Horror History: Alberto Dalbés

albertodalbesAlberto Dalbés
Born Apr. 3rd, 1922 – Died Sept. 14th, 1983

Spanish horror from the early ’70s, especially that of Jess Franco’s work, probably have seen Dalbés’ face at some point. For me, I first became aware of him from appearing as the mad doctor in Paul Naschy’s The Hunchback of the Morgue (1973). He really was fun to watch there, playing a scientist so driven in his plans to create a new life form, that he had no care or whims about other people, even having them killed to be used to feed this beast he was creating. Great stuff.

He made his screen debut in 1943 in a film called Youth Kicks and worked in quite a few movies before moving to Spain, where he continued to appear on screen. He appeared in other genre films like Maniac Mansion and Cut-Throats Nine, both from 1972.

He seemed to work quite a bit with Jess Franco, appearing in quite a few number of his pictures, such as Night of the Assassins (1974), The Demons (1973), Tender and Perverse Emanuelle (1973), Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972), The Curse of Frankenstein (1972), and so many more.

So the next time you find yourself watching a Franco film, you just might want to keep your eyes open to see if you don’t see Dalbés come onscreen.

Movie Review: Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein

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Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein (aka Drácula contra Frankenstein, 1972)
Directed by Jesús Franco
Starring Dennis Price, Howard Vernon, Paca Gabaldón, Alberto Dalbés, Britt Nichols, Geneviève Robert, Anne Libert, Luis Barboo, Fernando Bilbao, Josyane Gibert

DPoF posterI know it is hard for some fans to think of Jess Franco as a highly crafted filmmaker, but there are more than a few examples in his filmography to prove that. This, however, is not one of them.

The first time I saw this film was from the Wizard Video VHS tape, under the title The Screaming Dead, which is quite different when comparing it to the DVD of Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein. Right away you’ll notice that it is extremely cropped with most of the opening names in the credits being cut off on the sides. The film is sequenced differently as well, having some parts in there that are not in the DVD version! For the sake of sanity, I’m just going to talk about the DVD version from Image Entertainment back in 2006. Continue reading