The Beast of the Yellow Night (1971)

The greatest movie ever!

That was an excellent one.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

During the 1970s, a long series of schlocky horror films came out of the Philippines. They all were extremely low budgeted, featured ridiculous looking monsters and tossed in some boobies. I have yet to see one of these films that doesn't fit this pattern--and this certainly includes "The Beast of the Yellow Night". It's bad but also fun if you happen to like bad films--and there are quite a few bad movie buffs out there. Heck, despite reviewing countless art and foreign films, I like a schlock film now and then--and an Eddie Romero film certainly fits that bill.An idiot (perennial lead in Filipino horror films, John Ashley) eats some poisonous fruit. But instead of dying, Satan appears and makes him a deal--you become my servant and I'll let you live. Now this movie's version of Satan is interesting--he's no idiot in a red suit and horns--he's just some fat Filipino guy in a bandanna. However, wouldn't you know it but this bargain comes with a catch--the guy becomes a hairy monster with a taste for human flesh. Not surprisingly, this creates problems with his lady, as he is torn between ripping her clothes off or just ripping her to pieces.While this is a cheesy monster film, it's interesting to note that the film is very slow to get to the action. Sure, eventually he turns into a silly monster and runs amok--but this isn't until rather late in the film. But when he does, it's well worth the wait--as he looks utterly ridiculous! What I really liked is how there is a makeup line on his neck--and you can see this very clearly. Overall, yet another dopey film in the genre.

During the 10-year period 1968-'77, Filipino director Eddie Romero collaborated with American actor John Ashley on no less than 10 motion pictures. First up was the little-seen "Manila, Open City," to be quickly followed by the so-called Blood Island trilogy ("Brides of Blood," "The Mad Doctor of Blood Island" and "Beast of Blood"), and then the film in question here, "The Beast of the Yellow Night" (AND, later on still, films with such titles as "The Twilight People," "The Woman Hunt," "Beyond Atlantis," "Savage Sisters" and "Sudden Death"). Nowhere near as pulpy or as fun as the Blood Island trilogy, "TBOTYN" is something of a labor to sit through, sports a confused and confusing story line, and never adequately answers a good number of questions that the film itself raises. In it, Ashley plays a U.S. Army deserter named Joseph Langdon, who, when we first encounter him in the jungles of southeast Asia in 1946, is fleeing from his pursuers and near death. He is saved by a portly, acerbic sort of fellow, who the viewer soon divines to be no less a figure than Satan himself (amusingly portrayed by the great Filipino mainstay Vic Diaz), and gives up his eternal soul in return for his salvation. Flash forward 25 years, and we find Langdon's soul inhabiting the body of wealthy industrialist Philip Rogers, who, after a disfiguring accident, awakens with Langdon's precise facial features (at least, this is what I THINK happens here). Langdon's mission: to bring out the latent evil in the man he is inhabiting. The problem: Rogers' hotty wife, Julia (well played by yummy Mary Wilcox, whose work I had recently enjoyed is such psychotronic winners as the woefully underrated "Love Me Deadly" and the shlocky thrill ride ""Psychic Killer"), whom he becomes understandably attracted to. The even bigger problem: Langdon/Rogers' tendency to morph into a hideous-looking, gut-ripping, indestructible monster at the most inopportune moments....Regarding those monstrous transformations, screenwriter/director Romero leaves it pretty unclear WHY Langdon/Rogers is being punished by Satan in this manner...unless it has something to do with the character going near a church, or making love to a woman, or feeling any sort of decent, human emotions. Who knows? Again, why is the monster made suddenly vulnerable to bullets at the film's end, after being invincible up till that point? Just because he said a prayer for a dying blind man? Who can say? And while I'm posing some imponderables, what's up with the film's title, anyway? The only "yellow" on display in this film are the ocher-colored vapor swirls that sometimes surround Satan when he manifests himself. Could that be it? Anybody's guess. Besides these instances of fuzzy writing, "TBOTYN" gives us the usually likable Ashley in a fairly wooden performance, some unimaginative lensing by Romero, and few if any scares or even moments of suspense, even though there are, surprisingly, numerous scenes involving blood and guts on display. On the plus side, these Filipino horror pictures always feature interesting-looking, exotic locales, and this one is no exception, although it might have been nice if Romero had managed to squeeze in a few more gorgeous Filipino women as additional eye candy (as he did, for example, in my favorite picture of his, 1973's "Black Mama, White Mama," a distaff "Defiant Ones" starring Pam Grier). The film gives us one excellent performance, at least: Leopoldo Salcedo as Inspector Santos, the head cop trying to hunt down the maniacal killer; Salcedo underplays nicely and invests his cop with a good deal of dignity and smarts. Another plus: the memorable and at times lovely score by Nestor Robles; how strange to find such a nice piece of music in this film, of all films! And as for this DVD itself, from the fine folks at RetroMedia, it sports a decent-looking (though far from pristine) print of the film, and comes with a number of interesting "extras." In the one called "Remembering John Ashley," Ashley's widow, Jan, as well as director Fred Olen Ray and some of Ashley's other friends, reminisce about the man and his work; this "extra" is, I hate to admit, far more interesting than the film itself. "The Beast of the Yellow Night" is not quite (as they would say in Tagalog) "walang kwenta," but it sure does come close!

A bad man makes a deal with the devil to stay alive. His reward a pile of rotten meat and existence. The devil has plans for him. The man must occasionally turn into a beast and reek havoc on the surrounding area. There is another part of the plot, his relationship with his min- skirt wearing wife. He has not treated her well, but because she loves him, she puts up with his inconsistencies, including coming back from the dead in a hospital. He knows that there is no good end, but he has been made invulnerable, so he must carry out the wishes of his master. The problem lies with what the desired end is. When dealing with he devil, we must recognize his powers and, since we don't know how extensive they are, our hero (anti-hero) has no real free will. That's the rub. He meets a snarly old blind man who has a checkered past and philosophizes constantly. The central character would like to die. The interesting thing is that after his resurrection he is a pretty kind man, thoughtful and gracious and caring. I don't know. It's so darned obtuse that I just never got a handle on it.

John Ashley has a much more demanding part to play in this horror from the Phillipines then in the "Blood Island-movies". He is the victim of a horrific transformation into a bloodsucking monster! He was picked out by the devil to be the double for a US-army deserter in the forties, the devil then gave him eternal life, but the monster keeps claiming victims even after 24 years.... Good performance of the tortured soul by Ashley and.....a much better story then for instance that other Eddie Romero-classic "Beast of the night".