Paul Naschy combines werewolves and samurais with his last theatrical Waldemar Daninsky feature THE BEAST AND THE MAGIC SWORD, on Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro.

Eager to escape the curse that should befall his line should he execute supposed vampire Magyar Vulko (José Luis Chinchilla, THE ELIMINATORS), emperor Otton the Great (Gerard Tichy, RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES) offers the hand of his daughter Uswika to Polish warrior Iraenius Daninsky (Naschy) should he kill Vulko in a duel. He succeeds, but Vulko's sorceress lover Armese (Sara Mora, BLACK COMMANDO) places a curse on Daninsky's family line, proclaiming that the seventh son of every generation born on the full moon will become a mad killer. The curse is not fulfilled until the sixteenth century when Waldemar Daninsky (also Naschy) travels the world with his consort Kinga (Beatriz Escudero) seeking a curse for his lycanthropy. He seeks the knowledge of Cabbalist mystic Salom Yehuda (Conrado San Martin, THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF) but the older man's attempts to use magic and alchemy to heal Waldemar are cut short by an intolerant mob tired of waiting for the inquisition to persecute Yehuda for their superstitions. As the man lays dying after an attack, he tells Waldemar that samurai scientist Kian (Shigeru Amachi, SLEEPY EYES OF DEATH) in Kyoto may be able to help him, and bids him to take his blind niece Esther (Violeta Cela, CONQUEST) along for her protection. Some months later in Japan, Kian is summoned by a Shogun lord to discover who or what is behind a series of brutal, animalistic killings. With his general uncle's (Yoshirô Kitamachi) honor at stake as he and his soldiers fail to capture the beast, and Kian's old rival Eiko Watanabe (Jirô Miyaguchi, LONE WOLF AND CUB) eager to dishonor him, Kian and his sister Akane (Yôko Fuji) are conflicted between duty and compassion when he tracks down Waldemar and discovers that his affliction is the result of a curse. When Kian's attempts to heal Waldemar fail, Kinga believes that sorceress Satomi (Junko Asahina) can help, but Esther suspects that Satomi wants to use Waldemar's werewolf ferocity for her own evil bidding.

The last theatrical Waldemar Daninsky effort – followed in the nineties by a so-so direct-to-video effort LICANTROPO and Fred Olen Ray's softcore TOMB OF THE WEREWOLF/THE UNLIVING – THE BEAST AND THE MAGIC SWORD is a Spanish/Japanese co-production that may be Naschy's werewolf magnum opus however shaky the overall work turns out. Taking advantage of a higher budget and the opportunity to shoot abroad, Naschy weaves a sprawling narrative packed with incident to take advantage of the picturesque backdrops and plenty of production value; however, the two hour running time often does feel padded and sluggish to give Amachi as much screentime as Naschy (Amachi's influence in the Japanese film industry being partially responsible for Naschy being allowed to direct the mostly Japan-lensed production). There are callbacks throughout to the rest of the series with a curse setup out of CURSE OF THE DEVIL, the Tibetan flower of WEREWOLF AND THE YETI, the female scientists/sorceresses to offer to help but only want to possess the wolfman from films like FURY OF THE WOLFMAN and DR. JEKYLL AND THE WEREWOLF, and the requirement that Waldemar be killed with silver by a woman who loves him going back to WEREWOLF SHADOW. Of course, with three lovely leading ladies also struggling for screentime, the identity of that true love seems insufficiently motivated. The production design and costumes are stunning throughout, and the photography of Julio Burgos (THE RIFT) is not quite as striking as Alejandro Ulloa's similar work on NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF but full of colorful gels and moonlit exteriors that attempt to mimic Japanese fantasy works of the period. The score is credited to Ángel Arteaga (THE LAST KAMIKAZE) but only in the end credits, so there may be as much CAM España library music present as well. Actress Julia Saly (THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK) who was Naschy's producing partner on some of his eighties works is listed as an executive producer but unfortunately takes no screen role.

Not dubbed into English, THE BEAST AND THE MAGIC SWORD was available stateside on a Mexican VHS while various subtitled versions made the bootleg rounds until an official Spanish DVD came out featuring a new fullscreen transfer. Deriving their master from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, Mondo Macabro have elected to include both "open matte" 1.37:1 pillarboxed fullscreen and 1.66:1 widescreen 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC presentations of the film. The question of aspect ratio of Paul Naschy's non-scope films has been a matter of debate, with HD masters framed at 1.33:1 provided for some of the other films. Both framing choices here work, with the 1.37:1 version looking balanced while the 1.66:1 simply does not impede on headroom but widescreen seems to add little to the experience. Although some degree of on-camera filtration has been used in some scenes, the 4K master has not itself been filtered or overly noise-reduced with some great detail in the film's close-ups and the studio interiors amidst a lot of saturated gel-lighting, smoke, and fog (putting the viewer in the mood to see how Burgos' photography would look in a remastered HOWL OF THE DEVIL). The only audio option is a Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono option that is entirely post-dubbed so the dialogue is always intelligible and the scoring sounds free of any distortion. Optional English subtitles are provided for both framing options.

Both versions of the film are accompanied by an audio commentary by The Naschycast’s Troy Guinn and Rod Barnett, and they suggest that the film functions as a re-set for his character whose other film entries could never be organized into a consistent timeline, yet this film could indeed function as an origin story to all of them. They discuss the circumstances of Naschy shooting in Japan, Naschy's other Japanese co-productions HUMAN BEASTS and THE LAST KAMIKAZE, the two later Naschy films, and this film's cast of familiar Eurohorror faces. Naschy's introduction to the film from the Spanish DVD is carried over (13:36) in which he also discusses how the film came about from a deal with a Japanese TV production company to shoot art documentaries – with Naschy providing extensive footage of the Prado museum and other historical locations – that the script was set in the sixteenth century but the Japanese production company revealed that most of the samurai films were set in the seventeenth century and that was what they had costumes and props for. While Naschy was willing to change the timeframe, the Japanese production manager insisted that it be retained and had sixteenth century costumes and sets made for the production (including a real silver katana). He also speaks highly of dear friend and co-executive producer Masurao Takeda (OPERATION MANTIS) who originally came to Spain to coach the country's Judo team and became involved in the Japanese/Spanish co-productions with Naschy.