Paul Naschy Explained

Paul Naschy
Birth Name:Jacinto Molina Álvarez
Birth Date:6 September 1934
Birth Place:Madrid, Spain
Death Place:Madrid, Spain
Occupation:Actor, film director, screenwriter
Children:2

Jacinto Molina Álvarez (September 6, 1934 – November 30, 2009)[1] known by his stage name Paul Naschy, was a Spanish film actor, screenwriter, and director working primarily in horror films. His portrayals of numerous classic horror figures - The Wolfman, Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, Quasimodo, Fu Manchu and a mummy - earned him recognition as the Spanish Lon Chaney.[2] Naschy also starred in dozens of action films, historical dramas, crime films, TV shows and documentaries. He also wrote the screenplays for most of his films and directed a number of them as well, signing many of them "Jacinto Molina". Naschy was bestowed Spain's Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 2001.[3]

Biography

Naschy was born as Jacinto Molina Alvarez in Madrid in 1934, and grew up during the Spanish Civil War, a period of great turmoil in Spanish history. His father Enrique Molina was a successful furrier, and Naschy grew up in very comfortable surroundings, at one point living in his parents' country mansion. Naschy went to college initially to become an architect. After college, he started out as a professional weightlifter, but soon gravitated to acting and filmmaking.[4] His favorite film character from childhood was the Wolf Man, dating back to when he saw the classic Universal film Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) as a child. At times, he tried his hand at designing record album covers, writing pulp western novels and drawing comic book stories, but did not meet with much success. In his 20s, Naschy moved back and forth between professional weightlifting and acting, but wasn't able to secure important roles, usually obtaining just bit parts.

Naschy had an uncredited bit part in the classic 1961 Biblical epic King of Kings and the experience drew him further into filmmaking. Naschy also played uncredited bit parts in the following films: El Principe Encadenado / The Chained Prince (1960, a.k.a. King of the Vikings, playing a Mongol chieftain); Operation Plus Ultra (1966, playing a masked surgeon); Las Viudas / The Widows (1966, acting as assistant director in the "Luna de Miel" segment only); and La Esclava del Paraiso / Slave of Paradise (1968, a.k.a. 1001 Nights, playing a palace servant named Chantal). Naschy allegedly acted as an assistant director on two other films, Aventura en el Palacio Viejo (1967) and Cronica de Nueve Meses (1967)[5]

While appearing as an extra in an episode of the American TV show I Spy that was being filmed in a remote country site in Spain in 1966, Naschy met horror icon Boris Karloff on the set, a thrill he never forgot. (Karloff was in a very poor mood that day, apparently depressed and in poor health. This encounter led to a posthumously produced film biography on Naschy being entitled Paul Naschy: The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry.)

Horror Icon

In 1968, at age 34, he wrote a screenplay for a werewolf movie entitled The Mark of the Wolfman (about a Polish werewolf named Count Waldemar Daninsky) and managed to interest a Spanish film company called Maxper Producciones Cinematograficas into financing it. Naschy never intended to play "El Hombre Lobo" (as the doomed lycanthrope came to be called in Spain), he just wound up with the part when the producer could not find a suitable actor (they had tried to hire Lon Chaney Jr., but at age 62, the fabled Hollywood horror star was far too sickly to travel).

The German distributors insisted he change his name from Jacinto Molina because it sounded too Spanish, which would have hurt the film's chances at the box offices in various countries outside of Spain. He created the name "Paul Naschy".... "Paul" after Pope Paul VI, and "Naschy" as a Germanic sounding version of "Imre Nagy", one of Naschy's weightlifting idols. Naschy later wrote and starred in 11 sequels featuring his Waldemar Daninsky werewolf character, and spun off a very successful acting and screenwriting career in the process.

Naschy wrote the screenplays for most of the films he starred in, especially the horror movies. His most prolific year was 1972, during which time he wrote and starred in no less than seven movies.

During the 1970s, he worked for some of the best Euro-horror film directors in the business, including León Klimovsky, Carlos Aured, Javier Aguirre, José Luis Madrid, Juan Piquer Simón, Francisco Lara Polop and José Luis Merino. Naschy's favorite director was León Klimovsky, with whom he made eight horror and action films. Naschy praised Klimovsky's professional workmanlike attitude, but he always felt that Klimovsky rushed through the filming and never allowed for enough retakes that might have improved some of their films. He also enjoyed working for director Carlos Aured, and was proud of the films they did together. Naschy's favorite co-star (and co-producer) was Julia Saly, and he worked with her on fourteen of his films.

Career Downturn

In 1976, he decided to try his hand at directing as well, choosing the costume drama Inquisition as his first project. He did well for about eight years, even producing and directing a number of successful Japanese/Spanish co-productions and made-for-Spanish-TV documentaries, but by 1985, his feature films were no longer breaking even, and after losing a lot of money on his ill-conceived spy spoof Operation Mantis (1985), Naschy's production company, Aconito Films, wound up in bankruptcy. (Aconito is the scientific term for the herb wolfsbane). Naschy had three partners in the company...Augusto Boue (who dumped his shares in the business the moment things got bad), Masurao Takeda (who died soon after the bankruptcy from pancreatic cancer) and Julia Saly (who retired from acting completely after Mantis flopped).

On June 20, 1984, Naschy's father Enrique Molina died of a heart attack while fishing alone on the shores of a lake. Some boys playing in the woods discovered his body, too late to revive him.[6] The unexpected sudden loss of his father (with whom he had always been very close), coinciding with the bankruptcy of his film company, plunged Naschy into a two-year period of depression. Suddenly no one in the film industry wanted to finance projects with him, and some of his best friends turned their backs on him when he needed them the most. Naschy claimed in interviews that he even considered suicide during this period.

He only returned to filmmaking in 1987 with his supposed "comeback film" El Aullido del Diablo. Naschy's son Sergio played a major role in the film, along with famed horror icons Howard Vernon and Caroline Munro. The film was very poorly distributed unfortunately (shown only on local Spanish TV), and even today is still not available in English.

Naschy's career took a second downturn when he suffered a near-fatal heart attack himself on August 27, 1991, triggered by weightlifting in a local gym. He was hospitalized for more than a week, then had major heart surgery performed on September 5. A rumor circulated throughout horror film fandom that Naschy had died, since he disappeared from the film scene for a while after his operation. He had to later contact a number of fanzine publishers in various countries to inform them that he was still very much alive.

In 1996, Naschy wrote and starred in his 11th werewolf film Licántropo, which he thought would be a big comeback film for him, but the movie did not do well at all, critically or financially. He continued to appear in a number of low budget horror films and crime dramas, however, during the following decade, during which time he won a number of prestigious fan awards and appeared as a celebrated guest at many horror film conventions during the 1990s and the 2000s (both in the United States and in Europe). But he was still doing poorly financially, and complained bitterly in interviews about the state of the corrupt Spanish film industry which he said practiced favoritism and cronyism. In 1997, Naschy wrote a detailed autobiography entitled Paul Naschy: Memoirs of a Wolf Man[7] (which included his filmography as well).

Naschy even traveled to Hollywood briefly in 2003 to appear in two shot-on-video (adult content) horror films directed by Donald F. Glut and Fred Olen Ray, two former horror fans-turned-directors who must have treated him like royalty on the set. (Filming got a bit complicated due to a language barrier since Naschy had never learned to speak English. Also, Naschy had brought his wife and son Sergio along with him, and the day after they arrived, his wife was hospitalized with a stomach virus, so Naschy was a bit preoccupied during the shoot.) During his sojourn in Hollywood, Naschy even visited Universal Studios as well as the famed "Ackermansion" museum of Forrest J Ackerman, the editor of the legendary magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Personal life

Naschy died of pancreatic cancer on November 30, 2009, at a hospital in Madrid, Spain at the age of 75. He struggled desperately to stay alive for over one year after being diagnosed with the cancer in 2008, but the end was inevitable.[8] Although he ended his life in relatively poor financial straits, Naschy always received a tremendous outpouring of love from his many fans at the conventions he attended and died knowing he would always be regarded as a major horror film icon.[7]

Naschy was married only once, on October 24, 1969, to a woman named Elvira Primavera, the daughter of an Italian diplomat living in Spain. They were still happily married 40 years later at the time of his death. His wife was always very supportive of his filmmaking projects and was undoubtedly one of the factors that led to his success. He was survived by his widow Elvira and his two sons, Bruno and Sergio Molina.

A hardcover book entitled Muchas Gracias, Señor Lobo[9] was published in Germany after Naschy's death, collecting hundreds of rare photos, lobby cards, posters, etc. that had been used to promote Naschy's films over the decades in a number of different countries. A comprehensive film biography entitled Paul Naschy: The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry (a reference to Naschy's meeting Boris Karloff on the set of "I Spy" in 1966) has also been released on DVD.

Most famous characters

The werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky (known in Spain as El Hombre Lobo) is without a doubt Paul Naschy's most famous horror character, since he played Daninsky in 12 different films. In fact, Naschy holds the record for the greatest number of roles as a werewolf, easily beating out Lon Chaney Jr., who played a werewolf only seven times during his career (even counting his House of Terror (1960 film) and his appearance on Route 66 (TV series).)[10] Unlike the Chaney Universal films, however, which formed a somewhat chronological storyline from picture to picture, Naschy's Daninsky films were not connected to each other plotwise. Each film was more or less a free-standing story that was not meant to relate to the other films in the series in the way the old Universal films did. Daninsky's lycanthropy had a different origin in each film (which many Naschy fans find confusing). This was probably for the best, however, since in the 1970s, Euro-horror films were often theatrically distributed in the U.S. several years after they were completed, and they probably would have all been released out of order anyway. Naschy's only other recurring character was the villainous medieval warlock Alaric de Marnac (who appeared in Naschy's Horror Rises from the Tomb (1972) and returned to life again in a sequel, Panic Beats (1983)). Naschy claims he based this character on a real-life medieval nobleman named Gilles de Rais, a serial killer on whose life story Naschy also based the lead character in his 1974 film El Mariscal del Infierno (The Devil's Possessed)[11]

The Hombre Lobo Series

Naschy's 12 Hombre Lobo films are not a series in the strictest sense. They seem to be a collection of unrelated plotlines, but all of which involve a werewolf named Count Waldemar Daninsky. Both La Furia del Hombre Lobo (1970) and La Maldicion de la Bestia (1975) refer to an origin involving Waldemar's being bitten by a yeti (and there is a brief yeti reference in La Noche de Walpurgis (1970) as well), but the other films presented him with entirely different origin stories. The fact that these films have also been retitled by the various film distributors many times over the years only adds to the confusion. 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. Only 11 of the 12 Hombre Lobo films actually exist today. Las Noches del Hombre Lobo (1968), which Naschy claimed was the 2nd film in the series, is considered a lost film today. In order of production, the 12 Hombre Lobo films are as follows:

  1. La Marca del Hombre Lobo / The Mark of the Wolf Man (1968) a.k.a. Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (U.S.), a.k.a. The Vampires of Dr. Dracula (Germany/France), a.k.a. Hell's Creatures (U.K./Australia), a.k.a. The Nights of Satan (Italy), a.k.a. Hell Creature (Pakistan/Turkey) and re-released years later in Germany as Hexen des Grauens / The Witches of Horror; directed by Enrique Eguiluz; originally filmed in 3-D and Hi-Fi 70mm, but it was only shown that way in Munich, Germany; first released theatrically in Spain in July 1968; in Germany in Feb. 1969; in England in Feb. 1970; and in the U.S. in a shortened version as Frankenstein's Bloody Terror in 1971; released to U.S. late-night television (edited) in 1974; released on DVD (unedited/ letterboxed) as Frankenstein's Bloody Terror.[12]
  2. Las Noches del Hombre Lobo / The Nights of the Wolf Man (1968) directed in Paris allegedly by "Rene Govar". This is a lost film today, and no one (not even Paul Naschy) has ever seen it. But Naschy insisted that he wrote the screenplay and stayed in Paris for a week to star in it. The French director of the film, Rene Govar (who suspiciously only directed this one film), is said to have died in a car accident in Paris a week after the filming was completed, and no one ever paid the lab bill that was outstanding. Hence it is thought the lab confiscated the negative and probably just discarded it later. Naschy claimed he only became aware decades later that the film had never been released anywhere. Some Naschy historians think the project was scrapped before it was greenlighted and the script was later rewritten to become the fourth film in the series, La Furia del Hombre Lobo (1970). This is very possible, since Naschy remembered both films had virtually the same plot. No reference books have ever turned up any stills from the film or information on its director, Rene Govar. Naschy himself could not even recall the names of any of his co-stars on the project, but it remains on the list since Naschy swore the film existed.
  3. Los Monstruos del Terror / The Monsters of Terror (1969) a.k.a. Dracula vs. Frankenstein (U.K./France/Germany/Yugoslavia), a.k.a. Dracula and the Wolf Man vs. Frankenstein (Belgium), a.k.a. Operation Terror (Mexico), a.k.a. Reincarnator (French re-release title), a.k.a. Assignment Terror (U.S. TV title); the film's original shooting title was The Man Who Came From Ummo; co-directed by Hugo Fregonese and Tulio Demichelli (who finished the film after Fregonese quit midway through); first released theatrically in Germany on February 27, 1970, and in Spain on August 28, 1971; shown in the U.S. (on late night TV only) in 1973 as Assignment Terror (because the title Dracula vs. Frankenstein had already been used in the U.S. by Al Adamson for his 1971 film); eventually released on U.S. video (in splicy pan-and-scan format) as Dracula vs. Frankenstein;[13] released on Blu-ray in the United States by Scorpion Releasing in 2019.
  4. La Furia del Hombre Lobo / The Fury of the Wolf Man (1970) a.k.a. Wolf Man Never Sleeps (Sweden); directed by Jose Maria Zabalza; only released theatrically (edited) in Spain and Argentina in 1975; shown in the U.S. (on late night TV only) in 1974 (edited) as Fury of the Wolf Man; released on video/ DVD as Fury of the Wolf Man (the DVDs are edited, and the old Charter Video VHS edition actually contains more nudity than the DVD release).[14] The Swedish theatrical version Wolf Man Never Sleeps (sic) is the most complete of all. Released on blu-ray by Scorpion Releasing in the United States in 2020.
  5. La Noche de Walpurgis / Walpurgis Night (1970) a.k.a. The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman (U.S.), a.k.a. Shadow of the Werewolf (U.K.), a.k.a. Night of the Vampires (Germany), a.k.a. Night of the Bloody Witches (Germany, re-release title), a.k.a. The Black Mass of Countess Dracula (Italy), a.k.a. Werewolf Shadow (Canada), a.k.a. Fury of the Vampires (France), a.k.a. Night of the Werewolves (Belgium); directed by León Klimovsky; Naschy's most famous and highest-grossing horror film, this was made in 70mm Stereo Technicolor; first released theatrically in Spain in May 1971, in Germany in October 1971 and in England in Oct. 1972; released theatrically in the U.S. in 1972 as The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman (accompanied by a movie tie-in novelization in paperback); released on VHS as both Blood Moon and The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman; released later on DVD uncut as Werewolf Shadow (sic).[15]
  6. Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo / Dr. Jekyll and the Wolfman (1971) a.k.a. Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf (U.K.), a.k.a. Night of the Bloody Wolves (Germany); directed by León Klimovsky, co-starring Jack Taylor; first released theatrically in Spain on November 19, 1972, in Germany on April 19, 1974, and in the U.K. in 1974; released theatrically in the U.S. in 1973 as Dr. Jekyll and the Wolfman; available on DVD uncut (in Spanish/subtitled) as Dr. Jekyll and the Wolfman.[16]
  7. El Retorno de Walpurgis / The Return of Walpurgis (1973) a.k.a. Curse of the Devil (U.S./U.K./Canada), a.k.a. Night of the Diabolical Orgy (Germany), a.k.a. Die Todeskralle des Grausamen Wolfes / Death Claws of the Cruel Wolf (alternate German title), a.k.a. Night of the Killer (Mexico), a.k.a. L'Empreinte de Dracula / The Mark of Dracula (France), a.k.a. Return of the Loup Garous (Belgium); directed by Carlos Aured; first released theatrically in Spain on September 21, 1973, and in Germany and England in August 1974; it was only released theatrically in the U.S. in 1976 as Curse of the Devil; released on DVD uncut as Curse of the Devil, and on a German Blu-ray from Subkultur as Die Todeskralle des Grausamen Wolfes.[17] [18]
  8. La Maldicion de la Bestia / The Curse of the Beast (1975) a.k.a. Night of the Howling Beast (U.S.), a.k.a. The Werewolf and the Yeti (international release title), a.k.a. In the Claws of the Werewolf (France), a.k.a. Curse of the Beast (Mexico), a.k.a. Loup Garou / The Werewolf (Belgium); directed by Miguel Iglesias Bonns; Naschy won Best Actor Award for "Curse of the Beast" at the October 1975 Sitges International Film Festival in Spain; first released theatrically in Spain on January 9, 1975; theatrically released in the U.S. in 1977 as Night of the Howling Beast; released on VHS home video alternately as The Werewolf and the Yeti, Night of the Howling Beast, and Hall of the Mountain King; released on Blu-ray by Shout Factory as part of their Paul Naschy Collection.[19]
  9. El Retorno del Hombre Lobo / The Return of the Wolf Man (1980) a.k.a. The Craving (U.S.), a.k.a. The Werewolf (Germany), Night of the Werewolf (later DVD release title); written and directed by Paul Naschy; this was Naschy's all-time favorite Hombre Lobo film, being a remake of his earlier Walpurgis Night; first released theatrically in Spain and Mexico in 1981 and in Germany in 1984; released theatrically in the U.S. in 1985 as The Craving; released on U.S. home video in 1986 as The Craving; recently released on Blu-ray as Night of the Werewolf.[20]
  10. La Bestia y la Espada Magica / The Beast and the Magic Sword (1983); a Spanish/Japanese co-production; written, co-produced and directed by Paul Naschy; Naschy's wife and two sons appeared in a brief cameo in this film; released theatrically only in Spain in Nov. 1983; never released theatrically in Japan; never dubbed into English nor shown in the U.S.; released to Blu-ray by Mondo Macabro in 2020.[21]
  11. Licántropo: El Asesino de la Luna Llena / Licantropo: the Full Moon Killer (1996), a.k.a. Lycanthropus: The Moonlight Murders (U.S.); directed by Francisco Gordillo; film was only shown theatrically in Spain in April 1997; no U.S. theatrical release; released directly to U.S. DVD dubbed into English as Lycanthropus: The Full Moon Killer.
  12. Tomb of the Werewolf (2004); directed in Hollywood by Fred Olen Ray, co-starring Michelle Bauer; the original shooting title was The Unliving; filmed on video in English (Naschy did not know English so he spoke his lines phonetically); no theatrical release; distributed directly to DVD (edited) as Tomb of the Werewolf in 2004 and then later reissued as an uncensored DVD (with behind the scenes material) as The Unliving by Retromedia Entertainment in 2015.

Naschy played generic werewolves in four other films that were not part of the Hombre Lobo series....

Complete filmography

Note* - Paul Naschy starred in many other horror films that did not feature el Hombre Lobo, as well as a number of crime films, historical dramas, action thrillers, etc. Below is the complete list of all his movies, in strict chronological order of production.

Posthumously released projects

Naschy died on November 30, 2009, in Madrid, Spain.

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.scifiworld.es/noticias.php?id_noticia=5556 Hasta Siempre, Paul
  2. Web site: The Mooring Finds Distro. Steve. Barton. June 20, 2012. Dread Central.
  3. Web site: El Gobierno concede 16 Medallas de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes. El Mundo. 17 February 2001.
  4. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 13..
  5. Naschy, Paul. Paul Naschy: Memoirs of a Wolfman. Midnight Marquee Press. pg 1 of filmography section
  6. Naschy, Paul. Paul Naschy: Memoirs of a Wolfman. Midnight Marquee Press.
  7. Naschy, Paul. Paul Naschy: Memoirs of a Wolfman. Midnight Marquee Press.
  8. He was truly the "Spanish Lon Chaney". R.I.P. Paul Naschy
  9. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images.
  10. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. .
  11. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 318. ISBN 978-1718835894.
  12. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 12
  13. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 62
  14. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 63
  15. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 71
  16. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images.
  17. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 221
  18. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 318. .
  19. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 305
  20. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 345
  21. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 363
  22. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 296.
  23. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 103. .
  24. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 130. .
  25. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 131. .
  26. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 132. .
  27. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 319. .
  28. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 297.
  29. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 298.
  30. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 299.
  31. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 320. .
  32. (www.fantasporto.com; although many sources refer to Fantasporto as a spanish festival, it's important to note that it is actually a long held portuguese initiative, established in the city of Oporto-Portugal since 1981)
  33. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 300.
  34. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 300. .