Paul Naschy - The Hombre Lobo Series (featuring The Waldemar Daninsky Character)

The Hombre Lobo Series (featuring The Waldemar Daninsky Character)

Naschy's twelve "Hombre Lobo" movies are not a series in the strictest sense. They seem to be a collection of unrelated plotlines, but all of which involve a werewolf named Waldemar Daninsky. Both La Furia del Hombre Lobo (1970) and La Maldicion de la Bestia (1975) refer to an origin involving Waldemar's being bitten by a Yeti (and there is a brief Yeti reference in La Noche de Walpurgis (1970) as well), but the other films presented him with entirely different origin stories. The fact that these films have also been retitled by the various film distributors many times over the years only adds to the confusion. Despite the numerous plot inconsistencies and convoluted flashbacks, however, Naschy's Wolf Man series as a whole is still considered his most famous work by most of his many fans.

Only eleven of the 12 "Hombre Lobo" films actually exist today. All traces of Las Noches del Hombre Lobo (1968) apparently vanished before the film was ever shown anywhere (not even Naschy has seen it!), and it remains a mystery to this day whether or not the film ever really existed at all in completed form. (The French producer of the film (Rene Govar) is said to have died in a car accident in Paris a week after the film was completed, and no one ever picked up the lab bill that was outstanding. Hence it is thought that the lab may have confiscated the film negative and years later they probably just discarded it. Naschy claimed he only became aware decades later that the film had never been released anywhere.) Some Naschy fans think the film was scrapped by the producer before it was actually completed and the script may have been rewritten to become the 4th film in the series, La Furia del Hombre Lobo (1970). This is possible since Naschy himself vaguely remembered both films as having almost the same plot!

In order of production, the "Hombre Lobo" films are as follows:

• 1. La Marca del Hombre Lobo / Mark of the Wolf Man (1968) (aka Hell's Creatures: Dracula and the Werewolf, aka The Nights of Satan) – (released on DVD as Frankenstein's Bloody Terror), directed by Enrique Eguiluz; originally filmed in 3-D and 70mm

• 2. Las Noches del Hombre Lobo / The Nights of the Wolf Man (1968) directed by Rene Govar (This is apparently a lost film today, but Naschy insisted that he made this film in Paris; perhaps it was filmed, but never completed.)

• 3. Los Monstruos del Terror / The Monsters of Terror (1969) (aka Assignment Terror, aka Dracula vs Frankenstein, aka The Man Who Came From Ummo) co-directed by Tulio Demichelli & Hugo Fregonese (released in 1970)

• 4. La Furia del Hombre Lobo / Fury of the Wolf Man (1970) (aka The Wolf Man Never Sleeps) (released on DVD as Fury of the Wolf Man), directed by Jose Maria Zabalza (released in 1972)

• 5. La Noche de Walpurgis / Walpurgis Night (1970) (aka The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman, aka Blood Moon) (released on DVD as Werewolf Shadow), directed by Leon Klimovsky (This was Naschy's most famous & highest-grossing horror film)

• 6. Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo / Dr. Jekyll and the Wolf Man (1971) (aka Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf) directed by Leon Klimovsky, co-starring Jack Taylor

• 7. El Retorno de Walpurgis / The Return of Walpurgis (1972) (released on DVD as Curse of the Devil), directed by Carlos Aured

• 8. La Maldicion de la Bestia / Curse of the Beast (1975) (aka Night of the Howling Beast, aka The Werewolf and the Yeti, aka The Hall of the Mountain King) directed by Miguel Iglesias Bonns

• 9. El Retorno del Hombre Lobo / Return of the Wolf Man (1980) (aka The Craving) (released on DVD as Night of the Werewolf), directed by Paul Naschy (this was Naschy's all-time favorite Hombre Lobo film)

• 10. La Bestia y la Espada Magica / The Beast and the Magic Sword (1983), directed by Paul Naschy (a Spanish/Japanese co-production)

• 11. Licántropo / Lycantropus: The Moonlight Murders (1996) aka The Full Moon Killer, directed by Francisco Gordillo

• 12. Tomb of the Werewolf (2004) directed in Hollywood by Fred Olen Ray (co-starred Michelle Bauer); filmed on video

There were three other Paul Naschy werewolf films that were not part of the Waldemar Daninsky series, as follows:

• Buenas Noches, Señor Monstruo / Good Night, Mr. Monster (1982) Naschy played a generic werewolf in this children's musical/comedy

• El Aullido del Diablo / Howl of the Devil (1987) directed by Paul Naschy, co-starring Caroline Munro, Howard Vernon & Naschy's real-life son Sergio Molina in a major role; Naschy plays an insane ex-actor who dresses up as various famous monsters in this film, in one scene specifically playing the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky (Sergio addresses the werewolf as "Waldemar" in the scene), but it is only a very brief cameo appearance.

• Um Lobisomem na Amazônia / A Werewolf in The Amazon (2005) aka Amazonia Misteriosa; Naschy plays a mad doctor who transforms into a werewolf-type creature in this remake of H. G. Wells' Island of Dr. Moreau.