The Panther Women (1967)

The Panther Women (Las mujeres panteras) is a 1967 Mexican wrestling women movie but it’s also a Santo movie, without Santo. It’s also a witchcraft in the modern world movie.

We open with what seems to be a Satanic ritual. This is actually the Panther Women cult. It’s left a little bit vague is to whether these are actual Satanists or whether it’s a pagan cult (I lean towards the latter explanation). Whatever they are they are clearly up to no good.

The leader of the cult is the glamorous but evil Satanasa (María Douglas). Centuries before this the founder of the cult, Eloim, had been killed by a member of the Pietrasanta family. Before dying Eloim vowed vengeance on Pietrasanta’s descendants. Satanasa intends to be the agent of that vengeance. The killing the last surviving members of the Pietrasanta family will bring Eloim back to life. The culmination of the ritual killings will be the sacrifice of the youngest Pietrasanta, a girl named Paquita.

The weapons Satanasa intends to use are two panther women. They’re lady wrestlers who can transform into panthers.

Famous lady wrestlers Loreta Venus (Ariadne Welter) and Golden Rubi (Elizabeth Campbell) are determined to foil this evil scheme.

Cop Capitán Arturo Díaz (Eric del Castillo) knows he’s going to need outside help so he calls on El Angel (played by pro wrestler and actor Gerardo Zepeda). El Angel is a pro wrestler who moonlights as a masked crimefighter. His identity is a secret. He is also a scientific genius and he has a secret laboratory. He has a secret radio link to police headquarters. Yes, he’s Santo in all but name.

The Pietrasantas get hunted down one by one.

The panther woman do their transformation thing in the wrestling ring.

Eloim is revived, but he’s a shambling zombie-like creature. Eventually there will be a showdown between Eloim and El Angel.

The big problem with this movie is El Angel. He’s fine, but he takes over the movie. As does Eloim. There’s just not enough focus on the Panther Women and the two wrestling women heroines. They’re the most interesting characters but they’re reduced to being minor supporting players.

The big drawcard here is Tongolele as one of the Panther Woman. Tongolele is a legend in Mexico as a dancer and burlesque star. She looks amazing, she was a sultry exotic dancer and she has charisma.

María Douglas makes a fine sinister villainess. Elizabeth Campbell is great as Golden Rubi but doesn’t get anywhere near enough to do.

There are some decent fight scenes, Tongolele does a great sexy dance and there are the obligatory wrestling scenes.

René Cardona was a very experienced director and he keeps things moving along. It’s a very competently made movie. Alfredo Salazar was also an experienced screenwriter but his script isn’t focused enough.

El Angel looks cool. The makeup effects for Eloim are very cool and very creepy. The Panther Woman makeup effects and costumes really needed a lot more thought.

Wrestling was and is a huge part of Mexican popular culture so wrestling hero movies had a guaranteed audience.

This was the fourth of the 60s luchadora (lady wrestler) movies. Despite its problems it’s good fun. Panther Women is worth a look but there are much better Mexican cult movies from that era, such as the magnificent The Bat Woman.

The Powerhouse Indicator Blu-Ray offers a nice transfer wth an informative audio commentary. There’s also a booklet of essays, and a lot of pretentious nonsense they are too.

The Bat Woman (1968)

The Bat Woman (La mujer murcielago) is a 1968 Mexican wresting woman action/spy romp.

Gloria (Maura Monti) is a rich beautiful socialite. She is also a very successful lady wrestler. And as well as that she is the Bat Woman, a masked crime-fighter. She manages to keep her real identity a secret. This is necessary since she has a lot of enemies in the underworld.

Someone has been kidnapping wrestlers. Male wrestlers. They are found dead after having had their pineal glands removed. The killer must be insane but he must also be a skilled surgeon. In fact we know right from the start that the man behind these murders is neurosurgeon Dr Eric Williams (Roberto Cañedo).

He definitely falls into the mad scientist category. He plans to create a race of fish-men. That’s why he needs those pineal glands.

The police are relieved that the Bat Woman has agreed to assist them in solving the case.

Dr Williams has created his first fish-man hybrid. The fish-man isn’t too bright but he follows orders.

Dr Williams has a rather cool-looking mad scientist laboratory on board his yacht, the Reptilicus. The Bat Woman has to find a way to get aboard this yacht, preferably without being captured by the bad guys.

Of course we know she will be captured by the bad guys. More than once. Capturing the Bat Woman is one thing. Holding on to her is another. She’s clever and resourceful and she doesn’t give up, and she has a few tricks up her sleeve (although were she hides her gadgets in a costume that is really just a bikini is another matter).

Dr Williams has other evilness planned. He needs a mate for his fish-man. He intends to create a fish-woman. As you might guess the Bat Woman figures in this dastardly plan.

Enjoying some movies has a lot to do with how you approach them. This is a movie that should definitely not be approached as a “so bad it’s good” movie. It’s an excellent well-made movie. It should also not be approached as a “camp classic” - it is not camp. And certainly not camp in the way the Batman TV series was. It’s a lighthearted adventure ro,p but that doesn’t make it camp.

René Cardona directed an immense number of movies and all the ones I’ve seen have been fun. Alfredo Salazar wrote the screenplay. He scripted a lot of very enjoyable movies including luchadora (lady wrestler) and Aztec Mummy movies.

This is a movie made by seasoned professionals. These guys knew what they were doing. This movie is not in any way amateurish and it does not look cheap. It’s a lot more polished than most American low-budget movies of that era. It compares quite favourably with the Hammer movies of the same vintage.

Maura Monti is an Italian actress who had a brief but prolific career in Mexican cinema. This is not a role that requires great acting but in fact she’s perfectly competent in that department. What was needed was an actress who could be beautiful, sexy and glamorous. Miss Monti is well qualified in those areas. She also looks like a fit healthy active young woman and she looks quite convincing in her action scenes (and it’s obvious that she did most of these scenes herself). She also had to look great in her Bat Woman costume. It’s a rather cool costume and it’s quite revealing. Miss Monti, who is rather well developed in the bust department, fills it out very nicely. She’s also lively and likeable with charisma. She makes a fine action heroine.

The fish-man is a guy-in-a-rubber-suit monster but he’s a cool monster and I happen to love guy-in-a-rubber-suit monsters.

The most important thing of all in a movie of this type is pacing. You have to keep the action moving along. This movie certainly does that.

The Bat Woman is stylish good-natured fun. Highly recommended.

While the Bond movies may have been an influence this movie has stronger affinities with the comic book-inspired pop cinema of the 60s, movies like Modesty Blaise (1966), Danger: Diabolik (1968), Satanik (1968), Umberto Lenzi’s Kriminal (1966) and Deadlier Than the Male (1967). And maybe even Jess Franco’s The Devil Came from Akasava (1971), Kiss Me, Monster (1969) and Two Undercover Angels (1969).

Indicator’s Blu-Ray release looks terrific. It’s loaded with extras but honestly a barebones release at a more reasonable price would have been preferable.

The Phantom of the Monastery (1934)

The Phantom of the Monastery (El fantasma del convento) is a 1934 Mexican gothic horror movie. I’m a huge fan of the Mexican gothic horrors of the 50s but I had no idea that the roots of the genre went back so far in that country.

Eduardo (Carlos Villatoro), his wife Cristina (Marta Roel) and their friend Alfonso (Enrique del Campo), are tramping through a forest and they’re hopelessly lost. Alfonso mentions that there should be an abandoned monastery nearby. If they can find it they’ll have shelter for the night. A strange old guy, accompanied by a huge dog named Shadow, suddenly appears. He leads them to the monastery and then disappears.

Oddly enough the monastery doesn’t seem to be abandoned after all. The three wayfarers are tired, cold and hungry and they’re grateful when they’re invited to stay the night.

The atmosphere at the monastery is rather oppressive and just a tad creepy. Director Fernando de Fuentes isn’t in any great hurry. He’s content to build a spooky disturbing mood gradually and subtly but he knows what he’s doing.

It’s hard to say exactly what it is about the monastery that worries our trio of lost trampers, but there are various little things that just seem somehow wrong or odd.

The dog Shadow lives in the monastery. The Father Prior assures his three guests that the dog has never in his life set foot outside the monastery, but just a few hours earlier they saw him in the woods.

The monks seem to be just a little uncomfortable with their three guests. It also becomes increasingly clear that there are strange things going on in the monastery. The monks are worried about something. There are secrets here. There’s a locked cell from which strange noises are heard. There may well be something evil here.

The viewer will very quickly work out what one of the secrets is, but that knowledge just raises further questions. It’s also not clear whether the monks are sinister or whether they are fighting against some evil.

To add a complication it’s obvious that Cristina thinks Alfonso is much more of a real man than her husband. If Cristina and Alfonso are not having an affair the idea has certainly crossed their minds. This is not just a minor romance sub-plot to add some extra interest. The romantic triangle is an absolutely crucial plot element and it is intimately connected with the horror plot.

The sexual tension between Cristina and Alfonso seems to be reaching crisis point and one has to start wondering if the atmosphere of the monastery is influencing their behaviour, or whether there may be a supernatural influence as well. If there’s evil here it may feed off sexual tensions, or it may trigger those tensions. Cristina initially appeared to be a respectable married woman but now she’s behaving like a temptress. The interesting question is whether this is a repressed part of her nature coming to the fore or whether she’s responding to some kind of sinister supernatural influence.


There’s plenty of ambiguity in this movie. To find out whether this ambiguity is resolved or not you’ll have to watch the movie since I’m not going to risk spoilers.

I think the ending is quite satisfactory.

The acting is a mixed bag. Enrique del Campo as Alfonso is a bit melodramatic at times but this is a horror film so that’s not necessarily a serious weakness. The standout performance comes from Marta Roel as Cristina, a woman who is perhaps a temptress or perhaps a victim of temptation.

The visuals are in their own way just as impressive as those in the contemporary Universal horror movies but in a very different style. It’s much more austere, but very creepy.

What really stands out is that this movie is nothing like the Universal horror movies of the same period. Both stylistically and thematically it’s totally distinctive. There’s a mood of religious fanaticism in the monastery which you obviously don’t find in any of the Universal horror films.

This is low-key slow-burn grown-up horror and it involves grown-up relationships that are totally integral to the horror plot. It’s closer in feel to the Val Lewton horror films of the 40s but this was made a decade before the Lewton films. It took Hollywood ten years to catch up with what the Mexicans were doing in 1934.

It’s also noticeable that this is a movie made by people who were not merely competent but also confident. They had their own vision of what a horror movie could be and they were going for it.

I’m not suggesting that this film is better than the 30s Universal movies - it’s just very different in interesting ways and for that reason it’s highly recommended.

The Powerhouse Indicator Blu-Ray offers a very nice transfer with an excellent audio commentary by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman.

Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1975)

Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary follows the adventures in Mexico of an American girl named Mary Gilmore. As this 1975 film opens her van has broken down in a storm, she takes sheltered in a big abandoned house and meets Ben (David Young). We assume they’re both drifters of some kind. Then we get a flashback that tells us a bit more about Mary. She’s a successful painter. And oh yes, she’s just killed a guy and then she drank his blood.

She’s obviously a vampire. Of sorts. She doesn’t have fangs. She drugs her victim, has sex with him and then cuts his throat. So we figure she’s either a vampire or a crazy chick who thinks she’s a vampire.

So what is she going to do with Ben? Is she going to kill him and drain his blood? Fall in love with him? Keep him as her toy boy? Is she going to tell him that usually she kills her boyfriends?

Cristina Ferrare’s slightly detached performance as Mary helps here. It’s hard to get a handle on how she feels about Ben (or how she feels about being a vampire lady for that matter). She seems to like the guy, but then she seemed to like the first guy she killed. She doesn’t go into crazed psycho killer mode when she kills. She just approaches it as something that she has to do.

The movie effectively keeps us uncertain as to exactly what Mary is. She behaves like your regular vampire and she seems to be driven by blood hunger but the fact that she uses a little knife (hidden in her hair comb) might suggest that she’s not a real vampire. The uncertainty is maintained.

She certainly isn’t finished with killing. She seems to kill pretty regularly. But there’s also the person in the mask. It could be a man or a woman and the connection with the murders is unclear.

Lots of murders follow. Lieutenant Pons of the Mexican police and Inspector Cosgrove of the FBI are sure the murders were all committed by the same person. The pattern is always the same.

Or are they? The viewer is not entirely sure.

The police suspect Ben. They don’t have any evidence but he was in the right places at the right time.

Mary’s victims are usually men. But not always. Her lovers are also not always men. There’s also art dealer Greta (Helena Rojo). Mary doesn’t like killing people she knows. Nice girls don’t do that and she’s basically a nice girl, apart from the killing people and drinking their blood thing. She does have some Daddy issues. She doesn’t really remember her father although she has a picture of him that she painted. He thinks that’s what he looked like.

Mexican director Juan López Moctezuma only made a handful of movies. That handful included the wondrously bizarre Alucarda (1977) which I highly recommend.

Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary is a Mexican movie but was shot in English and obviously aimed at the American market.

I like Cristina Ferrare in this film. She plays Mary as a sweet vulnerable girl, easily frightened, craving love and who just happens to kill lots and lots of people. Somehow Ferrare makes this convincing. We like Mary. We want things to work out for her. We worry about her. We’d just like her to stop killing people. Her performance is odd but kind of chilling. Ferrare’s biggest claim to fame is having been married to John DeLorean.

John Carradine also puts in an appearance. Which is appropriate for a vampire move since he played Dracula in a couple of the 1940s Universal horror flicks. And he always adds a touch of creepiness.

The scenes in which Mary is chased through a graveyard by a figure in a Carnival mask are pretty effective. Compared to Alucarda the weirdness here is much more low-key but the weirdness is still there.

There’s some nudity and some gore but it’s all very tame by 1970s standards. It’s the movie’s subtly offbeat qualities and odd atmosphere that will draw you in.

The German Blu-Ray from CMV includes both German and English soundtracks. The transfer is anamorphic and it’s OK but there is some print damage. To be honest this transfer is only DVD quality. Sound quality is reasonable but not fantastic.

This seems like Moctezuma’s attempt to do a commercial horror film while Alucarda is much more self-consciously arty. Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary actually maintains a good balance - it’s slightly weird and arty but still entertaining in a drive-in movie sort of way. Recommended.

Yambaó - Cry of the Bewitched (1957)

Yambaó (also known as Cry of the Bewitched) is a 1957 Cuban/Mexican voodoo horror musical, which has to be one of the rarest of all cult movie sub-genres!

Jorge (Ramón Gay) and his wife Béatriz (Rosa Elena Durgel) live on a sugar plantation in Cuba. They’re slave owners but Jorge is an enlightened master and life is generally peaceful. Or at least it was peaceful, until Yambaó came back. Yambaó (Ninón Sevilla) is the grand-daughter of the witch Caridad. Caridad had been killed (or was presumed to have been killed) by Jorge’s overseer Damián a few years earlier. Yambaó disappeared at that time but now she has returned and things are going to get very complicated.

Yambaó has always been in love with Jorge and although she realises there isn’t much hope for such a love it hasn’t stopped her and hasn’t diminished her passions in any way. Jorge also certainly has more than a passing interest in Yambaó. Damián’s son Lázaro is also in love with Yambaó. Lázaro, like his father Damián, is a slave so he’s a much more realistic target for her affections. But she still loves Jorge.

It’s worth pointing out that Yambaó is not a slave. She was born a slave but the old master, Jorge’s father, freed her. Which adds to the difficulties, since Jorge therefore has no control over her.

To make Jorge’s life even more complicated plague breaks out. And the plague makes no distinction between master and slave.

The superstitions that had always been simmering away beneath the surface of life on the plantation now blossom in potentially very threatening ways.

Meanwhile Yambaó plots. Perhaps she does not have her grandmother’s powers but she certainly has powers of her own, both supernatural and feminine. Whether the spells she casts on men are mainly witchcraft or mainly the result of her earthy eroticism is hard to say but either way their efficacy cannot be denied.

Jorge and Béatriz are awaiting the birth of their first child and that can only add fuel to the fires of Yambaó’s jealousy.

This movie is perhaps more melodrama than anything else (which is no problem for me since I happen to enjoy a good overheated melodrama) but there’s enough of the witchcraft angle to keep horror fans reasonably satisfied.

The musical angle should be put into perspective. This is not at all a Hollywood musical. The musical interludes all serve a purpose. Most are connected with various rituals and do a great deal to build the atmosphere of malevolence and foreboding. And most of them feature Ninón Sevilla’s dancing, and her dancing is a sight to behold. As well as being a successful actress Cuban-born Ninón Sevilla was an extremely famous dancer, known for doing her own choreography and for the extreme eroticism of her performances. And there’s plenty of that eroticism here. It’s easy to see why she was a sensation as a professional dancer.

The music itself was obviously intended to capture an Afro-Caribbean-Cuban feel and it does so pretty successfully.

Ramón Gay gives a fine performance as the tortured Jorge but the film belongs to Ninón Sevilla. She might not have been a great actress in a conventional sense but she has an extraordinary smouldering presence.

There’s no gore but there are some creepy moments. Somewhat surprisingly (this is a 1957 movie after all) there’s some brief nudity.

There’s some surprising subtlety here. Jorge is hardly a paragon of virtue but he’s no villain. Yambaó is dangerous but is she evil? Or is she herself being used by an evil force?

Yambaó was shot in Cuba and visually it’s very impressive. In fact it’s a very well made movie. The script, by Julio Albo and Julio Alejandro, is also surprisingly intelligent and provocative. Director Alfredo B. Crevenna (responsible for many of the more interesting Mexican genre films) does a fine job.

This movie is paired with Mermaids of Tiburon in the Kit Parker Films/VCI Entertainment Psychotronica Volume 3 DVD release and is also included in their Psychotronica Collectors’ Set. The transfer is acceptable if not dazzling.

Yambaó is an oddity but it’s an interesting and very entertaining oddity.

Santo contra los zombies (Santo vs The Zombies, 1962)

Although Mexican wrestling star and pop culture icon had appeared in a couple of earlier movies it was Santo contra los zombies (Santo vs The Zombies) that really started the Santo movie craze. Santo would eventually appear in 52 luchador (wrestling hero) films.

Santo was actually Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (1917-1984) and he played a large role in making professional wrestling into a major sport in Mexico.

The Santo movies all follow pretty much the same formula. Santo is a legendary masked wrestler who in his spare time is a daring masked crime-fighter. He fights not only criminal gangs but monsters, vampires, invaders from outer space and in this particular film, zombies.

The plot can be disposed of fairly quickly - if you’re watching a Santo movie for the plot then you’re missing the point. A professor has disappeared mysteriously. He had an interest in the subject of voodoo and zombies. As it happens zombies are being employed in a series of robberies. There is of course a diabolical criminal mastermind at the back of all this.

The police are baffled. The police chief decide it’s time to call on Santo’s help. Fortunately he has a direct radio-television link from his office to Santo’s headquarters. The professor’s daughter and her boyfriend are also involved in trying to find her missing father.

The zombie bad guys make an attempt to kidnap children from an orphanage, the children presumably to be used in experiments on zombification. The diabolical criminal mastermind knows that Santo is on his trail because he has a special television viewer that allows him to keep an eye on anything that he might need to know about.

It’s all just an excuse for lots of action. As in all Santo movies the action includes quite a lot of wrestling scenes but in this case at least one of the wrestling matches does serve an important plot purpose as Santo has to fight a zombified wrestler.

Needless to say at some point the bad guys kidnap the missing professor’s beautiful daughter, intending to turn her into a lady zombie. Can Santo find her in time to save her from this awful fate?

The feel of the movie is very close to that of Hollywood serials of the 30s and 40s and in fact the plot could have been lifted from one of those serials. Given the worldwide popularity of the Hollywood serials and the love of Mexican audiences for action adventure stories it’s fair to assume that those serials were very popular in Mexico and that this movie is very consciously modeling itself on them. And it does so very successfully.

The acting is of passable B-movie standard. Santo may not have been much of an actor but he has plenty of physical presence and enough superhero-type charisma to carry him through.

Director Benito Alazraki doesn’t try to get too clever (he would have had neither the time nor the money to do so) but he knows how to keep the action moving long nicely. and he does throw in a couple of dutch angles late in the film. This is obviously a low-budget film but the sets are quite serviceable, there’s some fun silly scientific paraphernalia in the mad scientist’s laboratory and the remote viewing televisions are handled quite well.

The Mexican film industry was always pretty good at achieving spooky atmosphere on very low budgets and Santo contra los zombies has some quite effectively moody scenes.

The Cinematográfica Rodríguez Region 1 and 4 DVD offers a very decent transfer, in Spanish with English subtitles.

Santo contra los zombies has no ambitions to do anything other than offer great fun-filled entertainment and it succeeds superbly in doing just that. This film is pure enjoyment. If you’re never seen a Santo movie this is as good a place as any to start and if you’re a confirmed fan you’ll certainly love this one. Tragically only a small proportion of the Santo movies are available in English-friendly editions but among those that are you’ll certainly want to check out Santo in the Wax Museum (1963), Santo Versus the Martian Invasion (1967) and Santo and Blue Demon vs. Doctor Frankenstein (1974).

Highly recommended.

The Man and the Monster (1959)

Made in 1959, The Man and the Monster (El hombre y el monstruo) is one of the neglected classics of Mexican gothic horror. Like so many great Mexican gothic movies it was produced by Abel Salazar (his brother Alfredo co-wrote the screenplay).

A music critic, Ricardo Souto (Abel Salazar), comes across a musician who mysteriously disappeared some years earlier. The musician is Samuel Magno (Enrique Rambal). Magno had never had the talent to realise his ambition to become a great pianist, but his pupil Alejandra (Martha Roth) did have the necessary talent. Consumed with jealousy Samuel sold his soul to Satan in exchange for the talent he lacked. He is now the greatest pianist in the world, but whenever he plays the piano he becomes a monster. Literally becomes a monster. And it is not only his appearance that changes; he becomes a cold-blooded killer, intent on destroying anyone he sees as a threat, in other words anyone with musical talent.

Samuel lives in solitude, playing the piano only at night and secretly.

Now Samuel Magno has another pupil as promising as Alejandra. Her name is Laura. She not only has as much ability as Alejandra, she also bears her an uncanny resemblance (not surprising since she is also played by Martha Roth).

Laura is about to make her concert debut, but will Samuel be able to cope with the fact that she is a greater pianist than he is?

The one weakness of this film is the makeup effects for the monster, which look rather comical and may spoil this movie for some people. If you can get past that this is actually a very fine piece of gothic horror. The musical theme may suggest some link with The Phantom of the Opera but the story is quite different. It does have a similar theme though, a man whose hideous appearance prevents his talent from being recognised.

Director Rafael Baledón helmed another Mexican gothic classic, the excellent Curse of the Crying Woman (which was also produced by Abel Salazar). He does a fine job here. The black-and-white cinematography, as in all the Mexican gothic horror pictures of the 50s, is moody and atmospheric.

Like other Mexican movies of this type it owes a considerable stylistic debt to the great Universal horror movies of the 30s (a debt Abel Salazar freely acknowledged).

Enrique Rambal is very good as Samuel. Martha Roth does well in her dual roles. Abel Salazar was less significant as an actor than as a producer but he makes an acceptable hero.

There is no real love story here, the movie being focused rather tightly on the theme of artistic obsession.

The Casanegra DVD, like all their releases, looks magnificent. Sadly it has fewer extras than most of their releases.

A fine horror movie, and like the best of the Universal movies it is more effective in creating atmosphere and a tragic mood than in providing outright scares. Highly recommended.

Santo & Blue Demon vs. Doctor Frankenstein (1974)

Santo & Blue Demon vs. Doctor Frankenstein (Santo y Blue Demon contra el doctor Frankenstein) delivers exactly what it promises - it pits the Man in the Silver Mask against Dr Frankenstein himself.

This movie, released in 1974, is another installment in the long-running series of Mexican movies (in fact there were more than fifty of them) starring professional wrestler and part-time crimefighter and superhero Santo.

Young women are disappearing in disturbingly large numbers. That would be terrifying enough, but the young women are then reappearing as zombies! Even worse, killer zombies. It soon becomes clear that someone out there is performing brain transplants. Unsuccessful brain transplants. The dead victims are then re-animated by means of a remote-control device implanted in their bodies.

Who could be doing such horrific things? Surely it could not be Dr Frankenstein - he must be long dead.

But Dr Frankenstein is not dead at all - he is very much alive and active, even if he is 113 years old! And he is the diabolical figure behind these horrendous brain experiments.

Dr Frankenstein has also devised a way of reversing the ageing process and he uses this promise to recruit two prominent brain surgeons to serve as his assistants. And now Dr Frankenstein has a new victim in mind - Santo! His one successful brain transplant patient is Golem, a huge black man. Golem has enormous strength, but he lacks skill and agility. If he had Santo’s gifts in those areas he would be truly formidable, and nothing could prevent Dr Frankenstein from achieving his aim of unlimited power.

Dr Frankenstein needs is a way of capturing Santo alive and undamaged, and the only way to do that is to make Santo come to him. And that can be achieved quite easily - all he needs to do is to kidnap Santo’s girlfriend Alicia Robles.

What Dr Frankenstein hadn’t counted on was that Santo would figure out what he was up to, and that Santo would not be fighting this battle alone - his friend and wrestling partner Blue Demon will prove to be a valuable ally.

There are the usual wrestling sequences but this time wrestling forms an integral part of the plot - Santo will be matched against Golem, with both Alicia’s life and the safety of humanity being the stakes.

Jorge Russek as Dr Frankenstein makes a fairly effective villain while Golem is certainly a very effective heavy. There’s nothing to say about Santo’s acting - if you’ve seen one Santo movie you know what to expect, and Santo fans don’t expect their hero to be a great actor. He is Santo, he is a legend, and that’s more than enough.

The Santo movies were all fairly low-budget affairs. Dr Frankenstein’s secret laboratory would have cost very little but it looks quite effective. There’s plenty of action, and plenty of thrills. This is a superhero movie Mexican style and it’s a great deal more fun than most such movies.

This is one of the most highly regarded of the Santo movies. The combination of Santo with one of the most famous of all fictional villains has an obvious appeal. It’s all highly entertaining and is a must for fans of the Man in the Silver Mask.

Rise Above’s DVD release offers the original Spanish soundtrack with English subtitles and it’s a decent if not spectacular transfer.

Santo in the Wax Museum (1963)

As its title would quite naturally tend to suggest Santo in the Wax Museum (Santo en el museo de cera), released in 1963, sees the famous wrestler/crimefighter Santo involved in a series of disappearances that seem to be connected with Dr Karol’s wax museum.

The Santo movies, of which there were many, were a staple of the Mexican film industry for many years and they have since become very popular cult favourites. And deservedly so.

The idea of adding classic horror movie themes to a Santo movie was clearly an extremely good idea.

The wax museum, like all good horror movie was museums, has its chamber of horrors but rather than real-life murderers it comprises various fictional monsters such as Frankenstein’s monster, the Phantom of the Opera and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. In the foyer are the three great figures of 20th century history - Gary Cooper, Ghandi and Stalin!

When a beautiful young female press photographer disappears after visiting the wax museum Dr Karol believes it’s all part of a plot to discredit him. His friend Professor Galván suggests that Santo may be able to help him. Professor Galván has a special radio televisual phone gadget that allows him  to make contact with Santo wherever he is.

In between wrestling bouts Santo pursues the case, but is Dr Karol really who he says he is? What is the link between the various disappearances?

This is only my second Santo film and it’s a bit darker and less crazy than Santo vs the Martian Invasion.

Santo himself is of course a legend and it’s impossible not to like the character. In this movie there aren’t really any science fictional or supernatural elements, just a straight murder in the wax museum story but with the craziness you expect in a Santo film.

Since Santo is a wrestler we naturally get treated to some wrestling - in fact no less than three wrestling bouts! Santo is clearly the crowd’s popular favourite. They presumably know about his reputation as a crimefighter.

It’s impossible to say anything about Santo’s acting. Santo is just Santo. Claudio Nrook makes a fine melodramatic villain.

It builds to a typical wax museum horror movie climax and there’s lots of fun along the way. Highly entertaining silliness and thoroughly recommended.

Yume Pictures’ DVD presents Santo in the Wax Museum in the original Spanish with English subtitles and in a fairly decent fullframe print, but without extras.

The Vampire’s Coffin (1958)

The Vampire’s Coffin (El ataúd del Vampiro) was a sequel of sorts to the excellent 1957 Mexican gothic horror classic El Vampiro. It’s a much less serious offering although it’s not without merit.

The principal cast members and the production team are the same in both films. While El Vampiro is true gothic horror, moody and atmospheric, The Vampire’s Coffin is notably cheesier. While the main characters are supposed to be the same people, they aren’t quite.

Marta González (Ariadna Welter) is in hospital, under the care of Dr Enrique Saldívar (Abel Salazar), still recovering from her encounter with the vampire Count Lavud (who also goes by the alias Duval). Dr Saldívar’s colleague Dr Marion (Carlos Ancira) rather unwisely steals the coffin containing the mortal (or rather immortal) remains of the count.

The heavy he has employed to steal the coffin does something even more unwise - he removes the stake through the count’s heart in order to steal a jewelled medallion. So now there’s a vampire running loose in the hospital.

The plot is a little weak but intelligent use is made of the settings, especially the theatre and the wax museum. Marta is a showgirl which offers the opportunity to add a little glamour and to add a theatrical setting. The scene of the girl being stalked in an alleyway is expertly done, as is the wax museum finale.

If you’re only familiar with the fun but cheesy side of Mexican horror, typified by the Aztec Mummy and wrestling women movies, the more serious Mexican gothic horror movies such as The Black Pit of Dr M, The Curse of the Crying Woman, The Witch's Mirror and El Vampiro will come as quite a surprise. They’re excellent examples of the gothic genre, and they take the genre seriously. The Vampire’s Coffin is not one of the better efforts but it still looks great.

The great strength of the Mexican gothic horror movies is always the photography. They were masters of the art of making low-budget horror flicks look classy. They used all the gothic clichés - shadows, cobwebs, mist - but they used them so skillfully that they never look cheesy. While The Vampire’s Coffin suffers from an indifferent plot it never looks cheap or tacky. Even the bats manage not to look too silly. The special effects are very basic but again they’re done stylishly.

There aren’t many real scares but there’s still plenty of entertainment. Germán Robles makes a fine vampire. Ariadna Welter is very good as Marta.

Interestingly enough this Mexican mini-vampire cycle pre-dates Hammer’s first Dracula movie so the inspiration was clearly the Universal Dracula movies rather than Hammer’s. In fact the whole Mexican horror boom of the 50s was clearly indebted to Universal’s monster movies, but (unlike Hammer’s early forays into gothic horror) they weren’t remakes of Universal’s movies - they were all wholly original stories.

As always Casa Negra have come up with a superb DVD presentation. There are a few hisses at times on the soundtrack but the picture quality is superlative.

The double-DVD that includes this movie and El Vampiro is well worth getting hold of.

The New Invisible Man (1958)

Any Mexican science fiction or horror movie from 50s and 60s is guaranteed to be fun and The New Invisible Man (El hombre que logró ser invisible), from 1958, is no exception.

I’m told this is more or less a remake of one of the sequels to Universal’s 1930s Invisible Man movies, although as I’ve only seen the first of the Universal films I can’t confirm that.

A Mexican scientist is working on the problem of invisibility when his brother is accused of a murder he didn’t commit. So he saves him from capture by making him invisible.

Being invisible is handy when it comes to tracking down murderers but unfortunately there’s an unforeseen side effect - the invisibility process eventually produces insanity. So while the invisible bother is hunting down the real killer the scientist brother has to try to come up not only with a way of reversing the invisibility process but also of curing the insanity that goes with it.

The invisible brother’s girlfriend stands by him but as the madness progresses the entire city is endangered as the invisible man convinces himself he’s some kind of avenging angel with a mission to rid the world of evil, and he sees evil everywhere.

Director Alfredo B. Crevenna and writer Alfredo Salazar were involved in the making of countless Mexican genre movies and they’re more than competent.

The acting is solid enough. The special effects are cheap but reasonably effective.

This is not, it has to be admitted, one of the better Mexican sci-fi/horror movies of its era but it still provides decent entertainment and it's worth a look.

It’s featured in the boxed set Crypt of Terror: Horror South of the Border, Volume 2. They’re rather indifferent prints and only the English dubbed versions are included but the set does include some very good movies most of which are unlikely ever to be released in better editions so it's still worth grabbing.