Ladron de Cadaveres

This 1957 horror film from Mexico helped to usher in a trend

In today’s header gif, we are enjoying the opening moments from Ladron de Cadaveres (The Body Snatchers), a 1957 horror film out of Mexico. With Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinema starting to wane by the late 1950’s, studios were experimenting with new ways to attract audiences. As with their American neighbors, Mexicans were discovering a taste for horror movies, and the studios were eager to tap into this trend. The 1960’s are considered the Golden Age of Mexican horror and science fiction, with Ladron de Cadaveres an early and popular exploration of the genre.

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Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinema (1932-1969) largely coincided with events of World War II in the early 1940’s. As a “most favored nation” allied with the United States, Mexico had access to high-quality filming supplies, particularly to cellulose, in short supply globally due to wartime demands of the arms industry. While instability and shortages in Europe curtailed the movie-making efforts there and studios in the US focused on propagandist wartime films, Mexican studios were cranking out high-quality movies with more versatile themes that proved popular in much of South America and parts of Europe. However, after the war ended, European and American studios once again returned to technical, expensive innovations and more experimental, creative film-making, and the smaller Mexican studios had a hard time being competitive in this market. Additionally, film studios were now competing against television, with Mexican audiences being no exception.

By the end of the 1950’s, three of the most important Mexican studios had shuttered their doors, and smaller-market film producers searched for new ways to get audiences into theater seats. One attractive proposition for these studios was horror and sci-fi, beloved by younger viewers and typically produced much more quickly and cheaply than sweeping dramas. Another “big-seller” idea became using a character from what had become the wildly popular sport of freestyle masked wrestling, lucha libre, a spectacle for which Mexican audiences couldn’t seem to get enough.

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Heavily borrowing from the popular Universal Theater catalog of monster movies, while changing just enough so as not to get into copyright trouble, director and writer Fernando Mendez set out to create a new series of films which, while not at spendy as the big cinematic gems of old, would still be of better quality than the low-budget clinkers on offer elsewhere. He co-wrote Ladrón de Cadáveres, the first film to combine luchadores with mad doctors and their creations. Later that same year he directed El Vampiro, a riff on the Dracula story. Both movies proved hugely popular with audiences and ushered in the new craze for Mexican horror.

Unlike a lot of the lucha libre cinematic fare, those that somewhat lazily introduced a masked hero as an exciting punctuation to the action, Ladrón de Cadáveres incorporates wrestling as an integral part of the plot. Top wrestling talent from a local and respected gymnasium are being murdered, their bodies then being stolen. Baffled police seem to be out of leads, and a desperate Police Captain Carlos Robles (Crox Alvarado) convinces his best friend and aspiring wrestler Guillermo Santana (Wolf Ruvinskis) to join the gym as bait in order to catch the murderer. Guillermo adopts the luchador persona of “El Vampiro” and his success and exploits in the ring do indeed attract the attention of the movie’s mad scientist villain, “El Professor” (Carlos Riquelme), a master of disguise posing as a lottery salesman at the gym. Just as in the Dr. Frankenstein story, El Professor has been replacing the brains of corpses that he hopes to reanimate, this time using the brains of apes. His goal is to create an army of supermen that he can telepathically control, although the “whys” and “hows” are a little vague. But you, dear viewers, aren’t here for the details, you want monster movie action!

Spoiler Alert: skip this paragraph if you don’t want to know how it all ends. Frustratingly for this mad scientist, all his attempts at brain transplant have so far failed, but he’s nothing if not persistent. Science ain’t easy! Sadly, the police are really not up to the task of protecting their inside man, and El Professor and his henchmen do manage to murder poor Guillermo and smuggle his body to the laboratory, with the ensuing brain transplant a success. Alas, the creator cannot control his creation, and in what must be one of the most fantastic wrestling scenes ever, Guillermo’s animal instincts take over at the next match as he flings his opponent out of the ring like a rag doll and tears off his mask to reveal his monstrous face, transformed into a freakish ape visage, causing mass panic as the audience flees the scene. The transformation to ape-man complete, the monster impales his creator on a spike and then abducts the woman he loves (played by Columba Domínguez), à la King Kong. The police follow the pair to the roof of a tall building and have no choice but to shoot the monster, who falls to his demise. Feeling guilt over his role in the death of his friend, Captain Robles arranges to award Guillermo a posthumous medal of honor.

Plot holes aside, this is an enjoyable watch. I don’t think it’s ever been subtitled, so you have to view it in Spanish, but the plot is easy enough to follow and dialogue is less important than action here. And in parts, the cinematography by Victor Herrera is wonderful. Although the opening scene is the only one that leans into the more gothic sensibilities of horror scene-setting, the wrestling scenes are exciting and quite believable. Attention has been given to moody, atmospheric shots throughout, using light and shadow to spooky effect. The production didn’t skimp on set design, and El Professor’s lab in particular (designed by Gunther Gersz) crackles excitedly. Additionally, you’ll get to enjoy an early appearance of one of the big cinematic stars of lucha libre, Latvian-born Wolf Ruvinskis, who discovered acting as a second passion after injuries forced a retirement from professional wrestling in Mexico around 1950.

Available here for free from YouTube thanks to poster Ben Rowe. Enjoy!

Mark David Welsh, "The Body Snatcher/Ladrón de cadáveres (1957)" posted 12/14/21

Scifist: "The Body Snatcher" by Janne Wass, 2/4/2

Wikipedia: Golden Age of Mexican Cinema