Professor Duran (Domingo Soler) believes that he has destroyed the evil vampire, Nostradamus (German Robles), however, the vampire tricked the professor and is very much still around. Nostradamus has vowed to kill 13 people unless the professor vindicates the memory of the vampire’s father. So far, he has killed nine people.
Nostradamus tells the professor that his next victim will be the police inspector, Andre Rojas (Carlos Ancira) and gives him the date and time of the murder. Duran informs Rojas of the plot. Rojas assembles his men and has them protect him during the fateful time. If Rojas can survive the night, then he will be immune to the vampire’s power. Things don’t work out very well for Rojas.
In the meantime, Professor Duran is working on an invention that he hopes with track the vampire using sound. A side effect of the device is that it causes excruciating pain to vampires.
Olga (Rosario Durcal) is a singer at a local dance hall and the next victim that Nostradamus has on his list. Duran and his secretary Anthony (Julio Aleman) try to help her but end up being too late. Later Nostradamus visits Duran and tells him that the next person to walk into the room will be his next victim. It turns out to be Tomas Wilkinson (Luis Aragon), a member of the Commission on Supernatural Phenomenon. Wilkinson runs away and hides at a monastery. When Nostradamus tries to find him telepathically, his power won’t work. He sends his servant Leo (Manuel Vergara) to find him, but Leo gets captured by Anthony and Duran. They realize that the church is more powerful than the vampire, so they hide Leo there. Leo escapes from his prison, kills Wilkinson, but ends up dead. Now Nostradamus is alone and unsure of himself, but just as deadly as before.
“Blood of Nostradamus” AKA “La sangre de Nostradamus” was released in 1962 in Mexico and 1965 in America and was directed by Federico Curiel. An English dubbed version was done by K. Gordon Murray which was directed by Stillman Segar. The names of some of the characters in the English dubbed version have been Americanized. The film also includes a Universal monster movie style ending.
The movie was originally part of a twelve-chapter Mexican horror serial from 1959. Murray purchased the rights to the serial and broke it down into four separate movies. As with the other three Murray films, the movie is made up of three episodes of the Mexican serial. This means that it is a compilation of three stories tied together by the main characters. This film was the last of the quartet of films. The other movies in the quartet were ““The Curse of Nostradamus“, “The Monsters Demolisher” and “Genie of Darkness”. When you watch the movies, in order, back-to-back, you can see the serial foundation throughout and some of the plot holes get filled in.
Although all four movies aren’t all that great, and are confusing at times, they do have an interesting Mexican twist to some of the mythos of the vampire legend and are worth exploring.
German Robles played a vampire in several Mexican horror films. He was also the Spanish dubbed voice of KITT on the television series “Knight Rider” and a Spanish dubbed voice in the movie “The Godfather” 1972. He plays the vampire as evil and omnipotent at the start of the series. By the time we get to the final film, Nostradamus has lost much of his vibrato and acts more like a lost child than a vampire. His self-doubt gives him a bit of arrogant humanity, but not enough to make him sympathetic.