The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry

[Darkly Noon]

Being someone who was long aware of Paul Naschy's name and reputation but had never seen any of his films, I was hoping that this film would have the same effect as something like Not Quite Hollywood, i.e. making me walk out of the screening with a massive shopping list of all the films I have to catch up on. Unfortunately, its scant running time was mostly spent detailing Naschy's (admittedly fascinating) life, with little to no analysis on what makes his films so exceptional, and only very short clips from them that frankly soon began to blur into one. The film was obviously made with a lot of love and respect for the late star, but between the soppy background music and some of the soft-focus interviews with family members (not to mention Mick Garris' narration), it all began to smack a bit too much of a Biography Channel special. Great interviews as ever with Joe Dante and John Landis, however.