 1984
- El Aullido del Diablo (Howl of the Devil) 1987
- Mucha Sangre (Lots of Blood) 2000
- Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood 2003 (this film was made in the United States)
- Rojo Sangre (Red Blood) 2004 (Naschy plays an over-the-hill horror film actor in this one)
- Spanish comic-book Iberia Inc. by Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marín menctioned a fictional movie, Casta de Heroes (directed by Jesús Franco) about Spanish superheroes of the past where Paul Naschy played "the Ogre", a character inspired in lycantropic villain Lince Dorado. Unsatisfied with this portrayal of himself, Lince Dorado arranged for the original to be lost, and no copy of the film is supposed to remain.
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