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Film: The Beast Man (El hombre bestia)
Year: 1934
Director: C.Z. Soprani
Writer: C.Z. Soprani
Starring: Saverio Yaquinto, Carmen Quiroga and Raúl D’Angeli
Review:
Now this was a movie that I found streaming. I believe it was on YouTube. The problem was that it wasn’t subtitled. I rolled the dice to use an AI program to see if it could translate. What I got wasn’t great. It didn’t translate any of the text screens, but I do know how to read limited Spanish. I think I got the gist of what this is getting at. I originally discovered this as well for my Foray through the Fours.
Synopsis: a downed American WWI pilot survives 12 years alone in a forest, only to be kidnapped by a mad scientist who turns him into a crazy beast man who kidnaps women and stashes them in a cave.
We start this at the beach where there are people having fun. At first, this confused me. I think later it makes more sense. We then shift it over to a villa. I believe that here we have Dr. Marchesi (Raúl D’Angeli) chatting with Prof. Robinson (Felipe Salzinger). They’re talking about what happened to Captain Richard (Saverio Yaquinto). He is an American and a great pilot. We see him in a dogfight during World War I. He is shot down but survives. He goes into a nearby woods.
Capt. Richard then sees a chance to return to civilization. A plane lands near him. He kills the pilot and steals it. That is when he comes to the villa of Dr. Marchesi. Instead of helping him, he takes him inside and ties him up. He gives him an injection of something. The ropes don’t hold. Richard gets up and kidnaps Esther (Carmencita Quiroga). Men in the area try to find her, but they end up meeting Richard, who is violent. It seems he is unstoppable. I believe that Esther is engaged to Alberto as well as being the daughter of Dr. Marchesi. She is also pregnant; from something we see later. She also isn’t the only woman taken.
Now that is where I’m going to leave my recap and introduction to the characters. First let me say that I’m glad that I watched this since it is an early horror film from Argentina. I think that they tried to do good things here. There are elements missing though. Part of that could be that the print wasn’t in great shape. I’m also gathering that it is just sloppy as well.
With that out of the way, there was one review that I saw for this that called Richard a werewolf. I don’t get that idea. If anything, I think this is more of a variation on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. My problem here is that we don’t get a baseline for Richard. We do see him going off to war, crashing and then going into the woods. It seemed to me that he was crazy after his time there, being as isolated as he was. I could see them trying to explain that because he flew the plane, he was normal enough until Dr. Marchesi did the injection. There are just elements here for this to come together.
Now another issue I have is that I don’t know where this is taking place. My mind at once goes to Argentina, where it was made. We have an American in Richard fighting in WWI, so that means he crashed in Europe. Everyone is speaking Spanish, so I’m landing that it was in Spain. None of this is fully confirmed though. I can also roll with that this is made in Argentina, for viewers there so they’re just speaking the native language when it should be English or wherever Richard ends up. I just wanted to point this out.
Since we don’t do great about fleshing the story out aside from what I’ve given, let’s go to the acting. This also isn’t great. Again, this is in part due to the print not being in great shape. There are also elements of the silent era with lines of text popping up to explain certain things. Yaquinto was fine as our ‘beast man’. I’ve already said my problem is with the writing as we need a baseline to make more sense. I did like that mad scientist is the main villain, played by D’Angeli. They do make him tragic and see the error of what he’s done. That feels of the time, but also works. Quiroga, Beatriz Colman, Rosartio Olmedo, Elvira Ratti and the rest of the cast are also fine for what was needed.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I’ve stated my issues with the quality of the print. I can’t give much credit to cinematography or framing due to that. This is early cinema so they have practical effects. There is charm there having Richard with an upper hairy chest. The issue there is that he has it before the injection so it doesn’t help me to know if that was being isolated for years or a change within. There isn’t much of a soundtrack from what I remember either. I’m not sure what was synced up with it originally with these early movies.
In conclusion, not one that I can recommend to anyone unless you’re intrigued by the history of horror cinema. Being as early as this is from Argentina gives it charm. I like the idea that we’re working with, I just think that it is missing elements. The acting is fine from what I can tell. With the quality of what I watched; it is difficult to credit the filmmaking as well. I’m still glad that I saw this, to just say that I did despite the issues that I had as well.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 10