What events from the Sixties had a major impact on the Baby Boomers?  The Cuban Missile Crisis?  The Vietnam War?  Woodstock?  Well, yes.  But there's another event that's not so well known...when, thanks to exploitation movie maven K. Gordon Murray, we watched...

The Wizard Of Coral Gables, PART TWO

By ROB CRAIG

(Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on film producer K. Gordon Murray by Rob Craig.  You may read the first article here.  Rob is the brains behind a fantastic Website that pays tribute to one of the most neglected genre film icons of them all--K. Gordon Murray, the man who brought Mexican horror and kiddie flicks to Baby Boomers back in the Sixties and Seventies.  You can visit Rob's wonderful Website here.)

Although fairy tales were his cash cow, and exploitation films his first love, K. Gordon Murray may be most fondly remembered by most cult film aficionados for his importing of some 30 horror movies, primarily from Mexico. With lurid titles, bizarre plots and weird dubbing, these strange and incredible cross-culture curiosities have become true cult film legends.

Some of the most popular Murray horror movies are The Brainiac, Curse Of The Doll People, The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy, and Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy, as well as Samson Vs. The Vampire Women and Samson In The Wax Museum (both of which starred the beloved Mexican wrestler, Santo!)

Much credit must be given to the original Mexican productions, which often combined elements of truly effective gothic horror with bizarre and ludicrous cultural anomalies such as wrestlers, robots and mummies! In fact, many of the Mexican horror films look like Universal horror classics of the Forties run amok!

One of the most exciting things about Murray's dubbed productions, especially the horror films (aside from the melodramatic and peculiar source films themselves), is the rich and evocative dubbed dialogue.

Although the very first Murray productions were re-dubbed at their original studios, Murray soon realized he could save a great deal of money by having his own sound production facility nearby. He rented a tiny office in nearby Coral Gables, and dubbed it "Soundlab, Inc."

Soundlab was one of the first facilities dedicated exclusively to the dubbing of foreign films into English. These facilities produced some impressive results which are the rival of much being done today.

The result, in many cases, is astounding. As ludicrous as much of the dialogue is in Murray's dubbed productions, one senses that there was great care taken to be honest to the original script, while at the same time matching the on-screen actors' mouths as much as possible.

Two of the main figures behind the glorious dubbing of the foreign films were Reuben Guberman and Paul Nagel.

Reuben Guberman, a self-proclaimed "fat Jewish maverick," had a long and varied career in film production, public relations and various other trades. His work for Murray consisted of translating the original (usually Spanish) language scripts into workable English dialogue for Murray's voice actors to then dub onto US release prints.

Likewise, Paul Nagel, who taught acting and drama for many years at the University of Miami, did English-language directorial chores for many of the horror films, as well as performing as voice actor, along with his wife and some of his drama students!

According to an interview with Nagel in Video Watchdog, the dubbing sessions, always held at night and usually quite a rushed affair, were helmed by Murray’s longtime assistant, Manuel San Fernando, a South American émigré who was fluent in Spanish-to-English translations.

Beginning in 1962 with the "Nostradamus" series, Murray released his dubbed versions of these strange Mexican films to TV, in a package called "The World of Terror", which grew to 28 titles by the late Sixties. This is where many fans first discovered, and fell in love with, this most unusual group of films.

However, Murray also released several horror titles to drive-ins and kiddie matinees in eccentric double bills, three of the most famous being: The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy/The Vampire's Coffin (1965), The Brainiac/Curse Of The Crying Woman (1968), and The Living Head/The Witch's Mirror (1969)

Perhaps Murray’s most memorable marketing campaign was his creation of the wholly fictitious "Young America Horror Club". In advertising for his incredible double-bill, The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy and The Vampire's Coffin, it was mentioned (shouted?) that these "classic" films were recommended by this bogus organization, as if the films had won some kind of prize at a film festival! Although the cheesy logo should have made folks wise to the scam, surely this fake "seal of approval" caused many unsuspecting patrons to suffer two of the worst, weirdest, most ridiculous horror films of the Sixties.

What’s worse, in certain key cities, Murray attempted to sell tickets to these two stinkers on a "Reserved Seats Only" basis! No records exist as to the subsequent box-office receipts, but one can’t imagine anyone being suckered into such an elitist response to such a lame double bill.

As Murray rarely copyrighted his product, most of his horror films fell into the public domain for many years. Thus, some of these films have been extremely difficult to obtain, except through the video "gray" market.

However, there are some new sources for Murray’s horror films. There are VHS releases from various companies, copies of which are easily obtainable.

Even more enigmatic is a notorious series of low-rent DVDs of many of the horror films, released a while back by the elusive "Beverly/Wiltshire Filmworks". Although out of print, they can still be had from a number of reliable sources.

The quality of these DVDs ranges from impressive to mediocre to terrible, as they use as their source films the same old 16mm TV prints that have served as the source of many VHS releases.

However, finding a DVD copy of any of these obscure films nowadays is still a collector’s treat, and any serious collector of the genre should snap up a bunch of these while they can still be had for under $20. Surely, they will soon become collector’s items, and fetch outrageous prices.

Other titles, such as Bloody Sea; Frankenstein, The Vampire And Company; and Curse Of The Aztec Mummy, are virtually lost, and if you see one of these in any format, by all means snap it up posthaste!

The films of K. Gordon Murray may follow a certain genre formula, and yet they are completely unique. Surely, there have been other cheap-jack producers and importers of foreign films who have unleashed their awkward, scruffy product to baffled US audiences and run away with the booty, but none have shown the class, the grit, the eclectic range and the dizzying output as the Wizard of Coral Gables.

Thanks again, Rod.  From quirky kiddie movies to cheesy horror films, K. Gordon Murray was a pioneer in bringing us fantastic cinema from south of the border.  We'll never forget them and we shouldn't forget him. 

Article copyright © Rod Craig.   Visit his Website.  All the amazing K. Gordon Murray movie artwork in this article and elsewhere in this issue (and more) can be found at his  Website...so visit it, already!

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