EL HOMBRE DESNUDO

Tap Talk

By Gary Williams

Jul 26, 2021

 

Considered by Canadian film scholars as strictly a Mexican production, just filmed in Canada, EL HOMBRE DESNUDO ("THE NAKED MAN") is a "Weird Western" by almost anyones definition.

The project was shot near Vancouver, British Columbia in 1973 with a mostly Mexican crew and an American, Mexican, and Canadian cast. Top billed Barry Coe was American, and the flick's hero Jose Alonso and heroine Irma Lozana are Mexican, buttressed by a supporting cast which included an unbilled Helen Shaver in her first screen appearance.

Alonso portrays a character without a name, much in the manner of the earlier Euro-westerns. In reviews he is referred to as "the stranger," or "nameless drifter." Barry Coe is the sadistic killer outlaw Moe (and yes, that does seem a strange moniker for a vicious killer & rapist - this isn't a comedy). Beautiful Irma Lozana is Lisa Hastings, who falls in love with the Stranger.

The story takes place in a wintry Canada where Moe and his gang are massacring settlers to steal their land.

Our Stranger comes to their aid while also following his own agenda of finding and killing the man who raped and murdered his Indigenous mother years before. He can identify the culprit, having marked his buttocks with a hot branding iron.

In a final confrontation, the Stranger forces Moe to strip naked in the mud and snow. Of course he bears the tell-tale mark. Rather than simply dispatching Moe with a head or heart shot, the Stranger chooses to

shoot off Moe's manhood, in a quite graphic scene. This can be seen in an 81 second clip which is currently up on YouTube.

EL HOMBRE DESNUDO wasn't released until March 11, 1976, in Mexico only. I

have been unable to find any evidence of a theatrical release in any other country. The film was first released on VHS in Mexico under its original title and garnered a later Mexican VHS release as BALACERA DE MUERTE.

There has been a long unavailable DVD release, again from Mexico, with the original title.

Mexican lobby cards emphasize the exploitative aspects of the film,

prominently stating sex, violence, blood, and showing scenes of topless actresses from the film.

Our hero the Stranger, Jose Alonso, went on to act in a real Euro-western

in 1975 in director Javier Elorrieta's SI QUIERES VIVIR...DISPARA ("IF YOU WANT TO LIVE...SHOOT"), billed 11th in the cast in the role of Reverendo. He was credited as Jose Alonzo Vaz. Before headlining EL HOMBRE DESNUDO Alonso was a student of Aleoandro Jodorowsky and performed with the Emilio Corballido Theater group in Mexico City.

Most of the filming took place at Barkerville, a Provincial government historic site near Vancouver, which dates from circa 1857, with original and reconstructed buildings from the time of the Great Cariboo (sic) Gold Rush.

Supposedly this was the first time the province had allowed a foreign film company to use the facility. You can view the Barkerville website and see

buildings looking much as they did in EL HOMBRE DESNUDO in 1973.

The climactic scene shown on YouTube looks much like it could have come from a Euro-western such as CUT-THROATS 9 (1972). EL HOMBRE DESNUDO is a work which bears little resemblance to other Canadian and Mexican westerns of its time. It seems much more grounded in the European western style. I still have trouble accepting this was directed by Rogelio A. Gonzalez Jr., the helmer of NAVE DE MONSTRUOS ("SHIP OF MONSTERS"),

and other classic Mexican SF/horror

titles (and he was co-screenwriter as well).

NOTE - Many thanks to Canadian Euro-western expert, and good friend, Mike "Ferg" Ferguson, for invaluable information, assistance, and encouragement - all opinions and errors are strictly my own.

EL HOMBRE DESNUDO (THE NAKED MAN)

Uranio Films

 

Director: Rogelio A. González Jr.

Producer: Ing Jose Lorenzo Zakany

Screenplay: Rogelio A. González, Salvador Macias Pérez, Myriam S. Price

Cinematography: Fernando Colin

Editing: Carlos Savage

Cast: José Alonso, Barry Coe, Irma Lozano, Céline La Frenière, Sam Moses, Barney O’Sullivan, Terry Kelly, Kathleen Payne, Hagen Beggs, Don Gran Bery, Dax Logan, John Scott, Ivor Harries, James Nelson, Maxim Hamel, Hans Hiardie, Helen Shaver, Ty Haller

 

Submitted by Michael Ferguson