Tomb of the Werewolf (4 Stars)

"There's nothing I like more than two girls together in a gothic horror film stretched out on a bed with some candles going". (Fred Olen Ray)

I was inspired to watch this film after reading a few days ago that it was the 10th anniversary of Paul Naschy's death. For those who don't know him, he was Spain's best known actor in horror movies. He's most commonly compared to Lon Chaney, because he portrayed all of the classic horror characters: Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, the Wolfman and the Mummy. He's best known for playing the Wolfman, 12 films from 1968 to 2004, in which he's always an incarnation of Count Waldemar Daninsky. "Tomb of the Werewolf" is the 12th and final film.

Before watching the film today I read my last review and saw that I promised to listen to the director's commentary next week. That was three years ago. Oops! So I made up for it by listening to the commentary today.

I don't often listen to commentary tracks. Usually they're boring, especially for new films. It seems to be a chore for the directors. The studios tell them, "You have to do a commentary track to make people buy the DVD/Blu-ray instead of just watching it on Netflix". Just because a man is a good director, it doesn't mean he's interesting to listen to, especially if he never wanted to talk about something. Even adding a film's principal actors to the mix doesn't improve the quality of the track.

Commentaries worth listening to are:

1. "Batman" (1966). Adam West and Burt Ward.

2. "Basic Instinct", Camille Paglia (available on DVD only).

3. Any commentary by Joe Bob Briggs.

and.....

4. Any commentary by Fred Olen Ray.

In the commentary for "Tomb of the Werewolf" Fred Olen Ray is supposedly being interviewed by David DeCoteau, but it turns into a chat between two old friends. During their conversation they often get diverted and talk about their other projects that have nothing to do with the film, but whatever they have to say is interesting. I wasn't bored for a moment, I was hanging on Fred's every word.

The commentary was recorded in 2013, nine years after the film was released in 2004. What's interesting for me as someone outside of the movie business is that he has trouble remembering details. He's not sure whether he made the film in 2001 or 2002. He can't remember whether he made it before or after other films that he made in the early 2000's. I can relate to that in comparison with my own career in software engineering. I did some big projects, but I can't always remember what year it was. I have difficulty remembering the exact years I did them. My projects were bigger than Fred's films, as far as the time was concerned. If I'm unable to remember when I worked on an 18-month project, Fred can be forgiven for forgetting the exact dates of a six-day film.

Yes, six days. Fred's trademark is his ability to make a good film in a short period of time.

Paul Naschy was visiting Los Angeles on other business, and Fred was keen to make a film with him. Fred didn't find out until he met him that he didn't speak a single word of English, but that didn't put him off. It was important to Fred that Paul's voice shouldn't be dubbed, so the script was written to keep his dialogue to a minimum, and Paul learnt his few lines phonetically. Paul was only available for three days, so his scenes were filmed first. A stand-in actor was needed for additional scenes after he left.

Something else of note is that this is the first film that Beverly Lynne made with Fred Olen Ray. Another actress, whose name Fred has forgotten, dropped out at the last moment, and Beverly was recommended by a friend. Fred was so impressed with her that he's used her in dozens of films since then. He can't say how many, but I could name 17 films that I have in my DVD collection.

Even though Fred has been using Michelle Bauer in his movies since 1988, this is the first film in which he's filmed her performing a sex scene. He says he can't remember if it was the only time, but it was definitely the first. Please, Fred... how could anyone forget something like that? Supposedly Michelle was nervous about the scene because she considered herself too old. She was 42 or 43, depending on when the film was made, and she said that nobody would want to look at her. I don't understand why she was so insecure. She was the sexiest woman in the film, as her lesbian sex scene with Jacy Andrews proves.

Sex scenes in a horror movie? Yes, there are five of them: three boy-girl scenes, and two girl-girl scenes. When Fred made the film he was concerned that it might not make any money, so he added the sex scenes to make it appealing for late night cable viewing. In retrospect, that might not have been a good idea. The film had too much sex for fans of horror movies, and too much horror for fans of sex movies. The film was a financial failure, and it failed to break even. That doesn't mean that Fred regrets making the film. It was a matter of prestige. For him it was an honour to make a film with Paul Naschy, so any money that he lost was considered paying for the privilege.

In the commentary Fred compares "Tomb of the Werewolf" with "Haunting Desires", which he made at roughly the same time. He can't remember which he made first, but Beverly Lynne was in both films, so "Haunting Desires" must have come later. Fred says that the mixture of gothic horror and sex works better in "Haunting Desires". I agree. There are probably two reasons for this. "Haunting Desires" has a better plot. "Tomb of the Werewolf" was probably written in a hurry when Fred found out that Paul was in Los Angeles. The other reason is that vampires are sexier than werewolves, so vampires and sex are always a good mix.

Beverly Lynne becomes a werewolf. Or should she be called a she-wolf? I don't know. Either way, I think it's a shame she never reprised this role in her later movies.

Michelle Bauer plays Elizabeth Bathory, and she needs the blood of virgins to stay eternally young. I thought that the real Elizabeth Bathory didn't drink blood, she bathed in it. Call it artistic license. And is Jacy Andrews really a virgin? Earlier in the film she had lesbian scenes with Beverly Lynne and Michelle Bauer. But technically, lesbian sex doesn't take away a woman's virginity, I suppose. It's all a matter of definition.

The best way to listen to a commentary track is to play it while watching the film with the main subtitles. That way you don't miss anything. Unfortunately, the DVD doesn't have any subtitles. I know the film well enough to do without, but it's still a loss.

One unrelated but nevertheless interesting thing in the interview is that people in Los Angeles like to rip off film makers. David DeCoteau, also a film director, wanted to use a church in one of his films. He spoke to a nun and offered her $1,000. She laughed and replied, "When the Julia Roberts film was made they paid us $15,000 a day". (What film was that? "Runaway Bride"?)

That's a total rip-off. The nun should be ashamed of her greed. I would have dropped $10 in the collection box.