The Bat Woman

Yeah. The Bat Woman, I suppose, passes off as a Mexican knockoff of the campy 60's TV series. Do I need to say it? (Ouch, from the director of Santa Claus (1959))!

So, a mad scientist (who gets a massive facial scar, due to Bat Woman throwing acid in his face) is killing wrestlers, to steal the fluid in their Pineal gland, in order to, somehow, create a... fish-man (half-man, half-goldfish). He laughs like a madman, and muses he could create hundreds, or even thousands of them. To do what? I'm not sure. Let's say, to take over the world. Hm, this seems real impractical. Maybe take over every seaside town? And man, the wrestling pool can't be THAT deep, even all the famous luchadores in Mexico. Why? Will any wrestler do? Alright, I'm done.

Enter Bat Woman, who parachutes in onto an Acapulco beach. Apparently she's the only woman for the job. I'd like to point out she's captured by the bad guys twice in the first 39 minutes. The Bat Woman goes deep undercover as a wrestler... "The Bat Woman." Say what?! In a country of the sport known for its masked wrestlers, you can literally hide behind any identity you want! (Fun fact: Women in Mexico City at the time were banned from wrestling). Yeah, she leaves the practice facility in full Bat Woman garb, hops into her convertible mini-Batmobile, and sneaks ou... No, wait, the villains immediately spot her.

This movie reminded me of some of Ed Wood's work. Not technically incompetent, actually it features some beautiful scenery, but in terms of being super hokey, and, well, just plain dumb. Also, there's a guy in a rubber suit. So there's certainly an audience for a movie like this... Lovers of bad cinema. It is kind of a fun diversion.

Clearly the star of the show is Bat Woman herself, the beautiful Maura Monti. Running around kicking and karate-chopping in little more than a skimpy bikini and a cape, she is a sight to behold. There's plenty of eye candy, between the star and the locale, but brain-dead on all other fronts. Count myself as a lover of women's wrestling, but even the (stunt-double) luchadora scenes are incredibly dull.

The sad thing is that "Batwoman" has all the ingredients for an entertaining luchador romp -- an alluring protagonist, a series of murders to solve, an exotic location, decent underwater scenes -- but wastes them with glacial pacing and a lack of exciting fight action. The supposedly athletic and clever heroine spends more time socializing than clue-hunting, then becomes all girly and helpless at the climax when she should be kicking butt. The film could be improved immensely by chopping it down to 45 minutes. That would at least progress the plot at a reasonable speed. Unfortunately it is decades too late to bring in one of the heroines from "Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy" to whomp up on some villainous goons. Yvonne Craig's status as Batgirl is safe.

"The Batwoman" ("La Mujer Murcielago") is a very strange film. It's part luchador film (a VERY popular genre in Mexican films of the era) and part knockoff of Batman (which was VERY popular on American TV at the time). I suppose DC Comics could have tried to sue, but why bother?

The film begins with yet another dead luchador (Mexican wrestler) being discovered in the water off of Acapulco. It seems it's the fifth such dead wrestler and each had their 'pineal juices' removed....if there is such a thing. I know there's the pineal gland in the skull. At a loss as to what to do next, the Mexican official contact the FBI and the FBI call in their secret weapon...Batwoman! Batwoman is a rich sexy lady who excels in nearly everything...including crime fighting and wrestling!

Seeing gorgeous Maura Monti running about in skimpy bikinis throughout the film is nicer than seeing the more rotund Santo or Blue Demon (popular luchadors in films in the 60s and 70s)....though it's just as utterly ridiculous. What also is utterly ridiculous is the mad scientist's creation using these pineal juices....a half-man/half-goldfish who is the scientist's personal killing machine!

So is this any good? No....though a I said before, Monti is quite lovely to look at (hence a score as high as I gave the film), but the story itself is weird and silly. It's good for a laugh or two but otherwise is an utterly ridiculous superheroine film.

This is one strange little movie.Happened to pick up an english subtitled version of this one.It is known as Batwoman and was released during the Batman craze.Somehow DC comics didn't sue for the use of the name. Maybe because it was never really released in the USA.

Anyway a mad scientist is wanting to create a race of super gill men.He uses the glands of wrestlers because they are "perfect".I don't write them I just watch them.Wrestlers are winding up dead all over Acapulco so the call goes out for that mysterious crime fighter BATWOMAN!

She has the Batman cape, cowl and boots. Only Batman doesn't wear a bikini.I kept waiting for her to pop out of it during all of the violent fight scenes.No such luck guys.

The doctor succeeds in creating a gill man. Batwoman tosses acid in the scientist's face.He wants revenge and wants to make her into a gill woman.Will he accomplish the dastardly deed?Tune in tomorrow!Same bat time, same bat channel.

This is an average movie.Best thing to do is just turn your brain off, enjoy the local Acapulco scenery and while away 90 minutes watching this.

Basically just a Santo movie with a female wrestler in the lead nipping like Santo in a sports car about the glamorous backdrop of Acapulco without ever attracting the attention of traffic cops or the public. Currently dropping in is the diabolical Dr Eric Williams (what kind of name is that for a mad scientist, even if he does have an assistant called Igor?), who travels the world in a yacht called Reptilicus harvesting wrestlers to provide components for his prototype fish-man Pisces (who rewards his master by putting more effort into clobbering Williams' goons than fighting The Batwoman).

Crime-fighting heroine Gloria is supposedly a millionairess who moonlights as the masked superheroine The Batwoman; keeping herself in trim when not fighting bad guys as a pro woman wrestler. (The bodysuit and trunks she wears to wrestle being far more becoming of a superheroine than the beach party bikini and cape she adopts a couple of times in the movie - and for the poster- as The Batwoman.) Like Yvonne Craig in the TV series, Maura Monti is far tastier without that stupid cowl covering her hair; and in the film's best (and probably most expensive) sequence she does battle underwater with Pisces wearing just a one-piece, after which Dr.Williams and Igor both get a good look at her without her mask without anyone being remotely concerned.