Late at night, a woman (Maricarmen Vela) has a car accident when she hits a tree. The woman is OK but the car is damaged to the point where it is un-drivable. Looking for help she walks to a nearby mansion. Inside she can hear someone playing the piano. She knocks at the door. Someone inside asks to have the door opened. The woman sees a set of huge old keys on the stone steps outside the door. She unlocks the door and opens it. She screams.
Driving by the accident is Ricardo Souto (Abel Salazar). Ricardo is a reporter for a magazine. He is in the area looking to interview a famous musician. He finds the injured woman. He goes to the villa for help, but is turned away by Dona Conelia (Ofelia Guilmain). Ricardo then contacts the police and a police captain (Jose Chavez) takes charge. Since he believes the woman’s injuries were caused by the accident, he closes the case. Ricardo isn’t so sure.
Living in the house are Samuel Magno (Enrique Rambal), his mother Dona Cornelia, and Samuel’s protégée, Laura (Martha Roth). Samuel is a concert pianist and currently the greatest musician in the world. Samuel got that distinction when he sold his soul to the devil. Samuel had been jealous of Alejandra (Martha Roth), a woman who had previously been the best pianist in the world. During her last concert she played a song that he had never heard before. Samuel thinks the music had something to do with her success. He prayed to the devil who granted his wish. Samuel then kills Alejandra, takes her body and the music score with him back to his villa. He props her body up in a closet and talks to her from time to time.
The price Samuel had to pay for his desire was to turn into a monster whenever he heard or played the particular piece of demonic music previously owned by Alejandra. Samuels plan is to make Laura, who looks strikingly like the now deceased Alejandra, the greatest pianist in the world thereby breaking the curse.
Ricardo learns that the owner of the villa is Samuel, the man he has been looking to interview. He returns to the villa but Samuel is not interested in being the subject of an interview. While he is there he meets Laura. More attacks on people happen. Ricardo becomes concerned for Laura’s safety and suspicious of Samuel.
“The Man and the Monster” AKA “El hombre y el monstruo” was released in 1958 and was directed by Rafael Baledón. It is a Mexican supernatural horror movie.
The movie is sort of a Mexican version of either Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Faust with perhaps a dab of Phantom of the Opera and The Wolf Man. The atmosphere is typical Mexican gothic with lots of fog laden trees and flickering firelight. The movie is actually not too bad and the mix of universal monster movie characters with German legend is not surprising in Mexican horror. Although the movie is not an “A” movie, it is highly entertaining.
The make-up effects used to create the monster aren’t that great, but when you consider it is a 1950’s Mexico low budget thriller, I’d say they did a good job with what they had.