Crimson: The Color Of Blood

Crimson: The Color of Blood (Las Ratas No Duermen De Noche) (1973)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Juan Fortuny

Starring: Paul Naschy, Carlos Otero, Ricardo Palmerola, Olivier Mathot, Silvia Solar

From: A few different French and Spanish companies

A movie we could have only gotten from 70’s Europe. Via Arrow’s streaming service adding it earlier in the year was how I learned of a movie that has many different titles; the print that Arrow has is copyrighted 1985 and not only has Anglicized names, it uses the title The Man with the Severed Head that was implemented in the Commonwealth countries. Not only did it star Paul Naschy (a star in the Europe of the past who I’ve seen precious little of) but the plot description both intrigued & puzzled.

You see, some places (including Letterboxd) state that Naschy receives “a head transplant”, yet I saw other places state that it was a brain transplant; while neither is something you can do even now, they are still drastically different procedures! What actually happens: Naschy is a criminal who is part of a heist gone awry; during the getaway, he’s shot in the head. In this universe, it makes sense to go to doctors off-hours and off the grid to do a brain transplant, and-why the hell not?-the brain used is that of Paul’s nemesis, known as The Sadist. Admittedly, a decapitation is done to acquire the brain. It was not even a full transplant; rather, the parts that were damaged by the bullet were taken out and replaced.

The movie is flawed and even I could nitpick; however, that won’t happen as there was just enough to entertain me. It’s a loony story which was treated seriously and if you love sleaze, those feelings will be satisfied. Besides what was originally filmed, someone after the fact added in the most blatant spliced in saucy footage I’ve ever seen. This was unknown to me so the first time it happened was rather staggering. Apropos of nothing, a Naschy henchman suddenly has sex w/ a random woman. There are a few other awkward moments after that of the same description.

I managed to be entertained by this oddity which at least has serious conflict over the end result of the operation, where Naschy struggles with having the feelings of someone else fighting w/ him in his brain. There’s a shootout, groovy music, plenty of skeezy characters, and a random dance act shown in a club done w/ characters you only see in that scene which is Padding with a capital P… at least it was a charming performance performed well.