Lucha Libre free for all!

 I've mentioned that I'm trying to expand my horizons on various horror cinema from around the world. Mexican cinema is something of a mystery to me, so its one area I have tried to seek out. I mean sure, I've seen the Spanish Language Dracula from 1931, and MST3k brought me The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy (1958) and Samson Versus the Vampire Women (1962), neither of which I could remember. I was surprise to find out Cronos (1995) was a Mexican film because I didn't realize it was a Del Toro film... But somehow I always missed others. In listening to the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast, I heard them talk about the film Ship of Monsters (1960) and decided to give it a try, and was amused through the whole thing. Its not a great film, but it IS an amusing one, which features singing cowboys, an array of space monsters (including an unconvincing talking skeleton), two beautiful alien women (one of whom is a vampire), and robot that looks pretty much exactly like Bender from Futurama.

They also talked about two other films: Santo and Blue Demon Vs The Monsters (1969) and  Santo Versus the Zombies (1962), and obviously enjoyed them greatly, so I thought I would give them a chance. I've never been a wrestling fan, so, I never thought much about this series before. So, I did a quick search and discovered Tubi has a large number of these on it for free. While I didn't instantly see either of the films DoH reviewed, I saw the promisingly titled Santo and Blue Demon versus Dracula and El Hombre Lobo (1973). Yes, for some reason, the title on Tubi was not listed as Dracula and the Wolfman, but used the Spanish term for Wolf Man. I have no idea why. Most of the time, I see it translated out. Go figure. So, I put it on and settled back.

Oh. My. God.

This is one of the dumbest, most surreal, most charming, and completely entertaining films I've seen recently. 

No, this is not peak, Masterpiece Theater Cinema here. This is about masked Mexican wrestlers fighting monsters. Don't expect great things. DO expect a fun, cartoony, lunatic romp through a comic book. 

We are introduced to our heroes, appropriately enough, though an extended wrestling match. El Santo (The most legendary and popular Luchador ever, who is a real life folk hero in Mexico) is fighting El Angel Blanco. The Angel is using all sorts of illegal moves on Santo, as the announcer keeps informing us. Santo is clearly taking the worse of it. What is so bizarre about this scene? We hear the roar of a crowd, and the announcer keeps talking about the crowd reactions, and about how big the crowd is.... but no crowd is ever seen. The ring is statically shot against a blank background of pastel blues and pinks. This wrestling match goes on far longer than one might think, but Santo eventually overcomes his Foe. 

We then move into the main body of the film, and a fiendish hunchback named Eric is busy plotting the resurrection of his master, Dracula. Meanwhile, Santo is visiting his girlfriend at the house of her Uncle, Professor Cristaldi... who has just received a death threat. His ancestor was responsible for the previous staking of Dracula some 400 years previous. 

400 years? And Eric has somehow waited until NOW to start the plan? No one else has tried? Why is Eric loyal to someone he never met? I have no idea. In short order however, he kidnaps the good professor and sacrifices him to bring back Dracula from the dead (In much the same way that Hammer's Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) as well as Dracula's werewolf sidekick, Rufus Rex. Say what you want, that is a fantastic name for a werewolf. And while Dracula is raised in his full Trasylvanian Tuxedo and cape, Rufus is raised in a stylish, open chested, gold lame disco shirt. Rufus is also quite chatty and eloquent for a werewolf. 

Santo decides that the police cant help (because they don't believe in vampires and werewolves, the fools...) so he calls on his friend and fellow Luchador, Blue Demon!

Crash cut back to the same weirdly disconnected Wrestling ring as before, for another wresting match introduction to Blue Demon, where he is wrestling the hilariously named Renato the Hippie. Blue Demon is a much more agile wrestler that Santo, it appears, but I think age may have been a big factor. Santo was something like 56 when he made this film. Blue Demon however was not much younger, at 51. But he still moved like a much younger man. 

Behind the scenes, it is said there was a rivalry between these two men, stemming back decades. Santo defeated a tag-team partner of Blue Demon, called Black Shadow in a Mask vs Mask match and unmasked him. In turn, Blue Demon defeated Santo in a Welterweight championship in 1953. But frankly, the whole thing seems like a scripted storyline. The two of them stared in 10 films together, and would have starred in more, but Santo's schedule apparently prevented him appearing in one of Blue Demon's solo films which he was asked to appear in. Blue Demon was also one of the pallbearers at Santo's funeral. It seems the rivalry was built up for the sake of story, and the two were actually friends. That the two of them never appeared against each other in a Mask vs Mask match also seems to indicate a level of mutual respect between them,

But back to the insanity which is this film.

I had to laugh all the way through it. It is so weird, and so fun. It has the off-kilter feel of the old Batman TV series with Adam West. The two luchadors keep in touch with each other via radios built into their wristwatches (apparently, Santo is a genius inventor as WELL as a wrestling champion... in another film in his series he invents a TIME MACHINE....). The sight of these two huge hulking men in full face masks, trying to trail a suspect inconspicuously while riding in a tiny open top sports car is a riot. And, true to the code of Lucha Libre, the wrestlers NEVER take off their masks... not when eating, relaxing at home over a nice game of chess, or making out with their girlfriends....  The masks STAY ON.

The werewolf get a LOT of screentime in his human guise, as he romances the daughter of the professor, in order to lure her away and sacrifice her. He is absurdly vain, and when someone comments on his good looks, he responds with "Yes, I know." as if it should be perfectly obvious to anyone. He has NO DOUBTS that his victim will fall in love with him. 

Dracula seems oddly ineffective in this, with most successes coming because of Rufus and Eric being actually somewhat competent and efficient. But I really had to wonder if Drac actually thought things through very much. Towards the end, he has to punish one of the Wolfman's werewolf army, and he has a method of disposal right there in his lair: A pit full of wooden stakes! I can't see why ANY vampire might want to think twice about having something like that in their home! It couldn't POSSIBLY come back to bite him, right?

The final scenes, where Santo and Blue Demon take on the might of the army of Werewolves, the vampire minions, and finally Dracula and Rufus, is sheer chaos and joy. Good things Werewolves naturally prefer wrestling attacks over claws and biting! And when vampires are dispatched they.... explode into piles of what looks like shaving cream? Not sure what that was about. 

I need to see more of these Santo films. I quickly followed that one with Santo in the Treasure of Dracula (1968) in which he invents a time machine ... for reasons... and then uses it to learn about a great treasure that Dracula had collected, and then searches for it in the modern day, and then Santo Vs Frankenstein's Daughter (1971) in which the titular mad scientist's daughter seeks to harness the amazing healing factor that apparently Santo possesses, in order to use it in her immortality serum. 

There are films I watch because they are significant. There are films I watch because they are fascinating or informative. These films I will watch purely because they are so damn entertaining. 

Thoughts on a 70's style Dracula

 One of the staples of Saturday evenings growing up, was the Channel 43 8 O'Clock Movie. Since the afternoons were taken up by Superhost's Saturday Mad Theater, you had a lot of movies that were aimed at younger audiences then, but once you got into the evening, more adult fare was aired. As a consequence, a lot of Hammer, Amicus, and Tigon films got screened on that later show. 

These were, during the 70s. among the most 'modern' things that were on TV at the time. And yet, because they were not domestically made, there was a certain exotic quality to them. There was something about them that seemed not as polished as the American films at the time.

Its odd that we look back and imagine Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing always opposing each other in the Dracula films, when it didn't really happen all that often. They were in Horror of Dracula (1958), which was the first, and they were in two later installments, Dracula AD 1972 (1972) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). However, most of the time, Lee's Dracula had other antagonists beyond Cushing's Van Helsing. Cushing's Van Helsing showed up in several of vampire films that didn't involve Dracula per se... such as Brides of Dracula (1960) and The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974). Sometimes it wasn't even the same Van Helsing, as his last two appearances he plays "Loirmer Van Helsing" the grandson of the one from the previous films. And obviously, they appeared together in many other films, including the likes of Curse of Frankenstein (1957), The Mummy (1959), The Gorgon (1964), Horror Express (1972), and various anthology movies from Amicus Films.

Their last pairing in the Dracula series was The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), and I have to admit, when I was younger, this one never appealed to me. It was an odd entry in the series, but looking back on it, and rewatching it with my more adult eyes, I can appreciate it more for what they were trying to do.

This was the dying days of Hammer Studios. By the mid-1970s, they were casting about, looking for alternative ways to take their properties into the future. You start seeing alternative and experimental properties, such as Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter (1974) or The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974). The previous year had brought Dracula forward in time to the 1970s, in Dracula AD 1972 in an attempt to make the Dracula series more relevant to the modern audience, and its not entirely successful, but you can see them try to marry the gothic sensibilities of the previous Dracula films with the 'Swinging London' of the early 70s. 

But having brought Dracula to the 70s, they didn't really know what to do with him until The Satanic Rites of Dracula, but what they did was combine together the world of the vampire with the world of James Bond. 

And why not?

In the earlier entries in the Dracula series, particularly Brides of Dracula, they treated vampirism not as a curse, or as a virus, but as a cult. The vampires are treated almost like some sort of 19th Century organized crime family, which already gives them a parallel to groups like SPECTRE in the Bond series. The present day roleplaying game Night's Black Agents, written by Ken Hite and published by Pelgrane Press plays with this idea too. 

Dracula doesn't appear in the film for quite a long time. But his presence is felt almost from the start. We have a British agent making a daring escape from imprisonment and making his way back to his superiors, just before dying of his injuries. He warns them of a satanic cult, which 4 prominent public figures have joined; a government minister, a military general, a prominent scientist, and a peer. One clever things that I can appreciate is that this agent has surreptitiously taken pictures of each person as they entered the house where the cult meets... but the fifth photo is an empty doorway. This confuses the superiors who wonder if her took it by mistake, but it cleverly sets up the presence of Dracula without actually showing him this early in the film. Why? Vampires don't appear on film, of course. They spell this out later in the movie, but its a great and subtle way to introduce the villain without showing him. 

The story is a bit.... odd. However, it fits in that sort of Bond villain way. Dracula is working with these people, especially the scientist, to develop a particularly deadly strain of plague which he is planning on releasing to wipe out humanity. Which isn't the best idea for a vampire who needs blood. And to its credit, Van Helsing points this out to him. 

Peter Cushing, by this point, was quite old, and wasn't as dynamic as he had been in 1958, but still managed to command the scene with his presence. Most of the action was taken on by Michael Coles as Inspector Murray, and Joanna Lumley as Jessica Van Helsing. Christopher Lee actually gives Dracula a bit of subtle humor in this film, unlike his near silent performances in some of the other films in the series. The alias Dracula assumes, of industrialist D. D. Denham, is portrayed with an Eastern European accent which Lee has claimed was an homage to Bela Lugosi. 

It does come across as a bit strange that Dracula is running a Satanic cult. However, it appears to be all window-dressing. The "sacrifices" are all young ladies who have already been turned into vampires... thus giving the appearance that they "heal" from mortal wounds. This seems to be done to convince the cult members of the power "D. D. Denham" wields. But it seems almost overkill. There is also a sequence in which one of Dracula's henchmen, wearing a sheepskin vest and riding a motorcycle, beats up, kidnaps, or kills anyone who happens to get close to the cult. Who this person is is never really explained much... he may just be a hanger-on. But he also takes out the main government operatives in the film with a sniper rifle. Its rather shocking to see two people who had, until this point, been main characters, killed off cavalierly by an underling. 

There is a young Joanna Lumley here, playing Jessica Van Helsing. Jessica had appeared in Dracula AD 1972 portrayed by Stephanie Beacham. Lumley plays Jessica as somewhat older and wiser than she was in the previous film, and yet, she is STILL a victim in this, selected by Dracula in the end to be his new 'bride'. While they make Jessica a bit more independent, she still requires rescue by men in the cast. It is still quite early in Lumley's career, and her more iconic performances in The New Avengers, Sapphire and Steel, and of course, Absolutely Fabulous were still years in the future.

It might have been interesting to see the series develop into a more James Bond-esque series, with Dracula in the modern era becoming a supernatural version of Blofeld. Jessica and Inspector Murray could have become a sort of Steed and Mrs Peel facing off against occult threats. This film could have been the springboard for it had Hammer continued much further. 

Vampires only appear twice more in Hammer Films during this era. Both in 1974; Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires and Captain Kronos; Vampire Hunter both of which served to expand the Hammer folklore of vampires beyond the Transylvanian model and which would have given an expansive rogues gallery to a sort of Van Helsing led government ministry had they continued this idea. The problem was, people were tired of vampires during this time. This was the era of the Exorcist, the Omen, the living dead, and more modern forms of horror, and even in the modern day, Hammer films still retained a sort of very black and white, gothic sort of morality that didn't fit well with the younger audiences at the time. But we are decades from this sort of 'shared universe'.

Quick Reviews:

The Curse of the Faceless Man (1958) - An odd little attempt to do something different with the Mummy Genre from director Edward L. Cahn and Screenwriter Jerome Bixby (Bixby would pen several episodes of the original Star Trek and the Twilight Zone). Starring Richard Anderson (who later went on to play Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man series) it involved the discovery of the body of a petrified gladiator in Pompeii who returned to life and killed those who robbed his treasure and to play out the story of his original death again in modern times. Yes, I know there are no actual petrified bodies in Pompeii, they were plaster casts, but this film doesn't worry too much about that... or much else, as the date of the events changes from June 1 to August 24th inexplicably. Still, its not a bad little film, but not especially memorable. The monster, Quintillus, looks pretty decent.

It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) - ALSO from director Edward L. Cahn and screenwriter Jerome Bixby, this film was released on a Double Bill with The Curse of the Faceless Man. This is a straight up science fiction adventure, the story of which may feel.... familiar... to modern audiences. The crew of a rocket go to Mars in order to respond to a distress signal, and pick up the sole survivor of the previous Mars mission.... as well as an alien stowaway who begins picking the crew off one by one. The crew even hunt for it through the ventilation ducts of their ship. If it sounds a bit like the movie Alien (1979) you would not be considered wrong. This seems to have been something of an inspiration for the later film. Its a surprisingly tense film, and well shot, despite the cavalier attitude the crew have about using their guns and grenades inside their fragile spacecraft. The Monster (IT), it played by veteran stuntman Ray "Crash" Corrigan in his last onscreen role (per IMDB). Corrigan starred in the Republic Serial The Undersea Kingdom and there is a better than even chance that if a film or a short featured a man in a gorilla suit, its Corrigan in there. (For example, he is in the suit in the Three Stooges short Dizzy Detectives.

Island of the Burning Damned (1967) - This is an odd little science fiction film from Planet Films, and starring Christopher Lee, Patrick Allen, with a Guest Star of Peter Cushing... Directed by Terrance Fisher... What could go wrong? Whats that? "Additional Scenes by Pip and Jane Baker?" oh, crap... For those of you who don't know That pair of writers is responsible for some of the worst Dr Who stories ever. Moving on  though, this isn't a TERRIBLE film, but it is sort of convoluted. An Island off the north of Britain is experiencing a heat wave in the middle of winter, and Christopher Lee thinks its Aliens that are responsible. One by one, the islanders are roasted alive by the blobby invaders for reasons that are murky at best. I spent years looking for this film, and its its because its named at least 3 different things: Night of the Big Heat, Island of the Burning Damned, and because it got a release on US Television, Island of the Burning Doomed. It also doesn't help that it is somewhat similar to another film called Island of Terror which also stared Peter Cushing and involved Blobby monsters...

Island of Terror (1966) - This film, like the previous one, involved Peter Cushing on an island off Britain where blobby monsters are attacking and killing people. Unlike Island of the Burning Damned, the creatures here, called Silicates, liquify bones and suck them out of people, leaving behind collapsed sacks of skin. Which is sort of a really gross thing. This is a better film than Island of the Burning Damned, and has a tighter, more coherent, if somewhat far-fetched, story. It lacks for the presence of Christopher Lee, but Cushing more than makes up for it on his own.

Curse of the Living Corpse (1964) - A Dreary little thriller that would be long forgotten if it was not that this was the screen debut of Academy Award Nominee Roy Scheider.... well, everyone has to start somewhere. Apparently he got the role after his co-star Candace Hilligoss (Carnival of Souls (1962)) recommended him to the director, Del Tenney. The story is a standard Old Dark House type plot. A family patriarch dies, and leaves stipulations in his will about who can claim it, and his family argue over it while he apparently comes back from the dead to kill them all one by one. Most of the actors are forgettable, and there does not seem to be much in the way of continuity. SPOILER: Roy Scheider's character turns out to be the killer... which makes little sense in the course of the film, as we are treated to several closeups of the killer's face, and his very very light blue eyes.... and Roy Scheider has very dark brown eyes, so it obviously wasn't him running around in costume killing folks. But...  

Ship of Monsters (1960) - A peculiar Mexican Science Fiction Comedy Western Musical.... yes, did you get all that? Actually a pretty fun film, with some unexpectedly modern jokes in it (For example, the hero, upon meeting the two beautiful alien women, attempts to ascertain if they are married, have boyfriends or "swing the other way"! Wow... 1960, folks!) The robot in the film is the spitting image of Bender from Futurama. This was geared to kids, but had enough jokes aimed at adults to entertain everyone. Mexican films wore their bad special effects like a badge of honor, and this is no exception. Seriously, give it a watch... its silly fun, and you won't regret it.

War Gods of the Deep (1965) - Also known as City in the Sea, this film attempts to capitalize on the popularity of several other cinema trends from the 1960s; Edgar Allen Poe films and Jules Verne style Adventure films. With Vincent Price overacting charmingly as 'The Captain", Tab Hunter as "Ben" the stolid hero, and David Tomlinson as "Harold Tuffnell-Jones" the witty comic relief, you have the core of a fun movie. Tomlinson's obsession with his rooster Herbert brought to mind Gertrude the goose in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) but lead to at least one hysterically funny scene with Vincent Price catching a glimpse of Herbert with a pointed finger and a hungry "Chicken!" shout. Further, this film was directed by Jacques Tourneur and LOOKS stunning. It also helps that there is stock footage cut in from Ishiro Honda's Atragon (1963). The end result is an interesting mashup of concepts from Poe and Verne, without really being either of them. 

The Return of Dracula

 1958 seemed to have been a good year for Dracula. Perhaps the time was right for a return of the Count, after having been relegated to largely supporting roles for years. The last time Dracula actually headlined a Hollywood film was in 1943's Son of Dracula with Lon Chaney, and after that he was relegated to a supporting character in the Universal 'Monster Rallies' of the rest of the 40s, culminating in his wonderful appearance in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The only other appearance is in the rarely seen Turkish adaptation Drakula Istanbul'da or Dracula in Istanbul. But 1958 saw renewed interest in the character when Hammer released Horror of Dracula with Christopher Lee. 

But that's not the 1958 version I want to talk about today.

No, I want to talk about the film that came out a month before the the Hammer version, which was Gramercy Pictures' The Return of Dracula. Its a film that has been overshadowed by the bright colors and gothic swashbuckling of the British film, but I think maybe its been a bit unfairly overlooked.

The story is pretty basic, but seeks to update Dracula to a more modern (at the time) setting; that of 1958 California. It keeps the basic premise behind the previous versions of Dracula, that of the Count coming to a foreign land in search of new feeding grounds. However, this film put me much in mind of Orson Welles 1948 film The Stranger, in that its less that he is looking for new blood, but he is fleeing those who would hunt him. 

In the opening scenes of The Return of Dracula, an investigator named John Meierman has tracked Dracula to a cemetery with his crew and uncover his coffin, ready to stake him. This scene is actually really wonderful, as it evokes a gathering of killers from a film noir, as they very professionally scout the area, check their weapons (crosses and stakes), and count down to the proper time to strike. As Meierman walks across the cemetery, his men fall in behind him in formation like a well honed military patrol, in which each person seeming to know exactly what his role is. Dialogue here is minimal, but effective. They are shocked to find the coffin empty.

Meanwhile, poor Czech artist Bellack Gordal is saying goodbye to his family as he is going to visit his distant cousin in America. He boards a train, and is nearly instantly murdered by Dracula, who steals his passport and identity and travels to America having assumed the name of Bellack Gordal, apparently to escape Meierman and his hunters. 

And this is why I kept thinking of The Stranger. It echoed the themes of pursuit from Welles' film with vampire hunters replacing Nazi hunters. Some critics apparently see undertones of Cold War paranoia in this film, but that is less apparent to me than the Nazi Hunting angle. 

Lets talk for a moment about Dracula, portrayed here by the suave Francis Lederer. Lederer was born in Prague in 1899 and eventually moved to the United States in the 1930s. He was apparently tricked by his agent into playing this role, and resented it. Nevertheless, he is actually pretty effective as Dracula. When we look at the actors who have previously portrayed the Count, he does seem to stand out. Lugosi set the standard, of course, with someone who was aristocratic, but a bit alien, and Lee brought to it a sort of bestial energy. Lon Chaney's Count was melancholy and somewhat tragic, and John Carradine was more abrupt and spooky. Lederer though is restrained, aristocratic, suave and mysterious, and plays the vampire as a sort of antichrist. He ditches the old fashioned clothes, tailed tuxedos, and capes, in favor of a modern, elegant suit and tie, with a long, black overcoat thrown over his shoulders calling to mind the capes of old. He blends in, but still presents as elegantly attired and sophisticated. One nice touch is that he does a lot of acting with just his face. He moves stiffly, and his face is frequently blank... but several times, there are closeups of his face where he seems to be concentrating, and shifting the expression on his face to suit the people and the occasion. Its like he has to consciously decide what is the appropriate expression to take. He has to remember how to smile or how to look concerned. Its subtle, but gives his characterization a certain sense of disconnection from humanity. It reminded me of Willem Dafoe's speech in Shadow of the Vampire (2000) where he talks about how sad it must be for Orlock to try and remember what it was like to be human

One other thing I noticed was the rather powerful soundtrack. It seemed familiar... and then I realized why. It was Dies Irae, which was also used in an arrangement by Wendy Carlos in Kubrick's The Shining (1980). Its an ominous theme, especially combined with Lederer's purposeful striding as he leaves the place where his coffin in concealed.

Finally, it must be noted that this was a 'gimmick' film. So much so that William Castle sued the producers for offering life insurance to audience members, which was one of his own gimmicks. There is also a sequence towards the end, when the secondary vampire is staked, that a closeup is offered of the stake penetrating the chest, and suddenly the film switches for just a few seconds to full color, allowing you to see a gout of bright red blood burst forth. Its a startling scene if you're not expecting it. This was apparently cut from television copies as the color would have been too hard to reproduce (to say nothing of the fact that black and white televisions were still the norm, going into the 1970s.) 

One peculiar this about this film... take a close look at the closeup of the leading lady's face; Norma Eberhardt had heterochromia... each eye is a different color. Its subtle, but the difference can be seen, even in black and white. I just find this interesting. Eberhardt's Rachel is the central protagonist of the film, and I find her somewhat intriguing. She represents something of a departure in vampire film heroine's, in that she is given a lot more agency than many. So often in vampire films, the heroine is literally "too pure" for this world. They are innocent and even when they have a love interest, they seem chaste and fragile and somewhat angelic. An exception to this might be Katherine Caldwell (Louise Allbritton) in Son of Dracula (1943) or even perhaps Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert) in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), but those seemed more unusual. But in this one, Rachel is portrayed as being a bit more 'worldly', and is heavily implied to be far from virginal. She attempts to throw off the influence of Dracula whenever she becomes aware of it, and is instrumental in protecting HERSELF. At the climax of the film, she takes advantage of Dracula's distraction to get away, and then helps to dispel the vampire's influence over her boyfriend Tim (Ray Stricklyn)... all while our ersatz Van Helsing and his crew are busy elsewhere. She SAVES HERSELF and the "hero" at the climax of the film. 

This film is not without its flaws. Meierman is severely under-developed, and the local authorities seem awfully quick to accept his stories of vampires, with the local sheriff and minister signing up almost immediately. The heroine's little brother, Mickey, vanishes from the narrative shortly after he reports that his cat has been killed (offscreen, thankfully). When Meierman's colleague is lured into the woods, I presume Jennifer is supposed to turn into a wolf to maul him, however, they used a rather friendly looking dog in place of a wolf. The ending is abrupt and somewhat head scratching as Dracula is undone ... apparently by his own clumsiness and lack of spatial awareness of his own lair. 

But its still definitely worth a look. Its an obscure film, but I wasn't disappointed to have to track it down.