Dr. Maximiliano Renan (Ramón Pereda) will do anything to save his dying and paralyzed wife, and as he’s a mad scientist, complete with hunch-backed assistant (Enrique Gonce), his methods involve strange experiments on young women. His attempts with the recently deceased failed, so now he’s taken to kidnapping women from the hospital, who then die in his home laboratory. The press has made the missing girls big news, much to the dismay of the police. Dr. Monroy (Manuel Noriega), the head of the hospital is also displeased. However, young, hot-shot Dr. Armando del Valle (René Cardona) is confident he can uncover the killer. By coincidence he is engaged to Monroy’s daughter Alicia (Esther Esther Fernández), who comes down with a case of coincidental appendicitis, and she also coincidentally has the perfect blood for Renan’s purposes, and of course, coincidentally, Renan is called in to operate on her. Unfortunately for Renan, a beggar saw him dumping body parts, and goes to del Valle, but fortunately for Renan, it’s del Valle that the police suspect.
This is a movie where you can see the clap board to start one take so quality control was not a concern. We’re in deeply cheap land, though with a few more sets then I’m used to with Poverty Row pictures north of the boarder. Generally it feels very much like a typical Poverty Row mad scientist movie—the plot has popped up multiple times since, including in the Bela Legosi cheepie The Corpse Vanishes. We’ve got a rather drab mad scientist, an evil hunchback assistant, a forgettable hero and his pretty girlfriend who will coincidentally be kidnapped, inappropriate music, washed out photography, an excessive focus on the press, a comedy relief cop, a lot of talking to fill up the time, and very little emotion. Dr. Renan seems very concerned about his wife in the 30 seconds or so we see them together, but that’s about it for bonding. The film isn’t trying to get me to sympathize with Renan, or despise him, but merely to watch disconnectedly as he carries out this chore and that for his grand scheme that means zero to me.
I’ve sat through plenty of cheap empty pictures like this and can have some fun with them, but El baúl macabro blows it. We spend a lot of time with the police…a…lot…of…time… Watching the chief inspector march around that one same office and rant about chewing gum isn’t entertaining, but it is far less entertaining when the police do something. We know who the killer is. We know that del Valle will find out from the beggar who the killer is and will eventually confront Renan, so there are no surprises. And while we know it, we are forced to sit through an agonizing slowdown of the story as the police get in the way. The cops getting in the way of the beggar and del Valle isn’t interesting or exciting; It’s frustrating and I was ready to throw something at the screen long before del Valle gets away from them. If there was some emotional connection or chilling effect, perhaps it would be worth the annoyance, but there’s nothing to balance it out.
There isn’t a lot to get excited about in 1930s Mexican horror, and this one doesn’t even feel all that Mexican. Outside of the beggars who are everywhere and at war with the police, this feels more like an American film, with its mad scientist and hunchback.If you are but if you are curious about how Mexican culture interacts with the horror genre, try a different film.