Wrestler monsters from beyond the grave! In the world of
cinema anything is possible. Since placing the Luchadors in cinematic narratives
to get around the Mexican governments banning of televised Lucha Libre matches
in the mid 50’s, the masked wrestlers have taken on an endless surge of enemies
and foes. The Mummies of Guanajuato see’s Blue Demon, Mil Máscaras, Santo and a
haunting army of mummies under the command of the undead wrestler called Satan.
This my friends, is the good stuff!
Instead of the customary opening wrestling match, The Mummies
of Guanajuato goes right in to exposition. A bunch of tourists take a tour of Guanajuato’s
cemetery, were they see corpses in various state of mummification due to
chemicals and minerals in the ground. Guanajuato is infamous for it’s mummies,
and is one of the most popular tourist locations in Mexico. Amongst some
“fresher ones”, only a hundred years old, stands Wrestler mummy Satan [Manuel
Leal], and some semi composed henchmen. The guide, dwarf Penguin [Jorge
Pingunio] starts telling the curious crypt dwellers the tale of how Satan and
his followers swore to one day to come back and take their revenge after Santo beat
him in a celebratory match one hundred years ago… By coincidence the date is
todays date, and hey presto, the mummies start to climb down off their exhibit
stands.
Curiel has taken his time to establish the plot before bringing
in the big guns, as Mil Máscara and Blue Demon step into the ring for the
obligatory wrestling match. Unlike say Miguel M. Delgado’s,Alfredo Salazar
scripted flicks, there’s no time wasted on showing our heroes win one, loose
one, then defeat their foes in the final round as to show some kind of
vulnerability within the protagonists. This one goes right for the kill as Blue
Demon and Mil Máscaras take their opponents out in two fast matches.
The vulnerability comes in a haunting scene after the bout
where Satan, with ease sucker punches Blue Demon, leaving him stone cold in the
hallway of the arena. Nobody likes seeing heir favourite hero be slapped
around, especially when smacked around by a fiend possessing the power of
Lucifer. There’s also a pretty sweet subplot concerning Julio, an orphan kid
who Blue Demon has adopted. Mil Mascaras – who as per usual, changes masks for
each new scene he’s part of, has his loved one Lina [Elsa Cárdenas]… you only
need to have ever seen one Lucha libre movie previously to know that these are the week spots that will be used against the two masked keepers of justice.
The mummy thugs, lead on by Satan, terrorize the people of Guanajuato,
as the police laugh off the inhabitants terrified pleads to help them.
The cops stand around their office talking about the case, and chit chat about the mysterious deaths taking place all over the village. They are not having any of the stories of mummies, but they are
pretty convinced that the murderer is connected to the wrestling arena as all
victims have broken necks.
There’s a favoured moment when Penguin meets his fate, but
first he has the time to call up Blue Demon and plead with him “Blue, it’s
Penguin, the mummy is here, it’s going to kill me. Help Me!” Hilarious! It
shows that the Mummies have an agenda, kill people, try to pin the blame on Blue
Demon and Mil Máscaras, hence forcing them to call up their buddy Santo…
remember the sworn vengeance from the initial set-up? Well just wait until you see their sinister
plan unfold when they lay their hands on Blue Demon’s mask and wrestling pants!
Naturally Santo does turn up, but not due to the crimes
committed or the sinister plot to lure him there, but when he unannounced pays a surprise visit to his old pals as he drives by Guanajuato
in his car. In reality, writers Rafael Garcia Travesi and Rogelio Agrasánchez,
intended the movie to be a Blue Demon/Mil Máscaras flick only, but in the last
possible moment, Agrasánchez- who also
produced the film - wrote Santo into the script, as he feared audiences
wouldn’t come for Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras alone. Climax fight approaching,
panic reigns as the mummies walk the streets and the fuzz act like cretins and
shoot at the terrified villagers. The final cemetery and make shift
flamethrower battle is stuff of legends. Despite it being Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras
‘s film, nobody ever saves the day better than the silver angel, the undisputed
king of Luchadore movies, Santo, and nobody says it better than Lina when she
tells the two guys that they could have saved everybody a whole lot of trouble
if they’d only had called Santo right away.
Gustavo César Carrión’s score is unusually funky compared to
the stuff he’d be composing and perform to the Luchadore films just a few years
later. This was cinematographer Enrique Wallace, who also shot Rene Cardona’sLas Luchadoras contra el medico asesino (Doctor of Doom) 1963, final film and one can only guess to whether he thrived or
despaired with the many tall shadow street location shots that make this movie
look so damned great.
I love this movie so much that it’s stupid. This is one of
my top five Blue Demon movies and it was also the first time that three of the Lucha
Libre scenes biggest stars where banded together in one movie. And for this
same reason, The Mummies of Guanajuato became a pretty big box office success
in Mexico. The starting point of a mesh trend that would culminate with the Destroy
All Monsters of Lucha Libre flicks: El triunfo de los campeones justicieros
(The Champions of Justice) 1974, which features a whopping total of six luchadoras.
There was animosity between the wrestlers, and a growing
disappointment for Blue Demon as he was losing his place as the leading
star he desired to be – at the start of his career he stood on his own merits,
before being teamed up with Santo, whom he never really was a close friend
with. But Blue Demon delivers, and has something of the lead part in this one,
even if Santo does arrive as a miracle cure in the last act. The major part of
his 25 movie career, saw Blue Demon frequently standing in the shadow of his silver
masked friend, which obviously was a deep concern for him. Ironically it’s
those nine tag team films that are amongst the most famous ones. Never the
less, when Santo was off shooting his own movies, Blue Demon stepped up and became
the team leader in three of the Champions of Justice films before the two
re-united in the string of successful Miguel M. Delgado films of the mid-late
seventies. Blue Demon ended his career with Gilberto Martínez SolaresMisterio en las Bermudas (Mystery in the Bermuda Triangle) 1979, which saw him
reunite with Mil Máscaras and one final time play second fiddle to Santo.
Santo & Blue Demon vs. Doctor Frankenstein. Original title: Santo y Blue Demon contra el doctor Frankenstein Directed by: Miguel M. Delgado Mexico 1974 Lucha Libre/Horror, 95min
Distributed by: Rise Above Entertainment.
Every country has their own little niche that works its way into its national cinematic heritage in one way or another. The UK has it’s gritty working-class realism, Sweden has it’s obligatory skinny-dipping flicks of the sixties and Swedish Sin of the seventies, Finnish cinema has that wonderful drinking in silence whilst in the sauna melancholy, the Germans have their strict global angst, Italy has the wild twisted world of their Spaghetti remakes, Brazil has the surrealism of Coffin Joe, Japan has the wonderful mayhem of Godzilla, and the Mexicans have El Santo!
Young girls are going astray, and the cops are clueless in front of the many reported missing persons. The mastermind behind all the kidnappings, Dr. Irving Frankenstein [Jorge Russek] is trying to transplant a human brain into a young female body so that he can bring his wife back to life after he put her on "ice" eighty years ago to prevent a disease in her brain killing her. Yeah eighty years ago. His failed experiments roam the streets, often returning to their loved ones and killing them! The mad professor, not only a Frankenstein by name, but also the grandchild of the legendary Victor Frankenstein, has also invented an amazing regeneration potion that keeps him young until he's managed to transplant the brain with out the unfortunate streak of errors that have been tormenting his research. You would think that the youth potion would be enough to keep him happy, but nay, this potion is only used for his sinister uses. His love for the ice cold wife, and lust for reunification drives him into dark territory and the potion is only a tool to reach his goal. For some strange, unexplained reason wants to transplant Lucha Libre superstar El Santo's brain into his latest creature Wrestler fiend Mortis, but before that he has his foul henchmen kidnap El Santo's scientist girlfriend to lure him right into the trap. Obviously El Santo’s tag team mate (at least in the movies) Blue Demon comes to El Santo's aid as they dropkick and slam dunk their way through Frankenstein's thugs in their quest to rescue the girlfriend before annihilating and de-masking Dr Frankenstein’s and his fiendish monster in a grand wrestle-fest up on the rafters of the arena.
Santo & Blue Demon vs. Doctor Frankenstein is a great movie. It’s one of those wonderful pieces of world cinema that, like many other Santo movies, can easily help the most tedious hours of the night just sweep by. Just sit down and enjoy the show; bizarre stories, weird scenes, illogical narrative, crap acting, poor sets, and not so special effects make this a great way to waste an hour and a half, but for the love of god, it's EL SANTO and that makes up for a lot. You don't watch Godzilla movies for the dialogue and plot do you? You just want to see that 50Ft tyrant cause mayhem and kick ass, just like you want to see Santo pile drive the antagonists into the floor rescuing a few cute Latinas on the way and grooving out to those grinding scores by Gustao Cesar Carrión don’t you! In some ways you could think of Santo & Blue Demon vs. Doctor Frankenstein as an obscure Mexican cocktail of James Whale's1931 classic Frankenstein, Franju'sEyes Without A Face 1960, Jess Franco's The Awfull Dr. Orloff 1962 and Faceless 1987 with a fair amount of Wrestlemania chucked in to add to the action scenes. Absolutely Stunning in other words!
Director Miguel M. Delgado directed an impressive amount of movies, somewhere close to 160 films in almost every genre that was in demand. Mostly comedies and dramas where his big passion, but he did direct some of the more memorable Santo movies too; Santo vs. Frankenstein’s Daughter 1972, Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolfman 1973, Vengeance of the Crying Woman and this one, Santo & Blue Demon vs. Doctor Frankenstein, both 1974. As you see many of the movies utilise good old fantastic elements and on more than one occasion, even outside the few Delgado titles, El Santo went up against foes from the classic gothic world, made famous by all those Universal horrors of the thirties… Two things come to mind, first the political subtext of a national hero conquering the iconic American monsters; second the brilliance of using already established protagonists. The characters Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Wolfman, need no explanation as everyone knows how evil and bad they are which let’s the story kick right in and El Santo can get to work beating the crap out of the villains.
Most of the Santo films hold the same narrative form as those fabulous Godzilla movies. Present a problem, send in Santo/Godzilla, overcome some obstacles, and solve the problem. Nice and easy, grateful matinee entertainment for the whole family. But it is fair to say that the movies are perhaps not the primary thing of concern in this strange niche. What I find the most fascinating is that real life Lucha Libre star Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta portrayed the masked hero “THESAINT” in fifty-four Mexican Wrestlemania movies. He took on Evil Brains, Zombies, Vampire women, Martian invasions, Dracula, Frankenstein, Mummies, Aztec Women, Karate Killer, Death, Wolf Women, and even the Bermuda Triangle.
Back in the thirties, at the start of his Lucha Libre career after, Huerta wrestled as one of the bad guys before making the choice to wrestle on the good side. Having stepped over to the good side, this is where he stayed for the next fifty years. During the early forties, Huerta was offered a part in the silver masked wrestling team, and offered the part of The Devil, The Angel or The Saint, Huerta made the choice to be The Saint, El Santo.
1952 was a big year in Santo’s now legendary life. The magnificent wrestling trio spawned it’s own comic book, the first Lucha Libre movie to star El Santo was announced (although Santo turned down the opportunity to appear in the movie because of his fear that the movie would bomb) and he had his first bout against another superstar of the ring, Blue Demon. Going up against the Los Hermandos Shadow tag team consisting of Black Shadow and Blue Demon proved a terrible mistake as after El Santo beat and unmasked Black Shadow, Blue Demon in a rage of fury wrestled El Santo to the ground defeating the long reining champion. This defeat ignited a rivalry that never ended, and until the end of his career El Santo remembered his humiliating defeat by Blue Demon. Outside the ring, in the wonderful world of cinema, it’s quite obvious that the two characters put their indifferences and feud to one side as movie makers couldn’t resist the prosperity of bringing the two most popular Lucha Libre stars together in their action packed narratives. Just like his fellow wrestler, Blue Demon, or Alejandro Muñoz Moreno as he was called underneath the mask also took the step into movies, but nowhere near as many as El Santo.
A few years later, in 1958, Santo made his screen debut with the two flicks The Evil Brain (El Cerebro del Mal) 1961 and The Infernal Men (Hombres Infernales) 1961, although Santo was not the leading star, he was more of a superhero side kick to El Incognito, and as Huerta had feared, the movies did miserably, even though they later where retitled to Santo vs. The Infernal Men. Although this was soon to change in 1961 when Santo took top billing for real and starred in Benito Alazraki’sSanto vs. the Zombies (Santo Contra los Zombis) 1962. The rest is what we refer to as history, Huerta went on to star in over fifty more Santo movies, both as a single hero taking on foes and in tag team combo’s with Blue Demon, and still today years after his retirement El Santo is paid tribute to as the pop-culture icon he is. Cartoons, Comics, Animated serial’s Rock’n’roll bands and who can forget that Turkish gem Three Mighty Men (3 dev adam)from 1973 directed by T. Fikret Uçak where Captain America and El Santo team up in a bizarre twist to fight off a villainous Spiderman. Wild stuff and definitely a must see if you have missed it. (It is still available on limited release from Onar Films webpage)
Staying true to his fans in the arena, Huerta stayed active on the wrestling scene and at the same times starred in the movies, he was a family man and also spawned ten children, which in turn gave him twenty-five grand children. From Huerta’s offspring both “The Son of Santo” and “The Grandson of Santo” have made their debuts on the Lucha Libre scene. Family is everything as you can see!
Late 1982 Huerta decided that it was time to step down El Santo’s activities in the ring and announced that it would be Santo’s last season in the ring. In the final brawl El Santo conquered ALL his opponents in the ring and retired the anonymous masked hero that the public had loved for so long on both the silver screen and the packed sports arenas of Mexico. During an appearance on the Mexican TV Show Contrapunto, Huerta surprisingly removed his mask revealing the true face of the masked hero once and for all. An action reserved for conquered Lucha Libre actors, the de-masking was definitive statement that Santo was retired once and for all. On the 5th of February 1984, merely a week later Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta died from a heart attack. Just as Bela Lugosi always was and will be Dracula, Huerta identified so strongly with his beloved character that his last request was to be buried wearing his infamous mask, the silver saint.
So now that you know the impressive story of Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta and the legacy that is Santo, I recommend that you seek out one of the many movies and spend an evening in the company of a legend larger than life. VIVA EL SANTO!
Image: Full frame 4:3
Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, Spanish Dialogue, optional English subtitles.
Extras: The Best of El Santo - a two-minute reel of highlights from various Santo movies, Santo Collection Trailers, and a wonderful photo gallery