Dr Jekyll vs the Werewolf

We begin with stock shots of the Houses of Parliament and Picadilly Circus, overlaid with the strains of Big Ben chiming, in the manner of countless West German krimis from a few years previous.

Imre and Justine (Shirley Corrigan), newly married, are about to depart on honeymoon whereby the Hungarian emigre intends to introduce his English bride to his parents – in they graves where they've lain since he was a child.

Back in the old country, the couple are attacked by bandits and Imre is killed – talk about a May to December marriage – before Waldemar Danisky's (Paul Naschy / Jacinto Molina's) timely intervention.

Daninsky takes the unconscious Justine back to his castle to recover. There his nursemaid Elizabeth Bathory explains matter of factly that Daninsky is cursed to transform into a wolfman on the night of the full moon. Stranger still, the newly widowed Justine takes this on board as if it's the most natural thing in the world. Then again, this is the 'old country'…

(The futility of seeking continuity from the previous Daninsky films is apparent when we remember that a Bathory-type vampire had appeared, two films back, in Werewolf Shadow as Daninsky's mortal enemy, while this Bathory seems nothing more than a kindly human witch.)

Meanwhile the surviving bandits retreat to the inn to lick their wounds and raise up a posse of torch and rake wielding villagers to assault the monsters' castle. Daninsky and Justine barely escape with their lives, though the nurse is less lucky, getting decapitated offscreen and having her head placed on a peasant's pole.

Back in London, Justine goes to see her old friend Henry Jekyll (Jack Taylor) – you started to wonder when he would come back into the story following his brief appearance at Imre and Justine's going-away party – to see if he can help cure Waldemar of his lycanthropic tendencies.

Despite his family history the Doctor is skeptical, but agrees to at least see Daninsky. Unfortunately he then gets caught in the lift with a nurse as the full moon rises, kills her and runs off into the night.

Jekyll covers up the incident and arranges for Justine to bring Daninsky, now back to his normal self, to his house, complete with laboratory in the cellar, where he can treat Daninsky.

Jekyll's plan? To give Daninsky a shot of his grandfather's formula so that he transforms into Hyde, then the Hyde and Wolfman personas can destroy one another, leaving Daninsky alone…

Did that make any sense to you? No matter, as Jekyll's not-so-trusty assistant Sandra, who is jealous of the attention he is giving Justine, stabs him in the back and lets Daninsky as Hyde loose, whereupon he heads for the bright red lights of Soho…

The only real surprise Dr Jekyll vs the Werewolf – a somewhat misleading title compared to the Spanish Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo, given that the two characters aren't really opposed – is the disappointing absence of nudity from hotties Shirley Corrigan and Mirta Miller. Perhaps they had no nudity clauses in their contracts or – an equal possibility given the widespread practice at the time of shooting alternate versions of scenes for different markets – the footage is lost or in a vault somewhere and it's simply the "clothed" version we have here.

Otherwise, it's pretty much a by-the-book Waldemar Daninsky adventure: Establish him as a sympathetic, tragic figure desperate to find a lasting – i.e. fatal – cure for his condition, set up a female love interest and a truly villainous opponent, downplay the Spanish origins somewhat, and work it through against a backdrop of the worst of late 60s/early 70s taste.

One variation on the well-worn tale is the way in which the opponent this time is another face of Daninsky himself, so that his conflicted personalities are redoubled and we have not only el hombre lobo, as a figure of animalistic impulse, but also Mr Hyde, as a more self-aware human figure who tortures and kills because he enjoys it.

Visually, this is a less stylish outing than director Leon Klimovsky's previous Waldemar Daninsky entry, Werewolf Shadow. Nevertheless there are moments of interest, not least the quasi-documentary shots of Hyde on the prowl, shot clandestinely without permit or permission and eliciting entirely genuine looks of bemusement from passers-by.

Also worthy of note is the studio-bound nightclub sequence where Hyde – an effective creation utilising little more than some coloured contact lenses, grey face paint and a different hairstyle – transforms back into Daninsky who then transforms into the wolfman, the lack of sophisticated effects work – remembering this is both ten years and several million dollars cheaper than An American Werewolf in London – made up for by some judicious use of strobe-style disco lighting.

Mondo Macabro's Region 0 PAL DVD presents Dr Jekyll vs the Werewolf in an anamorphic transfer at its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 that easily surpasses any previous releases for image quality and detail, with good colours and little damage apparent.

There are no problems with the audio either, with dialogue and score – the disco music is especially groovy – coming through loud and clear and the optional English subtitles easy to read and devoid of obvious errors.

The extras comprise a very worthwhile 20 minute interview with Naschy, later reprised on the Panic Beats disc and a useful essay by Pete Tombs entitled "The Pain in Spain" on the history of the Spanish horror film, outlining the important places of Naschy and Klimovsky within it.