In the 60’s director Emilio Vieyra single-handedly injected a deadly dose of sleaze and exploitation into an otherwise fairly pristine and politically correct Argentine film industry sending seismic shockwaves of delight to fans of the deliciously warped and bizarre – almost the same time as Jose Mojica Marins was burning up the books in neighbouring Brazil.

His first attempt was Extrana Invasion (Stay Tuned for Terror) which featured couch potatoes being zapped by weird rays from their TV sets turning them into crazed telly-addicts. His next was Placer Sangriento (Feast of Flesh) which was similarly deranged with a man in a monster mask injecting women with drugs in order to turn them into love slaves! Next up was La Bestia Desnuda, a bizarre film featuring a masked monster preying on members of a theatrical group followed by Sangre de Virgines (Blood of the Virgins) which was Argentina’s first vampire film – typically quirky, with copious amounts of flesh on display. But perhaps the most notorious of Vieyra’s horror-sleaze epics was the sci-fi tinged masterpiece of sheer wackiness: La Venganza del Sexo AKA The Curious Dr. Humpp which was shot within two weeks in 1967 featuring a handful of the stars that became Vieyra regulars; Richard Bauleo as the lunatic mad scientist who will stop at nothing in order to hang on to his youthful looks. Then there is Gloria Prat providing oomph and Susan Beltran the cursed blonde vampire from Blood of the Virgins making another appearance.

The films plot is simply dazzling – brilliantly innovative and moulded to provide as much nudity and sleazy soft core sex as possible featuring much groping of crotch regions and stomach churning close ups of “unwanted” hair and much straddling and stoking, moaning and mumbling. These gratuitously sleazy scenes were actually inserts shot three years later to “spice” up the film so that it would appeal to the “adult” crowd and not just the horror hounds upon its North American release. A whopping 17 minutes of smut was added on to the film when it was released in the US and indeed the film had been made available in a “hot” version containing all the smut and a “cold” version that was sans the dirty bits.

Coming back to the plot that only a genius could have devised; it concerns a mad scientist hell bent on maintaining his youthful looks and virility. He designs a spectacular lab for his work where he is instructed by an even greater genius; the talking brain of an Italian scientist who has invented the theory of attaining immortality by extracting the libidos of aphrodisiac-pumped sex-crazed youth. For this purpose a constant supply of young men and women are required who are duly kidnapped by his ghoulish masked monster shuffling around town, lurking in the shadows, awaiting his chance to pounce on amorous young teenagers to be used for his master’s deranged sex experiments. Once he procures a bunch of suitably amorous sex maniacs, his boss enhances their libidos further by injecting them with potent aphrodisiacs sending them into sexual overdrive. He spends most of his time watching his subjects performing the act; waiting for the moment he can extract their libidos in order to provide the elixir that he requires.

The local police are totally flummoxed, puffing profusely on their cigars hoping for divine intervention. Finally they get a break as an eyewitness to one of the kidnappings is able to help an expert draw a likeness of the kidnapping masked ghoul. However it is one particularly inquisitive and daring young reporter who makes major headway when he discovers what he thinks is the hideaway of the masked ghoul. Alas, he is besieged by other ghoulish automatons that seize him and take him to their boss who is duly impressed by the reporter “as he knows how to use what he’s got” and can be of considerable benefit in the sex experiments. The heroic reporter remains the last hope to expose the twisted sex experiments of Dr. Humpp but now he is ensnared in the evil scientists plot and has become just another living sex-doll who will soon be sucked dry of his libido and then dispensed with. Will the evil, demented Dr. Humpp be stopped in his devilish scheme or will he and his hideous, shuffling monster continue to wreak havoc with the young population with tens of disappearances taking place each week? Watch this classic slice of sleazy, trashy exploitation to find out and satisfy your own curiosity.

The film contains much that will delight; especially the hilarious “hot and sexy” dialogues that have been added to give the film that raw sex appeal. Perhaps the outstanding ingredients in an incredibly wacky film are the conceited and loud mouthed Italian brain in the glass jar who babbles instructions to the Curious Dr. Humpp with an honourable mention to the shuffling masked creature with the little red light in his head from where he receives beamed messages from The Master.

This film is a masterwork of the utterly nonsensical and bizarre with a plot that is as demented as could ever have been conceived and dialogues that should have viewers wetting their pants, rolling around the floor in uncontrollable giggling fits and this despite the putrid, stomach churning “inserts”. Also the wonderful pseudo jazzy, hip score is a major asset to the films considerable charm. Dr. Humpp has rightfully earned its reputation as being a true gem of the deliriously loopy variety.