The Body Snatcher

A dead wrestler who gets his brain transplanted with the brain of an Ape? Sound corny? I thought so too.. until I watched it. Though Ladron de Cadaveres may sound like another campy, Lucha Libre (or Santo style) film, it isn't. It's a very well photographed and masterfully directed Horror/Mad Science/Detective story shot much in the Noir style. Mendez was in his directing prime here and as usual per this era of Mexican Horror, the Gothic atmosphere helps make this film a joy to look at. The wrestling mixes well here I think because the wrestlers are not really part of the cast. They are more part of the story. The story involves a dead champion wrestler, some city cops hot on the trail of his killer and some scientists wanting to use the dead wrestler for a dark and twisted experiment which everybody learns was a huge mistake. The opening scene is great and sets the tone very well. This is another rarely seen Mexican classic that certainly deserves some admiration.

I like the opening of the movie very much because it tries to set the tone for the rest of the running time. It's a graveyard at night, when suddenly a grave digger pops out of a grave. I must admit that I didn't expect the scene!. Anyways, soon we are introduced with a mad doctor that steals corpses of athletes (mainly wrestlers) for "evil" purposes. Soon after we know the diabolical plans, we are introduced with our hero. The wrestler starts the special mission because this grave digging and stealing is getting national attention.

The settings of the movie are pretty damn good and tend to create a creepy atmosphere which later is turned into a fantasy world. The wrestlers are more than welcome in the plot! But I didn't buy their dialogs. Well, they weren't very good actors in the first place.

The acting of the rest of the cast is pretty good for it's time and for the movie's plot. Rubinski (not Rubinskis as listed on IMDb) delivers a solid and believable performance. The main problem with the movie is that it gets boring after the half. There aren't that many emotions or action. Still, it worths a watch.

After the release of Chano Urueta's 1953 movie about wrestling "La bestia magnífica (Lucha libre)", director Fernando Méndez took heed of its big financial success at the box office, recognizing the potential of adding wrestling matches to horror films. In September of 1957 he had the first horror hit of the year with this story of a country boy who arrives in México City, succeeds as a wrestler and is transformed into a monster by a mad scientist who makes criminal experiments with athletes and animals. To the success of the film helped the impressive presence of Wolf Ruvinskis, a handsome Argentinian professional wrestler and actor, born of Jewish parents in Latvia, who also played a key role in Urueta's movie.

"Ladron de Cadaveres", a.k.a. "The Body Snatcher", spins a decent yarn mixing your typical mad scientist plot with a wrestling plot device. Crox Alvarado plays Carlos Robles, a police captain working to apprehend a mad professor (Carlos Riquelme), who murders wrestlers and other strong men in order to turn them into "super-humans". Robles' old friend Guillermo Santana (Wolf Ruvinskis), who yearns for fame & fortune as a wrestler, agrees to act as bait for the villain.

This little movie isn't about to re-invent the wheel when it comes to this sort of entertainment, but it delivers the goods quite capably, with an effective pace, reasonably impressive makeup effects (victims of the mad scientists' process start degenerating), and a lively finish. The performances are all engaging, particularly from Ruvinskis as an upbeat, amiable type with an eye for the ladies; Columba Dominguez is very appealing as the secretary with whom he falls in love.

It may not hold any surprises, but "Ladron de Cadaveres" shows its intended audience a pretty good time. There's no deep thinking required; this is simply a routine but well-made and fun diversion, especially if one is already into B level Mexican genre cinema.

Seven out of 10.

The Mexican cinema didn't make so many horror movies, just in thirties some were made, but after the smashing success of Ladron de Cadáveres where the director Fernando Mendez mixing two genres as favorite Mexican wrestling with the hero wearing the exotic mask as that became a Mexican trademark in others wresting pictures as "Santo" a true Mexican institution due it had a fabulous box-office at its time, the actor Wolf Ruvinskis was the main exponent of this attraction for many years.

The picture is a true gem, aside some outliers easily perceived in the feature as the bad make up e some oddities in others sequences, the story is about a mad scientist professor (Carlo Riquelme) that looking for a perfect body to insert another brain, he has been failed twice until finds in the skilled rookie wrestling Guillermo Santana (Wolf Ruvinskis) aided by his bleak sidekick Cosme Ramirez (Yerye Beirute) to catch him.

Meanwhile the womanizer guy Guillermo starts court the beauty Lucia (Columba Dominguez) who got the top billing cast, actually Guillermo is an old buddy of the Captain Carlos Robles (Crox Alvarado) that introduced him in the wresting circuit to start training due Guillermo came from countryside to Mexico City to begin a successful career in this odd sport.

The picture is utterly well-done mainly in great photograph very alike American productions, plus the clever filmmaker inserts a humor and romance, although who stolen the picture quite is the multipurpose Carlo Riquelme playing a kind of double face character as lottery peddler as almost a beggar and also the criminal mad scientist that wants rule the world after they weird experiences work out, don't miss it if you like a fine horror mixing with science fiction!!

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25.