Created by Luis Manrique who also originated the masked heroes El Ranchero Solitario (The Lone Rancher) and El Tigre Enmascarado (The Masked Tiger), and writers Fernando Fernandez and Antonio Orellana, El Zorro Escarlata was one of a number of film variations of Johnston McCulley's popular character, El Zorro (The Fox). This new character appeared in a handful of colorfully named features: EL ZORRO ESCARLATA EN LA VENGANZA DEL AHORCADO (THE SCARLET FOX IN THE REVENGE OF THE HANGED MAN, 1958) EL REGRESO DEL MONSTRUO (THE RETURN OF THE MONSTER, 1959), and EL ZORRO VENGADOR (THE AVENGING FOX, 1961).
The events and characters of EL REGRESO DEL MONSTRUO neatly illustrate the occasional supernatural content of the series. Set in an indeterminate time frame (as were many of these western horror features), the film is a giddy mix of the ordinary, the scientific, and the supernatural. The cast includes a deranged scientist searching for the secret of eternal life. In the pursuit of his goal, this worthy has allied himself with a most unusual, ancient witch.
Though the latter has attained unlimited vitality, it has been at a terrible cost. Her corporeal form has been lost through the ages, and she is now nothing but a living skeleton. This macabre cadre of evil also includes her son, a misshapen monster used by the pair to secure subjects for experimentation.
As in most rurales (rural-set adventures), there are no automobiles to be seen. The characters make their rounds on horseback, and the peasants possess no visible technology beyond their rifles and musical instruments (there are several musical interludes in REGRESO, including a singing "duel" between the two male leads). The villains, however, make free use of several scientific devices, including a large wall-mounted view screen and a pair of matched rings through which the scientist directs the marauding creature on his unholy rounds.
Strangely, the most effective aspect of REGRESO is the skeletal witch, who plays a surprisingly active role in the proceedings. Throughout the film, she stands, gestures, and confers with the deranged medico. Skeletons were already cliché in horror and mystery features, but most films inserted them simply as props intended by the villains to frighten the heroes or to add to the eeriness of a given scene. The elevation of the witch to status as a major character who actively participates in the action is both audacious and intriguing.
In comparison, her monster son (who periodically alternates between his monstrous form and his seemingly human alter ego, Don Esteban de Orgaz, played by Jaime Fernández) is far less satisfying. The creature makeup is poorly executed (his over-sized head resembles a clumsily peeled potato sporting patchy straggles of crepe hair), as are the time-lapse scenes in which he transforms to or from his monstrous form. The character's ceaseless snarling also serves to render his uncanny ability to burst in unannounced on his victims almost comic. All things considered, he emerges as one of the least effective of the 1950s movie creatures.
Another unique aspect of the plot involves the mental remote control link existing between the scientist's control ring and another worn by the monster. In the opening scenes of the film, it is established that the creature is mindlessly violent, and that the placing of the ring on its finger allows the scientist to control it. In a later scene, there is an indication that the ring also allows the mad researcher some degree of control over the monster in his human form, as the former uses it to "guide" Don Esteban through a confrontation with several alarmed locals.
This weird psycho-scientific link is ultimately revealed as being so powerful that, when the doctor is killed and his hand falls into an open flame, it is the transmitted shock, and not the stalwart hero, that kills the creature.
Overall, this was another enjoyable Luis Aguillar ranchero entry, and the decision not to tie everything together in the end for a "rational" (i.e., "it's all a complicated ruse") explanation was refreshing.
EL REGRESO DEL MONSTRUO proved a bit of a reunion, again teaming star Aguilar with Jaime Fernández and Pascual García Peña, with whom he had appeared in JINETE SIN CABEZA, LA CABEZA DEL PANCHO VILLA and LA MARCA DE SATANAS (all 1956). The three again shared billing in 1961's LA VENGANZA DE PANCHO VILLA.
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