NaschyCast

Naschycast 72 - Jon Kitley Visits!

This episode we are joined by Jon Kitley to talk about his love of and history with Paul Naschy! Readers of Horror Hound magazine are aware of his regular column ‘They Came from the Krypt’ but he has also published the book ‘Discover The Horror’ which is part genre exploration and part autobiography. Both Troy and I recommend it.

 
As you might expect from such a conversation, the three of us range all over the place touching on more topics than we could comfortably list. Suffice to say that we discuss horror conventions (where we all met), non-fiction horror genre books (which we all collect) and our shared fascination with movies and monstrous stories. Of course, we do finally get around to talking about Naschy with Jon falling squarely on my side of the critical Mummy divide! It is about time I had someone to stand with me on that hill!  HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB was our guest’s introduction to the great man’s work and it becomes a big part of our chat. As a bonus, the legendary Spanish character actor Victor Israel gets more than a few minutes of glowing examination too. We had a great time talking Naschy and we hope you’ll enjoy listening. 

If you have any comments or question naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send your emails. Thank you for checking out the show and we’ll be back soon. 

Naschycast #71 - INQUISTION with Marc McCloud

Marc McCloud drops by the show to discuss Naschy’s tale of the Inquisition in France. Marc is the owner of Orbit DVD and a longtime friend of Troy and I, but this is the first time we’ve ever talked about our mutual love of the films of Paul Naschy. Our guest chose Naschy’s directorial debut as the topic and we were happy to oblige.

 

Religious hypocrisy is a big part of our conversation and this gets us into the thorny area of what to call the subset of exploitation films of which this is a part. We note the influence of the Catholic Church on the nature of the fears that undergird the horrors of the film and wonder about the connections to the Nunsploitation genre. The villains of the story come under scrutiny with an eye toward how they use their relative places of power to extract their desires from those around them. And we speak a little about the ways that women had to work to accomplish things in the society ruled by male religious leaders. Join us for what I will refuse to call a ‘romp’ through INQUSISTION.

 

We end the show with a short email from Kurt and if you’d like to send us your thoughts naschycast@gmail.com is the address. Thank you for listening!

Beyond Naschy 36 - ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970)

We return to the Beyond Naschy series with guest Bob Sargent making the choice of film this time out.

ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970) is not a movie that is often called out as a favorite of even the most hardened Euro-Cult horror fanatics. In the past it has been mistaken as a Jess Franco effort with the director’s name, Pierre Chevalier, suspected of being another of the prolific filmmaker’s many pseudonyms. This appears to not be factual but anyone stumbling across this movie unaware couldn’t be blamed for making that assumption. It shares many of the standard tropes and oddities of one of Franco’s color gothics from the period which makes it a good companion piece of Franco’s EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (1973) and DRACULA, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN (1972). It even sports Franco’s original Orloff actor Howard Vernon as ‘Professor’ Orloff who has somehow created an invisible man for the usual mad scientist reasons. The film’s story is a mish-mash of prematurely buried daughters, accidental murders and greedy servants who are not above a bit of graverobbing. Add to that one of the strangest rape sequences in cinema history and some obviously missing story pieces and you have an entertaining if often confusing 76 minutes.

We talk about the cast and crew, including their various Naschy connections. We discuss the missing scenes that can be glimpsed in the French trailer for the film and in the extras included on the old Image DVD. We find some moments of real beauty in the cinematography and some unintentionally funny scenes that just don’t work. The English dialog causes quite a few laughs as we quote some standout circular conversations. Part of our discussion centers on the term ‘guilty pleasure’ and how each of the three of us feel about applying that overused phrase to our love of Euro-Cult cinema. As you might expect, there are more than a few verbal trips down barely connected cinema paths with the final forty-five minute mailbag section becoming a memory lane remembrance of our late friend Craig Ledbetter.

If you’d like to add you voice to the show naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send your thoughts and questions. Troy and I are very happy that Bob has joined us again and with a little luck we will have around for the rest of this year’s shows! Thanks for listening

Mailbag Show for October

Troy and I bring you a brief email episode to round out October. There are questions to address and opinions to discuss so check it out. We do take some occasional editorial privilege but are happy to pass along information about a subtitled DVD of THE TRANSEXUAL (1977) out there on the world wide web. Some talk of Monster Bash is on tap along with some news about upcoming episodes of Wild, Wild Podcast. And what is this we are told about a film in which Victor Israel plays the lead? This must be found! Also, a listener passes along information about a Laurel and Hardy podcast that has escaped our attention until now.  But luckily, we remain the rumbling tummy ache of podcasting!

 

If you want to add your voice to the show naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send all missives. We look forward to your notes and thank you listening to the podcast. Oh – and Happy Halloween!

Naschycast 70 - HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE with Bob Sargent

Troy and I once again welcome Bob Sargent to the Naschycast! This time we discuss one of our favorite Paul Naschy’s horror tales, THE HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE (1973).

This film’s inspired madness is certainly worth talking about and we find some fresh areas to explore. The relative ease that Naschy’s poor hunchback Gotho has kidnapping women for the mad doctor’s experiments is a topic of some debate. Also, the fact that several characters have some knowledge of what is going on but they never compare notes well enough to raise the necessary alarm is something puzzled over. We notice that it doesn’t help that the local cops can’t seem to find a clue when it’s sitting right in front of them lying straight to their faces! Seriously – how suspicious does Orla have to be before you follow that nutcase around just to check up on things?

Bob brings up some interesting questions that we’ve never examined before including the presence of some very odd decorations in a certain apartment. I think I’ve solved one of them but the other is still a mystery. Maybe you can help us out.

If you have any comments or suggestions or if you have a guess about what that strange hanging object in Rosanna Yanni’s place might be naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send them. Thank you for listening!

Naschycast 69 - AGONIZANDO EN EL CRIMEN (1968

Bob Sargent returns to the show to discuss a very early Paul Naschy screen appearance. Rescued from Spanish language-only obscurity by the online fan-subbing community AGONIZANDO EN EL CRIMEN (1968) is a strange crime story centered on a serial killer obsessed with medical professionals - and their hands! This one is not easy to see but is it worth seeking out? Boy, do we have a lot to say.

 
Troy, Bob and I dig into the production of the film and how Naschy’s original job on this project was behind the camera. We spot a few interesting locations including a very familiar set of steps that are a big part of Naschy’s cinematic legacy. The film’s writer/star comes under scrutiny with Naschy’s pointed comments about fellow leaving no doubt about why these two men never worked together again. On the other hand, this movie’s director, Enrique López Eguiluz, played a major role in making Jacinto Molina into the horror movie star we know and love to this day.

 
We take our time and really pull this one apart with occasional sideroads into the Hammer Dracula films and the on-set shenanigans of Klaus Kinski. It can’t be helped! We have a lot to say about the Juan Logar’s wide-eyed, maniacal but still somehow detached performance. We chuckle over the casual 1960’s style of misogyny and the silly idea that a woman might become a surgeon. Madness! And it all circles round to an embarrassing discussion of how best to hide a murder boner. We are a strange trio.

 
We end the episode with a few new pieces of mail sent to naschycast@gmail.com and if you have anything you’d like to tell us, that is the place. Thank you for listening to the show and we’ll be back soon. 

Mini-Naschycast - Email Episode

This short show is comprised of two segments of Troy and I reading several emails and answering questions sent to the podcast. Many topics are hashed over.

 
Originally this was to be an even briefer episode but I waited long enough that more emails came in allowing us to add extra responses. Never say that procrastination doesn’t sometimes have an upside!

 
If you have any comments, questions or ideas about the show naschycast@gmail.com is the place to let us know. I think we’ll continue to handle new emails in this way as we go forward. Unless the listeners don’t like the shorter shows. We’ll see. Thanks for listening! 

Naschycast 68 - Bob Sargent Interview

The NaschyCast returns with a long episode to reward your patience.

 

Bob Sargent was the man behind the excellent 1990’s cult movie fanzine Videooze. His issue devoted to Paul Naschy was a major contributor to my early knowledge of the man’s filmography and allowed for fans to have a roadmap to his career. Mr. Sargent is a huge fan of Naschy and reached out recently to gab about our shared fascination with the great Spanish Horror icon. Of course, Troy and I couldn’t wait to get him in front of a Zoom mic and pick his brain about Euro-Horror in general and Naschy in specific. He was even kind enough to put together a list of his personal Top Ten favorite films by Senor Molina! This a is a lively conversation and it ranges over the decades and across a dozen different topics. You might even learn a little about how Videooze came about and who Mr. Sargent credits with pushing him into self-publishing.

 

If you have any comments or questions naschycast@gmail.com is still the address to send things to. We’ll be back soon with a short episode focused on answering a few emails.

Beyond Naschy #35 - SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY (1971)

Troy and I (finally) return with a new episode!

This time we dive back into the Franco pool of cool and look longingly at the luminous Soledad Miranda. SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY (1971) was the final collaboration between the young actress and Jess Franco before her untimely passing. While it is generally not considered their best film together it contains many scenes that display the brilliance that they could achieve. Soledad’s skills are on full display in her role as a vengeful wife extracting blood from the people who hounded her husband into suicide. As the story plays out, she runs the gamut of human emotions from deep concern and grief-stricken to seductively aloof and finally filled with violent rage. Her performance is mesmerizing and is carried out so well that she could have embodied her character without dialog and still communicated every nuance necessary to engage the viewer. She was a powerhouse screen presence and her loss is only more deeply felt when watching her in this film.

We dig into why we enjoy this film as much as we do with much attention paid to the strength of the central performance. We point to reoccurring plot elements within Franco’s work and his love of a certain visual metaphor involving boats at sea. We discuss the movie’s odd choice to rush past the possible mad scientist idea at the beginning to get to the righteous vengeance at the heart of things. We try to define what makes Soledad such a memorable screen actress even as this film refuses to even give her character a first name. Each of the murders is dissected as we try to understand what Franco might have had in mind as his story gains force, climaxing in a fascinating sequence in which the director is himself the victim. It certainly raises some questions about Jess’ sexual desires and points toward what might have been included in future unrealized projects.

We hope you enjoy the episode and if you have any comments naschycast@gmail.com is the show’s address. Thank you for listening and we’ll be back soon. I promise!

Beyond Naschy 34 - REFUGE OF FEAR (1974)

Post-apocalyptic stories don’t turn up in the Golden Age of Spanish Horror as frequently as I would like and until a listener asked us about REFUGE OF FEAR (1974) neither of us were aware of it being part of that sub-genre. Of course, once we learned about the cast, we immediately tracked down a copy and here we are!

 
Also known as CREATION OF THE DAMNED the film tells the story of a small group of survivors of a possible nuclear war. These five people live in a cramped underground complex while trying to wait out the effects of radiation on the world above. The teenage son of one couple is obsessed with trying to stay in contact with the outside by shortwave radio. He lives in the hope that his girlfriend is somehow still alive but is becoming less sure of that possibility while the pair of married couples are having problems of their own. The husbands are ex-military so are using their training to maintain order but as the film begins tensions are in evidence. One wife drinks and knits while the other tries to sleep away as many hours as she can. Soon, the cracks that begin to appear in the walls of their concrete bunker aren’t the most dangerous breaks in their lives as mentally fragile people start to fracture.

 
REFUGE OF FEAR (1974) has a generally bad reputation which both Troy and I feel is a shame. We were drawn to see this film because it stars the wonderful Patty Shepard who, along with Craig Hill, appeared in a couple of Paul Naschy’s films. She and Hill have he most screentime and are good in their roles with the script giving them some juicy dramatic meat to chew on. The interesting script comes under discussion even as we try to not spoil the turns things take in the final act. We both feel that the director lets the film down a bit and we dig into the possible reasons for that. And we once again find a film that is richly deserving of a quality Blu-Ray release. I think this could be considered a much better film if a good print was made available. 

If you have any comments on the film or anything else naschycast@gmail.com is the address. Or we can be found lurking over at the show’s FaceBook page as well. Thanks for listening!