Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters (1970)

No matter how much of a cinephile you might be, here are always entire genres of films that pass you by, whether they be mainstream - musicals, in my case - or exploitation, (Nazisploitation being one exploitation genre I've never really been interested in).  Sometimes it isn't the subject matter of genre, so much as their availability for viewing which results in this situation.  Last week, for instance, I finally experienced an example of a genre that I was aware of, but simply had never had the opportunity to view before.  Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters (1970) is, of course, one of those Mexican wrestling movies featuring masked stars of the Mexican ring.  These are a very localised phenomena and, while I know that examples are available in the US, they rarely seem to reach the UK market.  Certainly, few are ever dubbed or even sub-titled into English.  Anyway, this one, which I caught courtesy of the Otherworlds TV streaming service, is, as its title implies, one of the 'crossover' entries in the genre, which features not one, but two masked stars - Santo and Blue Demon - but also features a horror/science fiction plot.  Actually, the title is somewhat misleading, as for much of the movie the two titular grapplers aren't fighting side-by-side against the monsters:  Blue Demon is captured by the bad guys early on and a fake Blue Demon spends a lot of time trying to frustrate Santo's attempts to defeat the monsters.

The plot is straight out of a thirties or forties movie or serial - a mad scientist that the wrestlers had apparently brought to justice is executed, but then secretly revived by his henchman.  Naturally, the scientist vows revenge against not just Santo and Blue Demon, but also his brother and niece (who is also Santo's girlfriend), who were also instrumental in his downfall. To do this, not only does he plan to use his army of zombies, but also to revive several legendary monsters to assist in his schemes.  Obviously, these include a Dracula-type vampire, Frankenstein's monster, some vampire women and a scrawny looking mummy.  Plus a couple of uniquely Mexican monsters: a weird dwarf-like thing with a huge head and exposed brain and a cyclopean amphibious creature.  These were left-over costumes from another 'classic' Mexican movie, Ship of Monsters.  What follows is quite insane, with lots of Batman-style action - comic strip wrestling inspired fights and car chases.  At one point, the monsters all take on Santo in a wrestling ring.  In one particularly bizarre moment, Frankenstein's monster (who has facial hair) drives the getaway car after he and the other monsters kidnap the niece, chased by Santo in his sports car.  Equally bizarre is the fact that neither of the wrestlers never take their masks off - not even when Santo is romancing his girlfriend.  Obviously, a lot of the apparent weirdness is the result of English-speaking audiences' unfamiliarity with various aspects of Mexican popular culture - many Mexican film from the fifties and sixties look decidedly off-kilter to English speaking audiences, but were clearly not considered so in the country of origin.

Not surprisingly, Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters looks incredibly cheaply made: production values are on a par with UK or US TV sitcoms of the era.  Nevertheless, it is wildly imaginative and executed with plenty of energy and verve.  Principally a vehicle for the two titular wrestlers, the movie's acting performances are probably best described as 'servicable'.  Not that the original target audiences would have care - they were there to see their favourite wrestling heroes go through their paces, which they do, with fights breaking out every time the plot flags (which is pretty often).  In truth, the monsters aren't utilised particularly well - they are pretty much deployed as generic wrestling heavies, rather than any of them employing their unique characteristics.  (The cyclops does have an underwater fight with Santo, to be fair).  While I'm not sure I'd want to sit through another one, (Santo alone appeared in a long series of these movies), I was entertained by Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters - it made an interesting diversion from my usual choice of exploitation viewing.