Gaston Santos Movies
- 1962
An unpretentious musical comedy by Mexican director Fernando Coates, the "young and beautiful" in this tale are, on the one hand, a group of young women whose parents are worried about their future and on the other, some young men who are not worried about very much. The teen women are too involved with rock 'n roll and not paying enough attention to the important things in life, according to their parents. And so they are sent out into the countryside in the hopes that this isolation will leave them without their main passion. Unfortunately for the parents, the young men in the countryside are all for the new, modern sounds -- and just the opposite of isolation results. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaston Santos, Maria Eugenia San Martin, (more)
The Living Coffin is a Mexican filmization of that old Edgar Allan Poe standby The Premature Burial. A seriously ill woman is terrified that she'll be buried while in a comatose state. To avoid this contingency, she has an alarm installed inside her coffin (indicating that someone involved with this film had seen the 1931 Paramount chiller Murder by the Clock). It comes to pass that the woman is indeed declared dead, planted six feet under, and.....hoo hoo hah hah HAAAAH! The legendary B-flick showman/huckster K. Gordon Murray filmed The Living Coffin in 1958 under the title El Grito de la Muerte; it didn't make the American rounds until 1965 (talk about rising from the dead!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This grisly Mexican horror film details the attempts of the chief doctor at a sanitarium to contact the spirit of his former partner -- a man executed for a murder he didn't commit -- through a psychic medium. The doc soon regrets his decision when the deceased doctor's soul imposes itself on the land of the living, re-animating the horribly-mutilated corpse of his former assistant, who was burned to death by acid. The ghoulish, violin-playing attendant challenges the doctor for the attention of the new nurse, who had recently come to the hospital to collect an inheritance and wound up staying aboard. Sadly for her, the zombie's method of expressing his affection involves making her look as gruesome as he does. As with most of the horror films of director Fernando Mendez, this is stylishly shot but practically impossible to follow. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1958
This odd little film plays like a Mexican variant on the goofy serial Phantom Empire (which pitted singing cowboy Gene Autry against death-ray-wielding subterranean villains). Gaucho star Gaston Santos rides out to do battle with a rubbery swamp monster, avenge his father's death, and rescue the girl -- all while belting out a few snappy musical numbers. This muddled mix is rendered even more senseless by the domestic repackaging of producer Gordon Murray, who had new scenes shot featuring painfully unfunny attempts at comic relief -- which really wasn't necessary to begin with, considering the inherent lunacy of the original. Released in the U.S. as Swamp of the Lost Monsters. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaston Santos, Manola Saavedra, (more)
