1959's "The Genie of Darkness" ("Nostradamus el Genio de las Tinieblas") came third in the Nostradamus quartet, following second chapter "The Monsters Demolisher," continuing the initial film's outline of German Robles' undead Nostradamus predicting murder and mayhem, his colorless adversaries seated for lengthy discussions on how to stop him. The introduction of vampire hunter Igor (Jack Taylor) provided a late spark, vanquishing a zombie-like servant with a sword through the heart, sending Nostradamus into a clutching fit that leaves him on the floor. Unfortunately this one contains more footage of the vampire's hunchback assistant Leo, rightly called an imbecile by his master at one point despite saving him from immolation courtesy the previous film's climax, but at least Leo's cackling witch of a mother lasts just long enough to literally burn for daring to question the power of Nostradamus. Evenly divided into three sections like the serial it was purported to be, the first ends with the shocking demise of Jack Taylor's vampire hunter Igor, followed by a subplot in which the intended target is a woman already dead yet refusing to fall under the vampire's spell due to the strength of her love for another. The final third brings back the professor's society of nonbelievers, now quite eager to assist in the destruction of Nostradamus, his coffin discovered in a deserted hilltop house, the ashes of his ancestors upon which he must nourish himself during the day the key to his demise. While the imbecile is out stealing a new coffin, Nostradamus causes the deaths of two scientists examining those ashes, the professor wrongly assuming that justice has prevailed since he disposes of them at sunrise. A definite anticlimax setting up "The Blood of Nostradamus," on par with "The Monsters Demolisher," affording more screen time for German Robles who does not disappoint even when the picture does (that dimwitted hunchback in the Gilligan cap and his clinging Jewish mother are dubbed by the absolute worst voices that K. Gordon Murray ever selected). It's debatable as to whether or not this is the best of the quartet, there's more for Robles to do but also too much of his blubbering assistant.
