Santo vs. la hija de Frankestein

The most fun I've had with a Santo picture since "Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiros" (a.k.a. "Samson Vs. The Vampire Women"). This one's delightfully loopy... Gina Romand's over-the-top histrionics, combined with Santo's energetic daring-do and accompanied by a bizarre, Wall of Voodoo-goes-lounge-lizard score, makes for solid 'So Bad It's Good' entertainment. One scene in particular, in which Romand gives injections of youth serum to an assembly of elderly, decrepit geezers who then start writhing and howling in agony, had me convulsing with laughter. Interestingly enough our stoic hero loosens up in this one - he cheekily flirts with his girlfriend's sister and even blurts out a curse word! It's also bloodier than one expects for a Santo movie; the fights with the monsters are more brutal than is customary for such kiddie-friendly fare. The fact that Santo battles the exact same simian-human hybrid that appears in 1968's "Night Of The Bloody Apes" - created by the same method and played by the same actor/stunt man in identical makeup - begins to establish some kind of weird pelicula universe where these goofy plots are somehow all intertwined.

This one has Santo WITHOUT the Blue Demon. My children feel that the Blue Demon adds an important facet to the movies. I, on the other hand, am skeptical of his worth.

The movie begins logically enough. Frankenstein's daughter wants the blood of Mexican pro-wrestler Santo. It seems that the masked hero can repair damaged cells at an accelerated rate. Because they don't have a chance of taking him through force, they kidnap his girlf. The rest of the movie is spent either in the sheriff's office or Frankenstein's lair.

It is not as campy as the other Santo films that I've seen; moreover, there are some accelerated aging sequences that might disturb younger viewers. It wasn't bad, though.

Maybe I just have a weakness for mad scientists in short skirts and go-go boots...

Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter (1971)

* (out of 4)

Freda Frankenstein is well over 100 years old and she's starting to feel unhappy about being old. Thankfully the mean monster is on hand to help her try and get some of Santo's blood so that she can be young again. I must admit that I'm not a fan of these Santo movies and I've yet to really understand their charm. I love seeing monsters as much as anyone else but I still don't understand the entertainment value some see in these films. I certainly wish I liked them more but I just can't. I think my pain problem is with Santo who I just can't see as a hero and I'm also not entertained by the wrestling scenes. Some of the monster moments are cute in a "C" movie way but these sequences are far between.

If you've seen a few Santo films (and unfortunately I have), you'll know that they're all fairly similar. You either love the formula, with all of its cheeziness, or you find it all rather tiresome. I'm definitely in the latter camp, the wrestler's encounters with various villains and monsters boring me with their repetitive nature.

In this adventure, Santo faces Dr. Freda Frankenstein (Gina Romand), who needs the luchador's blood to perfect her youth serum. In order to trap Santo, the mad scientist sends her henchmen (who have silly names like Scorpio and Cyclops) to kidnap his girlfriend Norma (Anel *snigger, snigger*). Santo goes to the rescue, with Norma's better looking sister Elsa (Sonia Fuentes) by his side, and must battle Freda's creations, a half human/half beast called Truxon and Ursus, a monster pieced together from assorted body parts.

The action sees Santo having several wrestling bouts, in the ring against other luchadors, and out of the ring against various baddies. The fighting is monotonous and predictable, Santo always taking a beating before finding hidden strength to defeat his opponent(s). Meanwhile, Norma and Elsa take it in turns to be captured and to escape, several times throughout the film.

The best moments in the film are when Ursus is impaled on a cross and when he gets sulphuric acid thrown in his face - quite nasty given how daft the rest of the film is.

A masked wrestler and his girlfriend find themselves abducted by a mad scientist to replenish her diminishing youth serum made from his blood and have to battle through her assortment of monsters and henchmen to escape.

One of the better examples of this kind of film, filled with all sorts of good stuff from the delightfully campy and enjoyable mad scientist's lab found in those old-school classics, a creepy underground lair that, while outfitted with cobweb-riddled corpses in coffins and flying bats shrieking in the darkness looks to be as cramped and detailed as a backyard home movie, and all sorts of brawls and fights from the lead, despite the fact that they're all pretty repetitive and pretty much consist of fist-chops or punches and hip-throws all over the room into the furniture. I can't say the plot makes a lot of sense (I'm only guessing on that end, it was in Spanish yet from the looks of it all, I think I'm right in that regard) but the action here more than makes up for it, turning this into one of Santo's better entries.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence and mild Language.