PAUL NASCHY
Paul Naschy (aka Jacinto Molina Alvarez), Spanish actor, writer, director. An architect-turned-actor who has specialized in monster roles in Spanish-language films. Unarguably the kingpin of Spanish Horror, Naschy claims with characteristic ego to have sparked the whole boom. A Championship weightlifter and brawny bit-player, Naschy indulged a passion for Universal gothic by scripting La marca del hombre lobo (aka Hell's Creatures, 1967) The film was directed by Enrique L. Eguilus, a lavish film, it was produced in 70mm 3D with stereophonic sound. Assuming the lead when Lon Chaney Jnr proved unavailable, he has since limned polish Werewolf Waldemar Daninsky in eleven adventures, the fourth La noche del walpurgis (aka Shadow of the Werewolf 1970), was successful enough for him to play dress-up as a host of other Horror types.
El espanto surge de tumba (aka Horror Rises from the Tomb 1972), the first appearance of Naschy's Gilles de Rais character, marked the beginning of a contract with the prolific Profilmes,the non-renewal of which led to his directorial debut, Inquisicion (1976.)
After a series of Japanese co-productions, Naschy typically takes ten different roles in his troubled Spanish comback El aullido del diablo (1988). Deriving his pseudonym from Pope Paul VI, the well fed, anxiously coiffured star finds it hard to resist imbuing the most vitiated role with heroic allure. The results are preening and unsatisfactory, but often also unwittingly perverse: both rapist and hero in Los ojos azules de la muneca rota (aka House of Psychotic Women 1973), Naschy beds the girl even as El Jorobado de la morgue (aka The Hunchback of the Morgue 1972). Denied the opportunity to mint an authentic Spanish horror tradition when John Gilling usurped the Gustavo Alfonso Becquer adaption La cruz del diablo (1974), he is considered an anachronism by post-Franco film makers. As Satan astounded at the world's corruption, he expresses his resentment in the heartfelt El Caminate (1979). In El Carnaval de las bestias (Human Beasts 1980), Naschy is incredulous that he is simply being fattened for the pot.
Fangoria Convention January 1998