Mediocre: The Vampire’s Coffin

The Vampire’s Coffin (1958)
Directed by Fernando Méndez
Written by Raúl Zenteno, Ramón Obón
Produced by Abel Salazar
Starring Abel Salazar, Ariadna Welter, Germán Robles, Yerye Beirute, Alicia Montoya, Guillermo Orea
If any rubric’s to be observed among those firm to forfend uniquely vampiric villainy, principal among them is to never disinter a vampire’s staked, inhumed corpse. Nobody so advised a physician (Orea) who purloins the coffin of a titled bloodsucker (Robles) to study his carcass; in short order, the undead malefactor’s mesmerized with an inherited gewgaw the greasy goon (Beirute) who abetted the doctor’s theft and a lovely dancer (Welter) on whom he’d nuptial designs predating his sepulture. Can the doc’s bumbling subaltern (Salazar) frustrate the deathless baron’s machinations of murder and marriage? It’s a mild, murky affair reinforced largely by Robles’ noble bearing and physiognomy — among his passable co-stars, his is a fit and formidable presence when he isn’t invisible or transmogrified into a rubbery bat suspended from a string. Postwar filmic fixture Salazar’s miscast but able in the heroic lead, and Welter (Linda Christian’s little sister) is no blight to sight. For anyone seeking to pad their monster movie marathon by 80 minutes, this tenebrific trifle isn’t too poor an option.
Recommended for a double feature paired with Drácula.