THE BEAST AND THE MAGIC SWORD (1983)
Label: Mondo Macabro
Region: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 115 Minutes
Audio: Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Jacinto Molina
Cast: Paul Naschy, Shigeru Amachi, Beatriz Escudero, Junko Asahina, Violeta Cela, Yoko Fuji
Synopsis: The Beast and the Magic Sword (1983) is the last great film from Spanish horror legend Paul Naschy. Although he would go on making and planning films until his death in 2009, he never again attempted the epic sweep and grandeur of this 10th entry into the saga of Waldemar Daninsky, a man afflicted by the curse of lycanthropy.
Spanish horror icon Paul Nacshy made so many films, covering the gamut from stylish Spanish giallos to cheap exploitation cinema, but he's best remembered for a string of films about a cursed character named Waldemar Daninsky, a tragic man cursed with lycanthropy. Of all his films The Beast and The Magic Sword (1983) might be my favorite of the bunch, opening in 10th century Spain with an origin story, a first for the character. It shows how the long-running curse began, with a disgruntled witch placing a curse upon a pregnant woman by stabbing her in the belly with the fangs of a wolf's skull, which I thought was very cool!
Six-hundred years later we find Waldemar Daninsky (Naschy 'natch) seeking a cure for the fury-affliction from an alchemist who seems to be on the cusp of creating a curative elixir, only for him to be killed by the Spanish Inquisition. His dying words to Daninsky are to travel to Japan and seek the help of a man named Kain (Shigeru Amachi).
His arrival in Japan is marked by Daninsky committing a series of grisly attacks as the werewolf, the first being an attack at geisha house with lots of fury werewolf action, Naschy's werewolf is seen ripping the kimonos off geisha's exposing their porcelain skinned breasts and biting into their supple flesh, his snarling mouth dripping with blood, it's a glorious attack with lots of crazy werewolf carnage.
The furry-fun does not stop there however, when Daninsky ill-advisedly turns to a scarlet-cloaked witch for help he is betrayed, and she pits the werewolf against a Bengal tiger, an actual tiger, and let me tell you that Fulci's shark vs zombie scene from Zombie (1979) had got absolutely nothing on this film! Still further up the rung of WTF-ery we have the werewolf facing off against samurai, ghost-samurai, and ninjas who crash a dip at the hot springs, plus some cool mystic witchery stuff, including a very cool sword fight set in a snowstorm.
The film is a Spanish/Japanese co-production, hence the setting in Japan, - A Spanish Werewold in Kyoto? - and was shot in the studios of Toshiro Mifune, giving the film a lavish looking set of production values. All the sets looks fantastic and have a vibe that feels period authentic with great-looking costuming and set-pieces. If there's a drawback to the film it's the extended run time, coming in just five-minutes short of two hours, but it's so chock full of cool stuff, like a werewolf wrestling a tiger, even the few times it dragged a bit I didn't even mind it. You can tell that Naschy just wanted to pack in as much cool stuff as he could given that he was working with what looks to be a larger than usual budget, and I don't blame him.
The look of Naschy's werewolf in the film is different that what I am used to seeing in the series, he's still wearing a black satin shirt and tight-fitting pants but the hair-work is not on par with the earlier films, having a bear-like appearance. He also has strangely crimped fleshy eyebrows with a long vertical indentation along the length of the bridge of the nose, and the beasts fangs seem much smaller, but it still looks cool, it's just different. That said, everything else about the film is full of period grandeur and epic fantasy that sets it apart in a good way.
Audio/Video: The Best and The Magic Sword (1983) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, this being the worldwide HD debut of the film, and the first time it's seen a legit release here in the U.S.. We get a new 4k scan from the original camera negative, and it looks fantastic. We are given two viewing options, you can watch it in open matte 1.33:1 or cropped 1.66:1 widescreen. The open matte version offers more image on the top and bottom of the screen, but the widescreen version is very pleasing and doesn't seem too squeezed by the widescreen framing. The grain looks natural throughout, it can be heavy in the darker scenes but it looks authentic and not digitized, very filmic. Colors are strong throughout, with the primaries looking fantastic, the fake blood often seen in Naschy's snarling fanged mouth looks awesome. The source is very clean, with only a few white speckles, otherwise this is a wonderful presentation. The open matte and widescreen version are sourced from the same restoration and the quality is exactly the same aside from the framing. The fist fifteen minutes or so look a bit softer than the shots coming later, and the HD image showcases some out-of-focus shots inherent to the source, but otherwise the new transfer is a knock-out. At the bottom of the review you can check out a comparison of the open matte versus widescreen framing of the film as well as seeing some additional screenshots from the Blu-ray.
Audio on the disc comes by way of Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with optional English
subtitles. Dialogue is cleanly delivered, but the Spanish dub can be a bit flat, but that's source related, and not worthy of critique of the disc. I will say that hearing the Spanish dubbing coming from the Japanese characters did take some getting used to, my brain and my ears had trouble reconciling that, not sure why that was, but the mixing of the two was unnatural.
Extras on the disc kick-off with a new audio commentary with Rod Barnett and Troy Guinn of the Naschycast podcast, these guys know their stuff and are a wealth of Naschy knowledge, putting the film in context and filling in my lengthy knowledge gaps, if you have not subscribed to their podcast I highly recommend that you do so now, you will not regret it.
We also get a 14-min introduction from director/star Paul Naschy who speaks of how the Japanese/Spanish co-production came to be, how rightfully proud he is of it, and what it was like wrestling that tiger! We also get a 46-min vintage interview with Naschy who touches on his love of the Universal monsters, his early career, and a whole lot more. Both of these are in Spanish with English subtitles.
Writer and critic Gavin Baddeley, the author of The FrightFest Guide To Werewolf Movies, lays on the love for Naschy for 32-min, placing his body of work in context to other werewolf films of the era, and speaking to what has drawn fans to the films of Naschy. The disc is buttoned-up with a 2-min trailer for the film and a lengthy Mondo Macabro trailer reel
The single-disc release comes housed in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring a tasty new illustration from Rick Melton that really captures the aesthetic of the film.
Special Features:
- The Smile of the Wolf – Interview with star Paul Naschy. (Spanish with English
Subtitles)
- Introduction to the film by Paul Naschy (14 min)(In Spanish with English Subtitles)
- Interview with the writer and critic Gavin Baddeley (32 min) (English)
- Audio commentary with the Naschy cast. (Rod Barnett and Troy Guinn)
- The disc contains both widescreen (1.66:1) and full-frame open matte (1.33:1) versions.
- Original Trailer (3 min)
- Mondo Macabro Trailer Reel
The Beast and The Magic Sword (1983) is a fantastically fun everything and the kitchen sink sort of werewolf film. It expands on the lore of the tragic Daninsky character with an origin story that takes us all the way back to feudal Japan with some fantasy-filled set-pieces, a werewolf wrestling a tiger, scarlet-cloaked witches, the Spanish inquisition, ghost-samurai, ninjas, geisha nudity, and of course a magic sword. There's a lot here to love and not a lot to hate, this is highly recommended.
Top: Open Matte (1.33:1)
Bottom: Widescreen (1.66:1)
More Screenshots
