''The Body Snatcher'' (, ), is a 1957 Mexican

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

directed by Fernando Mendez who also co-wrote the film with

Alejandro Verbitzky Alejandro is the Spanish form of the name Alexander. Alejandro has multiple variations in different languages, including Aleksander (Czech, Polish), Alexandre ( French), Alexandros (Greek), Alsander ( Irish), Alessandro (Italian), Aleksandr (R ...

Plot

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, Police Captain Carlos Robles (

Crox Alvarado Cruz Pío Socorro Alvarado Bolado (3 May 1910 – 30 January 1984), known professionally as Crox Alvarado, was a Costa Rican actor who appeared in over 90 films. He was considered a popular star of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Alvarado ha ...

) has no leads to solving a series of grisly murders of several of Mexico's top athletes. Unknown to the Comandante, scientist Don Panchito is responsible for the murders and has been murdering the athletic community in order to provide test subjects for his experiments; Panchito's procedure involves removing the victim's brain and replacing it with that of an animal's in an effort to find a way to conquer death. Desperate to solve the murders, Robles enlists the help of wrestler Guillermo Santana (

Wolf Ruvinskis Wolf Ruvinskis (October 31, 1921 – November 9, 1999), born Wolf Ruvinskis Manevics, was a Latvian-Mexican actor and professional wrestler. He was married to dancer Armida Herrera. Born to a Latvian mother and a Ukrainian father, of Jewish back ...

) who acts as bait in order to catch the murderer. However, the trap goes awry and Santana is captured and murdered by Panchito who then removes his brain and replaces it with the brain of a

gorilla Gorillas are primarily herbivorous, terrestrial great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five su ...

. Unlike many of Panchito's other victims, Santana survives the procedure but as a result is transformed into a grotesque and bestial state that seems to have taken on several characteristics of that of an ape. Covering his now horrifying vestige with a mask, Panchito sends Santana into the wrestling ring. However, during the fight Santana's animal side takes over and overrides Panchito's programming, ripping off his mask and exposing his hideously deformed face. Santana finds Panchito and slaughters him and then kidnaps Lucía, the woman he loved while he was human and flees on the rooftops with the police in pursuit, setting Lucía down, Santana moves to attack the police but is gunned down by Robles and falls the rooftop to his death.

Cast

Columba Domínguez Columba Domínguez Alarid (March 4, 1929 – August 13, 2014) was a Mexican actress, singer, and painter. She is remembered particularly for her performance in the film ''Pueblerina'' (1949). Biography Early life Columba Domínguez Alarid was b ...

as Lucía *

as Capt. Carlos Robles *

as Guillermo Santana / El Vampiro *

Carlos Riquelme Carlos Riquelme (13 May 1914 – 17 May 1990) was a Mexican film actor. He appeared in 160 films between 1939 and 1989. Selected filmography * '' Adam, Eve and the Devil'' (1945) * '' Adventure in the Night'' (1948) * '' The Fallen Angel'' ...

as Don Panchito / The Mad Doctor *

Eduardo Alcaraz Alfredo Vergara Morales (13 April 1915 – 18 April 1987), best known by the stage name Eduardo Alcaraz, was a Chilean-Mexican actor. Born in Santiago, he was based in Mexico since 1951. He appeared in films such as '' Escuela de rateros'' (1 ...

as Police Chief * Arturo Martínez as Felipe Dorantes * Guillermo Hernández as El Lobo * Yerye Beirute as Cosme Ramírez *

Alberto Catalá Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic '' Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Albe ...

as Rubio, Felipe's assistant * Alejandro Cruz as El Tigre

Production

Development

The story for ''Ladrón de Cadáveres'' was partially inspired by Universal's ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...

'' which was a commercial and critical success. Hoping to replicate this success, Mexican directors responded by releasing their own variations of

Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...

famous

monster movies A monster movie, monster film, creature feature or giant monster film is a film that focuses on one or more characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonistic monsters, often abnormally large ones. The film may also fall unde ...

, but differed enough to avoid any copyright lawsuits.

Release

The film was released in

on September 26, 1957 and was later released in other countries several years later in Japan in 1958, and in West Germany and Austria in 1958 and 1959 respectively. The film later released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

Ground Zero A hypocenter or hypocentre (), also called ground zero or surface zero, is the point on the Earth's surface directly below a nuclear explosion, meteor air burst, or other mid-air explosion. In seismology, the hypocenter of an earthquake is its p ...

on July 12, 2005.

Reception

On his website ''Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings'', Dave Sindelar gave the film a positive review, calling it "one of the best of the Mexican horror movies".

Legacy

Before the film's release in 1956,

Mexican cinema The cinema of Mexico dates to the late nineteenth century during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. Seeing a demonstration of short films in 1896, Díaz immediately saw the importance of documenting his presidency in order to present an ...

was experiencing a decline, and most critics dismissed the cinematic films of

. Upon the release of two films directed by Fernando Mendez, the first being ''Ladrón de cadáveres'' and '' El vampiro'' in 1957. Both films were successful critically and financially and helped bring in the golden age of horror and

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fic ...

s in Mexican cinema.

References

External links

''Ladron''
at Cinemexicano * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ladron de Cadaveres Mexican monster movies 1950s monster movies 1950s science fiction horror films Mexican black-and-white films 1957 horror films 1957 films Mad scientist films 1950s Mexican films Golden Age of Mexican cinema