Doctor of Doom

After 30 years of masked wrestlers and just a few feature films starring the renowned Santo, somebody had the bright idea to duplicate those rasslin' moves with gorgeous gals instead of masked marauders in a short lived series of six films, kicking off with 1962's "Las Luchadoras Contra el Medico Asesino," better known in its initial dubbed US form as "Doctor of Doom," more recently granted the title "Sex Monster" perhaps in a nod to its 1968 remake "Night of the Bloody Apes" (Rhino's redubbed take from the 80s was called "Rock 'n' Roll Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Ape"). Like Santo, Lorena Velasquez as Gloria Venus and Elizabeth Campbell as the Golden Rubi are essentially two fisted action heroines right out of an old movie serial, the costumed and hooded villain conveniently identified as 'The Mad Doctor' having transplanted the brain of a gorilla into a human being, the final ape-like result Gomar (Gerardo Zepeda) kept locked in a cage for periodic feeding, and quite a meat eater. From there the MD decides that low IQ females should be his next targets for brain experimentation but they lack the stamina to survive the operations, guess who he figures will be next to be kidnapped? For the unenlightened the wrestling scenes that are so integral to the genre merely grind the picture to a halt, Gomar goes out on the hunt on just two occasions, the last dressed in an impregnable outfit impervious to bullets, finally disposed of when his brain is encased in the skull of a wrestling rival known as Vendetta, born to beat the tar out of Gloria Venus. The final reveal of 'The Mad Doctor' wouldn't surprise a 5 year old, who might at least find it amazing how much action gets crammed into an 80 minute running time, the most hilarious death trap a spiked wall that tries to crush its victims before Gomar can get them first. It's a novelty to see helpless males rescued by fist fighting femme fatales, lacking only the 'BAM!' 'POW!' later popularized by BATMAN, with one direct sequel for the same two leads, "The Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy."

"Doctor Of Doom" has something for everyone: whodunit (just WHO is the mysterious masked mad doctor? The answer surprises - and cheats!), comedy (an almost "Abbott & Costello"-like duo of cops), camp (through the dubbing, as well as the straightfaced handling of the most outrageous plot points), monster film (with a man-gorilla hybrid), and of course lots of female pro wrestling (which may appear a bit crude, but still remains far superior to most of women's wrestling even in today's WWE; this is a must-see for fans of the sport in a more pure form). Lorena Velázquez (who actually bears a resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor!) and Elizabeth Campbell are two beautiful, sweet, strong, and eye-poppingly curvy heroines who are more often doing the rescuing than being in need of it; in that respect, "Doctor Of Doom" was ahead of its time. Good schlocky fun. **1/2 out of 4.

Reason why I gave it a high rating was because I was laughing all the way, the ridiculous situations and appreciate the 1960s style 😂 Also the cast have good actors and actress from the Mexican movie Gold era.

Most of the Mexican movies of the 50s and 60s on this genre were showing on weekend Saturdays and Sundays at the movie theaters for young audiences named matinee shows for a much lower price.

Matinee's were good for parents sending kids to spend the mornings away, giving parents a break.

Fun to watch and remember those days for adults in their 50s or older. And fun for younger generations to see how movies were made and how the quality on real stories are improved now.

The generations now would never watch something like this but it is fun to imagine how easy it was to entertain past generations.

(aka: DOCTOR OF DOOM)

Hey, I like this gordida stuff. They don't make 'em like they used to.

Mad doctor kidnaps woman for his brain transplant experiments. He even keeps a creature down in his basement named Gomar who is a man with a gorilla's brain, the result of an earlier experiment.

So far, his transplants of human brains into other humans have failed, so then the doctor then kidnaps the pretty sister of a famous female wrestler Golden Venus (Lorena Velazquez) and winds up killing her on the operating table. Venus finds out about what happened and vows revenge, and herself and fellow wrestler Golden Rubi (Elizabeth Campbell) go after the mad doctor.

They wind up getting captured by the mad doctor and two cops who are assigned to help them, save them. Then later when the two incompetent cops are themselves captured by the doctor, then they are saved by our two brave kick-ass babes. Back & forth, back & forth

The mad doctor then creates a new masculine-looking female monster named Vendetta who disguised as a wrestler, fights Venus and Ruby in the ring. All kinds of babe flesh fly. Not bad. Not bad at all.

The whole thing ends on a water tower where the mad doctor and Vendetta are trapped. They almost kill a cop and are then in turn, shot down. The bodies fall...(thump...)

The Something Weird video is doubled up with WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY and has tons of extras including many trailers for other Mexican horror films they have in their library. Although the b/w print shows it's age, it's far better than the old grainy VHS tape. And the print I saw had an AIP logo in the titles instead of K. Gordon Murray's.

Excellent badly-dubbed cheddar cheese. It's funny.

6 out of 10

It is seldom that B-movie lovers get a treat like this. K. Gordon Murray, the man who delivers Mexican wrestling flicks for our consumption, brings us "Rock & Roll Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Ape." I can honestly say that this is truly a guilty pleasure.

This movie involves your typical Mad Scientist (MS), who is working on transplanting brains for reasons not explained. He has already transplanted an ape's brain into a man, giving us a man slowly turning into an ape. The purpose of this is not entirely clear either, but thankfully said MS has a hypnotic trance over him. Heaven knows we can't afford to have half man/half apes walking around willy-nilly.

Anyhow, since the young, less educated women don't seem to be surviving these transplants (gee, I wonder why?), MS decides to abduct and operated on a pretty young lady who is a scientist. Sadly, she dies on the table. Next, MS decides he needs more athletic women -- so he decides to find a wrestler. Unfortunately, the woman he goes after is Venus, the sister of the pretty scientist MS just killed.

This flick is enjoyable in every area except for the soundtrack, which should have been stopped at the border, strip searched, and held on trumped-up charges. The wrestling scenes are well done, and the acting is much above the norm. Plus, I love Venus! She is absolutely fabulous as both an actress & as a wrestler. She puts Peaches Page to shame.

This movie also doesn't take itself too seriously, and tells a good story without cutting corners or relying on an overuse of stock footage. Plus, it doesn't insult my Suspension of Disbelief or cause it to slap me for my poor choice in movies.

Sterno says flick your Bics for "Rock & Roll Wrestling Women".