"Autopsy of a Ghost" (Autopsia de un Fantasma) was not released until November 1968 (filming from Dec. 10, 1966 into Jan. '67), over a year after the death of its top billed star, Basil Rathbone, who journeyed to Mexico City to join fellow genre favorites John Carradine and Cameron Mitchell in this Spanish-language non classic. All three seem to be hugely enjoying themselves, but the incredibly bizarre lineup of crazy characters quickly grows tiresome. Author Tom Weaver cast his vote for 'Worst John Carradine Film' for this picture, and there is certainly much to justify that, as his role as Satan requires him to wear horns, a bearded goatee, and spiked tail, manipulating the events and generally behaving no differently than any of the other morons. Even worse, once everything is established after the first half hour, he begins to recede into the background, the observer rather than the observed, popping up briefly throughout the remainder of this 106 minute fiasco. Rathbone is cast as Canuto Perez, the forlorn ghost, who had committed suicide 400 years before, only now receiving a chance to redeem himself by getting a living woman to fall in love with him, and willingly give up her life on his behalf (Satan actually allows him four chances, for each time he stabbed himself!). Who could have thought that this script would make for a pelicula that anyone wanted to see? (calls to question the filmmakers' sanity). Director Ismael Rodriguez at least was known to American audiences for a pair of 1956 releases, "Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer" (Bruce Bennett, Lon Chaney) and "The Beast of Hollow Mountain" (Guy Madison). Cameron Mitchell's guest star role as Moleculo, El Inventor Loco, while fairly sizable, simply doesn't allow him much to do, just making endless proclamations about his creations (in Spanish dialogue only). My print is a recently subtitled one, so even after watching all three imported actors performing without using their voices, it's hard to tell if they're speaking their lines in phonetic Spanish, or simply in English. Carradine returned to Mexico to do a quartet of horror titles for producer Luis Enrique Vergara, who duplicated the deal a year later with Boris Karloff, but none of the Carradines used his voice, or were ever dubbed into English (all four at least have English subtitles). Rathbone and Carradine went back quite a few years together, from 1936's "The Garden of Allah," 1939's "The Hound of the Baskervilles," "Casanova's Big Night" (1954), "The Court Jester" (1955), "The Black Sleep" (1956), and John Ford's "The Last Hurrah" (1958). By 1967, there was only "Hillbillys in a Haunted House" and this final film, the death of poor Basil, working at Mexico City's high altitude (the reason why Boris Karloff's doctor required his scenes to be shot in Hollywood rather than Mexico).
