Santo y Blue Demon contra el doctor Frankenstein (1974)

I've never been to Mexico, but I like to think of it as populated by an array of colorfully masked wrestlers tirelessly protecting the country against various monsters and aliens, between taking on opponents in the squared circle. This impression has been greatly influenced by the dozens of lucha-libre films produced in the area throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s, many of which starred the most popular mexican wrestler of all: El Santo. Santo first began wrestling in the 1930s, but it was when he began wearing his trademark silver mask that his career really took off and by the 1950s (when he was already well into his 40s) he began his foray into cinema with Santo contra el cerebro del mal (Santo Vs. The Evil Brain, 1958). The following two decades saw him starring in over 40 films, often battling zombies, mad scientists or other demonic creatures. By 1973 the genre had definitely become a little formulaic, but Santo y Blue Demon contra el doctor Frankenstein (Santo and Blue Demon Vs Dr. Frankenstein, 1973) is a fine starting place for those interested in the genre and what it has to offer. Certainly cheap looking, but featuring a surprisingly spry Santo considering he was in his late 50s, the film has lots of cheesy fun for genre fans.

To understand El Santo, you have to picture a combination of Batman and James Bond. He's super smooth, a snappy dresser, and gets all the women when he's not acrobatically dispatching of a variety of opponents and saving the world from various supernatural threats. As well, he - along with his Luchadore partners such as Blue Demon in this film - never remove their masks. They wear them out to dinner, when relaxing by the pool, or even when just driving around. This status as a real life superhero m...

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...'t fare quite as well, looking uncomfortable in most acting scenes and showing little of the grace that he was able to provide in the ring. Of course, constantly playing second banana to Santo is sort of a thankless role.

Of course, none of this is meant to imply that the film is actually any good. While entertaining in its ridiculousness, the entire genre was starting to get a little shoddy at this point, and this is obviously a very low-budget production with flimsy sets and excessive padding. Dr. Frankenstein provides some name value, but he could really be almost any generic mad scientist and Golem makes a rather poor substitute for Frankenstein's monster. It feels a bit like a television production, and many of these luchadore films would fit quite well next to campy productions like the 60s Batman series, though there's a lot less winking at the camera here.