PACTO DIABOLICO (1969) aka PACT WITH THE DEVIL

 OTHERWISE KNOWN AS "DIABOLICAL PACT" (ON IMDB) OR "PACT WITH THE DEVIL" ON LETTERBOXD! 

Personally, I think I like the latter title better but neither really tell what the movie is about.  There is no Satan or pact with the devil going on here; only in the broadest sense that a mad scientist is doing naughty things.  The lazy way would be to call it a Mexican "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" and it certainly is that to a certain extent but there's actually a lot more involved here. 

The film opens with good ole John Carradine sitting at his desk and introducing himself as John Carradine who will be playing the part of Dr. Halback in the movie that follows.  It's always good to see ole John Carradine in a movie (and any movie you watch before 1989 there's probably a 70% chance he'll pop up in it somewhere!).  The print of the film which I watched is dubbed into Spanish so you don't actually HEAR John Carradine's melifluous tones but there he is!  Dr. Halback is working on a 'fountain of youth' serum which will reverse the aging process and give people basically eternal youth.  He's ticked off that all his knowledge and experience will disappear when he croaks but, if he could be eternally young, he could keep working on his scientific experiments for the benefit of all mankind.  Of course, it looks to me like he's only in it for the benefit of all Halback-kind.  Unfortunately for all the young starlets in the movie, Halback can only get his needed ingredient from the eyeballs of . . . well . . . young starlets.  Of course, scooping them out results in them becoming quite deaded but all for the progress of mad science. 

Halback distills his formula and drinks it -- giving Carradine the chance to offer a lite version of John Barrymore's transformation scene in the 1920 DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE.  He's kept to the shadows pretty much after the first transformation but we see him don a typical 'Mr. Hyde' cape and top hat and go on his merry way.  Before his transformation, Dr. Halbeck tells his butler Doyle (Guillermo Zetina) that he's expecting his nephew Fredrick Halback to come and stay and he wants him treated exactly like Dr. Halback i.e. every order Fredrick gives is to be obeyed.  Sounds a lot like Dr. Jekyll's instructions about Mr. Hyde.  There's a good reason for that.  Dr. Halback's ward/adopted daughter DiNora (Regina Torné) is also coming to stay and her name is actually DiNora JEKYLL; that's right, the real Dr. Jekyll's daughter whom Dr. Halback took in as a young child.  Halback actually makes reference to the whole Jekyll/Hyde story and states that Jekyll's main failure was in fact . . . . Mr. Hyde . . . . and Halback won't make the same mistakes Jekyll did.  So old Dr. Halback (Carradine) changes into young 'nephew' Fredrick Halback (Miguel Ángel Álvarez) who promptly takes control of the house while his 'uncle' is away.  Naturally, the formula doesn't simply make one young and soon Fredrick is growing hairy, clawed hands and transforming into a 'Hyde'-type monster!  Hunky Alfonso Bennett (Andrés García) us DiNora's fiancee and cramps Fredrick's style by always hanging around.  Fredrick still manages to go on a killing spree; including offing the required tarty music hall singer required by law to be in every Jekyll/Hyde adaptation. 

The ending of the film is a little sedate but quite acceptable and the movie as a whole was a whole lot better than I was expecting it to be.  Jekyll/Hyde stories are admittedly not at the top of my horror faves but this one held my interest and had just enough differences/additions to the plot to make it super enjoyable.  Director Jaime Salvador kept things lively and interesting throughout and, if he made any other horror films, I'd like to see them.  The cast also was a notch above the usual; not only Carradine giving it a bit more than his usual but also the Mexican actors were noteworthy as well.  Alvarez was suitably slimy, cold and evil as young Fredrick Halback and I didn't even miss John Carradine when Alvarez was on screen.  Leading lady Regina Torné and our male hero Andrés García were also incredibly likeable and thankfully lacked the insipidity and blandness such parts are prone towards making me really root for them.   Oh yeah, and don't lets those stills fool you because it's a colour film and, in fact, the print I watched has a nice muted colour palette which I thought looked pretty nice!   This one is really highly recommended by me, gang, and I never expected I'd like it so much!