Autopsy of a Ghost (1968)
* (out of 4)
This is a real oddity in the Mexican-horror genre as even with Basil Rathbone, John Carradine and Cameron Mitchell no one in the past forty-plus years has bothered to add an English dub track or even subtitles. Since I don't speak Spanish I obviously missed the dialogue the story deals with Rathbone playing a ghost who is trapped inside a basement with his tag along skeleton. Satan (Carradine) finally shows up to give the ghost his day in court and says that he can enter Hell if he can get one of four women to fall in love with him. This movie has one of the worst reputations of any Mexican movie and it's sad to say that this turned out to be the final film in Rathbone's terrific career, which is just another case where a great actor goes out with something pretty bad. With that said, fans of bad cinema will still want to check this out and I can only hope at some point a fan (or someone crazy enough) adds some subtitles for people like me. With that said, I must admit that even though the film is pretty bad the director at least keeps things happening. There's all sorts of weirdness here starting with the talking skeleton and a laughing spider who is also living in this basement. All of Rathbone's scenes are filmed in this basement but I give the actor credit for still giving it his all. You can tell that he's at least trying to give some sort of performance even with all the camp going on around him. Carradine, who made a string of Mexican films during this period, plays Satan with a wink in his eye and just check out the sequence where he keeps stepping on his own tail. Mitchell appears quickly as a mad scientist and was obviously just picking up a check. I'm sure this movie could be released to fans but I think it would take some major editing as the 107-minute running time is just deadly. Camp is good but not at that length. AUTOPSY OF A GHOST is a film that most people have either forgotten or never heard of. Yes, it's really bad but fans of Carradine and Rathbone will still want to check it out.
