SANTO AND BLUE DEMON vs. DRACULA AND THE WOLFMAN (Santo y Blue Demon vs Drácula y el Hombre Lobo)

1973/ Director: Miguel M. Delgado/Writer: Alfredo Salazar

Cast: Santo, Blue Demon, Aldo Monti, Augustín Martínez Solares, Nubia Martí, María Eugenia San Martín, Wally Barron

A while back I got in a bunch of Santo and general Mexican horror films from Cinemageddon. I used up much of my precious ratio there to appropriate about a couple dozen films only to find out later more than half were not even dubbed or subtitled. I learned to read the little review section better after this. My ratio still has not recovered and I am sort of burned out with that place and how hard it is to maintain a good ratio. But they do have a great selection of Santos films and I even went back and got a few titles from the first batch over again and was careful to get them dubbed or subbed this time. One of the films I got in was the really great Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolfman. Blue Demon is Santo’s wrestling buddy and sometimes opponent in the ring, but always friend and equal in crime fighting and saving the world outside the ring. Both actors (who go by their wrestling names) are in their fifties in this 1973 film directed by Miguel M. Delgado and written by luchadora and Mexican horror veteren Alfredo Salazar. The version I have looks nice. It is shot in color but for some reason the later color Santo adventures look cheesier than the atmospheric ones from the 60’s. The old sets were reminiscent of early Universal horror films. Well with this film the fascination with Universal monsters has returned as Santo and Blue Demon face off against none other than Count Dracula (Aldo Monti who battled Santo in Santo and the Treasure of Dracula ) himself and his nefarious sidekick the Wolfman (Augustín Martínez Solares who also played the beast in Night of the Bloody Apes). Delgado would go on to direct the Santo and Blue Demon vs Frankenstein but I have not seen that one yet and not even sure if I have it. If I don’t I will have to get it (damn my CG ratio) and hope that it is as fun as this one was.

One thing I liked about this Santo feature was that the story did not cut to a wrestling match every ten minutes. In some Santo it does not matter how dire the situation if there is a match to be held at the area Santo excuses himself and goes and whoops up on some poor bastard who doesn’t stand a chance and then is back in time to give a similar ass whooping to the bad guy and all his cronies. In SBDvsDatWM (that title is killing me) there are only three wrestling bouts but they go for three full rounds each. I usually prefer to watch all of a film unless I hate it but I confess I hit fast forward on the wrestling matches. The film opens up with a wrestling match and I had a hard time telling who was who for a while but finally figured out Santo was the guy in long pants. We are introduced to Santo’s friend Prof. Cristaldi and his family, his daughter Laura and her daughter Rosita and Laura’s sister Lina. Lina looks to be about 19 or 20 years old at best but this is fifty something Santo’s girlfriend. There is a kissing scene and it is a little weird to see a fifty year old wrestling guy in a silver mask locking lips with a teenager. A little weird is all. Well seems that Prof. Cristali’s ancestor got on Dracula and the Wolfman’s bad sides about 400 years ago when the ancestor got the better of the duo by means of a magic dagger and sealed them up in tombs in Transylvania. But they have been delivered all the way to Mexico in there tombs by the assistance of hunchback Eric (Wally Barron) who hopes that the Count will be gracious with hisa gold in rewarding him for all his troubles. We can figure Eric paid all shipping expenses himself and hunchbacks usually aren’t in the upper pay brackets of any society. Prof. Cristali tells anto of his concerns since the end of some sort of ‘cabalist’ period is coming and the Professor believes this is the time Dracula will execute his plans of revenge. Santo brushes it all of a sick practical joke and assures the professor all is safe and that he will guard the old man and his family. Later that same night Eric attacks the Professor in his own bedroom and carries him back to the secret cave. There the greedy hunchback cuts the old man’s throat and revives both Dracula and the Wolfman with the dripping blood.

Santo decides that this case reeks of the supernatural now rather than bad jokes and figures it is best to call in his old luchadora apl the Blue Demon to help out. First we have to watch a three round match between Blue demon and the amazing Renato the Hippie. Of course the hippie gets his but whooped and soon the old chums are getting out their radio watches and getting ready to save the world from Dracula and the Wolfman. Yes the plan is now larger than simple revenge and soon the scheming pair are changing people into vampires, werewolves and zombies so that after they destroy the Cristaldi family line they go on and do the next logical thing and evil duo would do; rule the world. First the Wolfman has a plan to get inside the Cristaldi family household. First he must change his name to something unassuming and casual like Ruffus Rex in order to blend in. Now he set off to woo Laura Cristaldi and then sacrifice her on the next full moon. When a henchmen suggests they simply kidnap her he rebuffs him with “ that would be too easy”. Yea, why do anything the easy way. He manages to get into the Cristaldi inner circle and kill Luara with little trouble since Santo and Blue Demon are in the parlor too wrapped up in their chess games to notice what is going on in the house they are guarding. Soon the nanny Josefina is bitten by a vampire in her bedroom upstairs and sneaks little Rosita out with her to the secret cave. Later Lina is hypnotized by Dracula outside the window with Santo and Blue Demon right next to her playing chess or reading books and she wanders in a trance off to the secret cave. Later still Santo seems to be losing the chess game and tells Blue Demon he is going to go read some old occult books instead of playing anymore damned chess. While he is in the study reading Blue demon runs outside and is trapped in a net by a bunch of hairy faced wolfmen. He is then drug away to the secret cave and poor Santo is left all alone in the big house looking for all his friends.

Santo manages to find the secret cave and soon he and Blue Demon are doing what they do best; kicking monster butt with their fancy boxing and wrestling moves. To their credit some of the werewolves have some good wrestling maneuvers themselves and land a couple punches but they are no match for these two old luchadora’s. The final showdown is Santo doing a double kick while hanging from a rope to the chest of Dracula and the Wolfman and sending them down into a pit fitted with spikes at the bottom. The two heroes here are well past their prime but they give it all they’ve got and do their own stunts in the film. Hell Santo even smooches on girls young enough to be his daughter. Aldo Monti is a pretty decent Mexican Dracula and is all suited up the traditional Bela Lugosi type attire. Augustín Martínez Solares is a fairly suave woflman and wears some sort of shiny disco shirt (trying to compete with Santo’s spiffy yellow button up sweater I imagine) and the wolfman makeup looks like Paul Naschy’s from the Werewolf vs the Vampire Women. It is a fun ride from start to finish and you can see it in its entirety at this link.

DOCTOR OF DOOM

(Las Luchadoras Contra el Médico Asesino)

1963/Director: René Cardona/Writer: Alfredo Salazar

Cast: Lorena Velázquez, Armando Silvestre, Elizabeth Campbell, Roberto Canedo, Sonia Infante, Chucho Salinas, Chabela Romero

Also Known As:

Rock ‘N Roll Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Ape

Sex Monster

I Tigris Tou Catch (Greece)

Doctor of Doom (Las Luchadoras vs el Médico Asesino/The Wrestling Women vs. the Murderous Doctor) was one of six lachaodra (wrestling women) films produced by Guillermo Calderon that were directed by Rene Cardona and written by Alfredo Salazar. The last two films, Las Luchadoras vs. el Robot Asesino and El Horripilante Bestia Humana (both from 1968) were loose remakes of Doctor of Doom. El Horripilante Bestia Humana is also known as Night of the Bloody Apes and was reviewed only a few posts ago here at the Café. Of the six films three would be translated into English by the legendary K. Gordon Murray, those being Doctor of Doom, Night of the Bloody Apes and the second of this post’s double feature Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy. Lately I have managed to get my little hands on quite a few Mexican horror films and a small number of luchalibre (wrestling) films with Santos (or Samson as his name is translated by K. Gordon Murray and crew) and have to admit that for the most part these are all entertaining little films. I think about a 3rd of the films though are not subtitled or dubbed and that can be a hassle for me. While I can watch a film in another language and get some pleasure from it I really cannot review or the film or comment on it. At the most I could get some screen captures and promote the film that way but how can I comment on a story that I really do not understand except on a most basic level. I will say, as I have said before, that these films do not suffer from being dubbed into English unless you are a purist. I find the dubbing to be fun really and all the colloquial errors only add to the enjoyment.

Like Night of the Bloody Apes, Doctor of Doom follows the demented misadventures of a mad doctor who feels the need to transplant the brains of apes into the body of human beings. Unlike NOTBA Doctor of Doom never really tries to explain why the doctor is doing this. He is trying to create a super race I believe but over all explanations are avoided. The identity of the doctor is kept secret for most of the film though he is supported by some secret cabal who want him to succeed in his experiments. The identity is not really hard to guess if you watch lots of these types of films, you just focus on the non-lead character who seems to be the most unlikely person to be the mad scientist and he will be said culprit by the last stretch of the movie. Most prior experiments have all turned out poorly in that the subject has died. The doctor’s current human objects for receiving the ape brain have been women who die off on the operating table. It is not explained why the doctor chooses women when his one living test result, Gomar, was a male. Gomar is now kept in a cage and fed raw meat which seems to keep him happy.

One recent victim, Alicia, is the sister of luchadora Gloria Venus (the stunning Lorena Velazquez). Alicia was a scientist herself but she dies on the table and the doctor decided to settle for brawn over brains and sets his sites on a strong luchadora for his next experiment. A group of thugs try to capture Gloria and her partner Golden Rubi (Elizabeth Campbell) while they pretend to be asleep but the gals whoop their tails. Velazquez and Campbell did most of their wrestling stunts but in the fight scenes out of the ring it is obvious that shorter, stockier less ravishing stunt doubles are used. The two gals get acquainted with cops Aramndo and the diminutive Chema (the four would team up again in Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy) played by Armando Silvestre and Chucho Salina respectively. In both DOD and WWvsTAM comic relief is supplied by the romantic attraction between the short and goofy Chema and the Amazon like Golden Rubi.

THE STATUESQUE LORENA VELAZQUEZ

The mad doctor is the deceptively timid and squeamish Dr. Ruiz (Roberto Canedo) and he is assisted in his schemes by his evil assistant Boris (Jorge Mondragon) who, despite the name, is not European nor is he a hunchback or imbecile. He is just a pock marked thug who may or may not believe in what the doctor is doing and could care less so long as he is paid on time. There are quite a few scenes that are unintentionally funny. One of the better is when Armando and Chema get stuck in a room in the secret hideout with a spiked wall closing in on them on one side and a ferocious Gomar clawing at them on the other. They have enough time to call the girls on a Dick Tracy type wrist watch communicator with a homing device built into it. The girls need to drive around the city and track the signal as it gets weaker and stronger and all the while the wall is still closing in on them. They eventually find the place and break in with no problem and then have to have their stunt doubles get into a brawl with the hoods in the hideout while the wall is still closing in on and Gomar is still clawing away. Now to be fair tiny ass ed Chema has climbed up the wall and is bracing himself between the wall above Gomar’s cage and the wall of daggers and that seems to be enough to stop the wall from moving while the girls ride around town and fight the bad guys.

They rescue the guys with little difficulty really and and brwal breaks out. Before the fight is over Dr. Ruiz has a bottle of acid thrown in his face. Despite these set backs he manages to transplant Gomar’s brain into a luchadora and in the process creates the masked wrestling dynamo Vendetta. At this point Ruiz begins to wear a wrestling mask himself and match is set up between Vendetta and Gloria Venus. During the bout in which pretty Gloria begins to get the worse end of things Rubi twists the arm of one of Ruiz’s henchmen and learns what is up and she gets into the ring and Vendetta begins kicking her cute butt too. But soon Vendetta and Ruiz are on the run and climb a nearby water tower, followed by Armando who, not surprisingly, is soon having his finger’s stomped on at the top of the tower. Now say what you will about goofy little Chema when it comes down to it he makes Lee Harvey Oswald look like a boy scout. He grabs a rifle and when two clean shots kills Ruiz and Vendetta. The guys get the girls and the bad guys get snipered off. A genuine happy ending.

As I said Night of the Bloody Apes follows basically the same story line as does Las Luchadoras vs. el Robot Asesino (maybe translated as Wrestling Women vs the Mad Robot, the version I have is not subbed or dubbed) but DOD lacks the violence and nudity and rapes that made NOTBA the most infamous of the Calderon, Cardona, Salazar films. Of the two films I think Doctor of Doom is the more enjoyable experience. It is certainly campier and seems to be closer to the Santo type luchilibre films I have grown rather fond of lately.

WRESTLING WOMEN vs THE AZTEC MUMMY
(Las Luchadoras Contra la Momia)

1964/Director: René Cardona/Writers: Guillermo Calderón, Alfredo Salazar

Cast: Lorena Velázquez, Armando Silvestre, Elizabeth Campbell, María Eugenia San Martín, Chucho Salinas, Ramón Bugarini, Víctor Velázquez

Also Known As:

Rock N Roll Women vs the Aztec Mummy

When I first started this double feature post I had no idea that Something Weird Video had put together an actual double feature DVD featuring these exact same two films. The disk is part of a series of DVDs that will feature the K. Gordon Murray English dubbed versions of many Mexican Wrestling films. Many will feature, or course, the more familiar names such as Santos (called Samson for some inexplicable reason in the Murray features) and Blue Demon (I am not completely sure if Murray dubbed any Blue Demon films and will check into that) but thankfully others will contain what may be the most enjoyable theme in this sadly over looked little genre: lucadoras, or vivacious Mexican wrestling women. Now I version I have may or may not be the Something Weird Video print but I do not think it is since I have read that the SWV version has some rockabilly music placed over top some of the wrestling scenes. This was done by rockabilly, wrestling and b-movie promoter Johnny Legend and so the title was “updated” to Rock and Roll Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy. This really makes little sense to me but who I am I to question Johnny Legend. The version I got is from Cinemageddon and seems to be the actual K. Gordon Murray version sans rockabilly insertions.

The film is an excellent choice for a double feature as it contains the four lead characters from Doctor of Doom, Gloria Venus (here called Loretta!) and Golden Rubi (Miss Mexico 1960 Lorena Velázquez and American Amazon Elizabeth Campbell) are back as well as actors Armando Silvestre and Chucho Salinas as their suave and bumbling boyfriends respectively. While this is a pretty good movie and in some ways can be seen as a sequel to Doctor of Doom there are a couple problems with it that, in my opinion, make it the lesser fare of the two films. One problem is the wrestling matches go on a little two long. These are wrestling movies and so there will be wrestling bouts that are usually handled in a very serious manner. But there just go on a little too long here sometimes. Could have either been trimmed or could have cut to some other scenes to break the monotony. But not a big issue. A bigger problem I had was that the genuinely scary Aztec mummy does not appear on screen until 70 minutes into the film and then does appear that much until the film’s ending. I have always felt the Mexican mummies were far creepier looking than the Hollywood ones and this one is a really freaky looking mummy that can even transform into animals like a bat or tarantula. This is really pretty disappointing and if you watch the film and see how scary this mummy is how and yet also how wasted it was I think you may have the same feeling.

Those complaints aside this Rene Cardona film is a watchable and enjoyable movie, as are most Mexican wrestling films. The story is about a group of archaeologists who have been dying off one by one and one of the last one’s seek the help of the two people most qualified to rescue him: Gloria Venus (I will not call her Loretta) and Golden Rubi, two wrestling champions who are, in the tradition of Santos, also crime fighters and righters of wrong. The archeologists are being targeted by the sinister Black Dragon gang because the leader, Prince Fujiyata, seeks a he believes they have that will lead him to a secret tomb and untold treasures. It so happens that the last surviving member of the team is Dr. Telles and not only does he have the codex but happens to the uncle of Armando (Armando Silvestre), and Armando luckily is Gloria Venus’ boyfriend. What is interesting about Prince Fujiyata is that he is supposed to be Japanese but sports a Fu Manchu style mustache and wears traditional Chinese costumes. Furthermore his two Judo chopping Japanese sisters are named Tzu and Lien which are both Chinese names. The actress’ names in the credits are Japanese, though they look Mexican in the film. Oh well, adds to the mystery and all.

There are plenty of often strange little antics that takes place while Fujiyata zeros in on the location of the codex. He uses mind control powers to manipulate people, there are a few fight scenes with obvious stunt doubles standing in for Velasquez and the very tall Campbell. There is comic relief provided by the “love” relationship between Amazon Golden Rubi and the diminutive Chucho Gomez (Chucho Salinas) and of course there is an epic wrestling match between Venus, Rubi and the Japanese/Chinese. There is a well done flash back sequence to the origin of the mummy where we learn why the mummy, Tezozoc (Geraldo Zepeda) was entombed and forced to stand guard for eternity over the treasure chamber.

The final confrontation between the wrestlers and their boyfriends and the mummy is a little weak and I had hoped the mummy would have killed off a few people. That’s way you write characters into the script like assistants or security guards. Again the problem is that the mummy simply appears too late. There are loads of plot gaps but why in the world would you what these films if not for the mistakes and blunders. What is redeeming about some of these films in the end is the earnestness with which they are made. The heroes are larger than life and inspiring in a matinee hero fashion. The girls are sexy and the mummy is scary. Lots of fun if you love Mexican mummies. Am trying to get the rest of Rafael Portillo’s Aztec Mummy trilogy after seeing this one. I have seen his entertaining Robot vs the Aztec Mummy and a review will be here someday.

NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES

(LA TERRIFICANTE BESTIA HUMANA)

1969/Director: René Cardona/Writer: René Cardona, René Cardona Jr.

Cast: Armando Silvestre, Norma Lazareno, José Elías Moreno, Carlos López Moctezuma,  Agustín Martínez Solares

Also Known As:

Gomar: The Human Gorilla
Horror and Sex
Horror y sexo (racier version)

Before finally getting around to seeing Night of the Bloody Apes aka La Horripilante/Terricante Bestia Humana/The Horrible Man Beast, Horror y Sexo/Horror and Sex and Gomar: the Human Gorilla,  I was only aware of Rene Cardona’s work as the director of genre Mexican Wrestling films. Those type of films are built around the lucha libre culture of Mexico where wrestling is pretty serious business. Usually the wrestlers appear in some sort of mask though not all of the time. Cardona directed some of the better Santos films (redubbed and released in the States as Samson by K. Gordon Murray) and some Wrestling women films. In fact Night of the Bloody Apes is a loose remake of one of his earlier films Doctor of Doom (Las Luchadoras Contra el Médico Asesino) which is also known as Rock ‘N Roll Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Ape.  Actually the ape creature in Doctor of Doom was called Gomar but I do not recall the creature being called that in Night of the Bloody Apes so I am not sure why the film is also called Gomar: The Human Gorilla. Seems Doctor of Doom would have also been known under that title. So anyway, if you have not gathered Night of the Bloody Apes is a horror film, but is also a wrestling film and the star wrestler is the cute and shapely luchadoras (female wrestler) Lucy who wears a bright red devil girl outfit and for some reasons when she appears in the ring looks twenty or thirty pounds heavier.

Before going in to the story and film itself I will mention that movie had a period of notoriety for being included on the British Video Nasties List that was an attempt to censor movies deemed obscene and overly violent during the early days of video. I do not know much offhand about the list and what else may have been included on it but ultimately the list did not work very well. I have read in the news recently of public concerns and anger over continued film censorship in Britain and in particular of violent films. Sometimes this has resulted in the closing of DVD shops that continue to sell censored films, either knowingly or unknowlingly. I would have to research this more to make a comment on it. But it seems my pal Taliesin in Britain has no shortage of freaky and violent films to fuel his Vampire themed site so we can be thankful for that.  As for Night of the Bloody Apes it is certainly strange that the film would attract much attention at all since the violence in the film, and it is certainly violent, is of such a campy and often silly variety that I can hardly imagine it pushing anyone over the edge. How many films do you snicker at when someone has their eyeball squeezed out of its socket? As I understand most of the more violent and sexually explicit scenes where shot and added to the movie almost four years later to help its international distribution. I wonder what the movie would look like without these added scenes? I would like to see it.

The gore scenes were put in about the same time the film received its infamous English dubbing that is really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I like old films like this when they are dubbed actually. I am not such a film purist that I chant “say no to dubs” when those dubs are over a Mexican wrestling adventure or Japanese rubber monster movie. All that being said the film without doubt falls into the cheesy exploitation genre and into the bad movies we love one as well. It is violent and there is some nice nude shots of Lucy the wrestler that are innocent in that sixties sort of way, where naked people sort of just walked around a room. Like seeing Doris Day naked. But there are some rapes and groppings of victims that balance out the wrestling girl next door charm of Lucy.

The film’s story is centered around the extent to which one Dr. Krallman will go to in order to keep his leukemia ridden son Julio (pronounced Joo-lee-o in the dubs) alive. And there is little the good doctor will not do, including breaking into a zoo and shooting an innocent orangutan with a tranquilizer gun and then abducting the beast. The campy tone of the film is set early enough when we are shown shots of a real orangutan in one scene then in the next some extra in a monkey suit who dramatically falls back after he is shot and drops his feet down like he plopped down on the sofa after a hard day at the office. Why tranquilize a monkey you wonder? Dr. Krallman has determined that the strength of the heart and blood of a wild animal is what is needed to save his son’s perishing life. With the assistance of his gimp legged assistant Goyo (who refers to the Doctor as “master”) they perform the heart transplant not in the most modern hospital in the country or city but in Krallman’s basement.

The operation scenes are spliced up with scenes of an actual open heart surgery operation. For some reason I think a fakey looking scene with a rubber heart and bright red blood would have been more effective. The operation seems to be a success for the time being and so I should take the opportunity to introduce to the commentary Lucy the lucadora and her cop boyfriend Arthur (played by Armando Silvestre, a Cardona fixture, who also played the cop role in Doctor of Doom). As in many of Cardona’s films there is no shortage of reasons to suddenly cut to a wrestling match. Lucy wrestles as a very cute devil girl and Arthur hardly misses a match though he harbors hope that Lucy will soon retire from the mythic magic of the ring and stay home and cook enchiladas and start popping out bambinos for him.

The first scenes of the film is a  wrestling match  as well as a study in Christmas themed primary colors as Lucy enters the ring in her bright red costume and pairs off against a gal in a super bright green one. Up to this point I am not sure if Cardona had worked much, if at all, with color and since most genre films of the 60′s in Mexico were shot in b/w he was going to make the most of his opportunity. To be honest the colors and sets in the film are really nice to look at. The person who wrestles as Lucy the devil girl is obviously a double as the actress playing Lucy (Norma Lazareno) has about half of the ass mass as the actual person in the ring. During the match Lucy flings her opponent out of the ring causing her to suffer a serious skull injury. Lucy is distraught and as the film goes on Arthur really gets annoyed with her concern over the condition of the other wrestler, Ellena, who was also Lucy’s friend, and all but barely stops short of just “slapping her out of it” while calling her a cry baby. When she mentions the slightest concern he almost has a tantrum and whines something like “Oh come on, when are you going to get over the fact that you fractured the skull of your friend and she will probably die after lying in a coma for who knows how long and you’ll have to live with the memory for the rest of your life! Pull yourself together and talk about me for a while!”

Next we witness the orangutan kidnapping sequence already mentioned and eventually the subsequent operation in Dr. Kralleman’s basement. I am not a medical expert but I would assume that in order to perform a successful heart transplant you would need more than a sparsely equipped basement laboratory decorated with animal cages and a limping, sycophant assistant who does not appear to have any sort of medical degree. But in most films of this nature that is exactly all the doctor needs, along with nauseating genuine stock footage of open heart surgery. It should be noted here that Dr. Kralleman is is also the physician in charge of Ellena, our wrestling victim and that Lucy still feels horrible and Arthur continues to assure  her that it is not really her fault that Ellena was tossed out of the ring head first and is now in a coma with severe brain damage from which she may never recover.

I will let you know that I am not following the chronology of the story here scene by scene.  I  usually do not though I try to get close. To retell the story perfectly  would require me to rewatch the film and I do not  have that much free time nor do I take notes while I am watching. Usually I am barely awake. I am doing the best I can but to be honest when I watch some of these films I am not completely sure what is happening and why when I am actually watching them, much less a few days or week later when I am trying to make logical sense of them for the sake of public education. If I make a mistake please understand and be easy on me.

So now after a wrestling match and skull cracking, an orangutan/man in gorilla suit abduction, a police briefing where we see Arthur in action, a medical conference that confirms Julio is dying and gory heart transplant in your standard mad doctor laboratory with crippled/deformed assistant who is indebted to or controlled by the mad doctor in some way we arrive at the crucial scene where we realize the operation sort of worked but there is a glitch: the once handsome Julio has transformed into a huge stunt double with man boobs and an expressionless rubber mask (that is still better looking than the dime store gorilla suit that represents his donor) and now like any simian has an uncontrollable impulse to savagely murder and molest anything that moves. That’s all orangutans do in the wild. The beast is soon out on the streets doing just that to anybody that crosses his path. Guys get torn to shreds immediately but usually the females get all felt up and have their clothes half ripped off and run around with their boobs hanging out before getting killed off.

And to keep the heart stopping pace going the film regularly breaks into more wrestling matches featuring Lucy who just is not being her typical confident, coma inducing self any longer. This allows for some great dressing room (where we see Lucy undressed a few times) dialog with morale boosting Arthur telling her to remount her horse and try again. The wrestling matches in this film are not as long as in some other such films and Lucy simply looks cute in her devil outfit (even if it is not really her while in the ring). The stunt double here is still better than in some lucha libre films. Some of the scenes from Doctor of Doom are particularly noticable when the statuesque Lorena Velázquez (as Gloria Venus) seems to lose height and hair length and gain weight in some of the fight scenes.

So what is Doctor Krallmen to do now? He can’t have Julio running amok murdering and raping innocent people in whatever order he chooses.  He concludes that maybe, just maybe,  it was not such a good idea to transplant a monkey heart into a human being after all and so now he decides he needs to transplant a human heart back into Julio. Luckily in the hospital there is a suitable candidate: the comatose Ellena. We are treated to great mad doctor explanations and rationalizations as to what went wrong and why  it is morally excusable  to rip out Ellena’s beating heart and let her die in order to save Julio. Luckliy Ellena’s room is located on the first floor and gimp legged Goyo has no difficulty climbing in the window and stepping onto the conveniently located chair under the window. We are subjected later to a great medical room conference meeting where Ellena’s disappearance is written off as her sleep walking out of the hospital.  The hospital’s reputation is at stake after all. Everyone in the room nods that this is the best  and most believable explanation.  That a  woman with a severe brain injury and and in coma got up and sleep walked out of the hospital past all the staff. Sounds good to me.

But while dad and Goyo were out abducting the comatose Ellena, Julio ripped free of his bonds and tore the boards off of the window and went out on yet another killing spree, this time attacking a couple making out in the park and popping out the eyeball of some other hapless victim. Dad and Goyo arrive and tranquilize Julio and it is back to the operating table where we are treated to not only breast shots of sedate Ellena but also Julio’s stunt double and yet another grisly medical school film of a heart operation.

As the movie winds down the confusion and often unintentional laughs pick up in tempo. Now to make clear, Julio as the “bloody ape” has been stalking the city and murdering and raping in a frenzy, targeting the area around the park in particular. Arthur and Lucy have been having some relationship problems as is often the case when one person is a luchadora and the other a police detective. In fact Arthur looks forward to the day Lucy leaves the ring and Lucy is usually in a bad mood because Arthur spends all his time looking for the homicidal maniac that is brutally killing people. How selfish of him. So while the beast is on the loose yet again after ripping off Goyo’s head Arthur calls Lucy in her dressing room after a match where she is lying on her belly butt naked a little irked at her cop boyfriend again. She can’t believe that her man is off again trying to catch that ruthless killer and Arthur hearing the agitation in her voice makes the most ludicrous suggestion I have ever heard. Basically he tells her “why not come on down to the park and hang out with the boys and me.” The same park where girls have been raped and men have had their scalps ripped form their heads only a night or two before by a half human monster that is still on the prowl. Lucy’s reaction? Disbelief? Fear? No, more like, “Really?! I’d love it!”

The movie wraps up with the monster being cornered on a rooftop clutching a little girl he seized earlier. He grimaces and groans amid blaring lights with his still loving father screaming for sympathy as Arthur moves in with his gun drawn. Dr. Krallman manages to persuade Julio to let the frightened child go, showing there is still humanity in the beast. A quality which is quickly exploited as the cops blow him to bits once the kid is away. Julio the bloody ape falls, but not from the rooftop as would be expected, and in the final moments his face transforms back into the angelic features of poor Julio. In another twist of the formula storyline Dr. Krallman is not killed off by his own “Frankenstein” creation as is usually the case. Arthur and Lucy sit in the car and philosophize over what drove Krallmen to cause so much suffering simply to save his son’s life, concluding in the end that is all “… really sad.”

As is usually the case with my movie outlines I am sketchy though spoiler loaded. I give you here an over view rather than a blow by blow retelling. There is a lot more to this film to astound and amaze you and I actually have plans to post the entire film up in the Uranium Cafe Matinee in a few more posts. Certainly one of the more enjoyable “bad movie” offerings out there. I like Cardona’s earlier b/w wrestling adventures more and have posts on Doctor of Doom and The Wresting Women vs the Aztec Mummy coming right after this. All “good” stuff.

NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES TRAILER

ENTIRE MOVIE COMING SOON ON THE URANIUM CAFE MATINEE

If you do not know who El Santo (The Saint) is he was a real professional wrestler in Mexico who also became a matinee idol and comic book hero. He made some 50 or more films in his career and a few were imported into the US by K. Gordon Murray, most noted for importing and dubbing loads of children’s fairy tale films. Santo in the Wax Museum was one of the more successful Santo films because it was one of them that was dubbed into English. I also have a about six or seven other Santo films here and the other one I watched, Santo and the Diabolical Brain is in Spanish with English subtitles. I don’t know why, but I like some movies more dubbed. Not because I am lazy and cannot read subs, but it really adds to the campiness of the already corny translated dialog, as in the case of many of the Toho kaiju (strange monster) films. And most certainly the dubbing adds to the zaniness of this Santo (called Samson for some reason in the Murray releases, as if gringos can’t accept a Spanish sounding name) film from 1963, made when Santo himself was already 45 years old.

A series of murders and disappearances  are tied to people who have recently visited Dr. Karols’s (Claudio Brook) wax museum. The museum is a strange collection of figures on one floor, ranging from Gandhi to Gary Cooper, but housed in the lower level is Dr. Karol’s collection of infamous murderers and monsters, the pride of his little museum. When photographer Susana Mendoza vanishes Santo is called in by a friend to investigate. The first part of the movie seems to plod along and I almost forgot it was a Santo film, until he arrives on the scene in his trademark silver mask, tights and cape. He rides around in a sports car and has a “Batcave” type laboratory that seems to be located in his apartment. Later when thugs set out to kill him they just come in through his back door. He is renowned for his crime solving abilities but once in a while he has to put the case on the back burner and rush off to the arena to do some wrestling. In fact there are three bouts in the film.

The movie culminates of course with Santo fighting the bad guys and monsters (humans changed into wax figure zombies by Dr. Karol, who plans to somehow destroy the world with them) with lots of wrestling moves. The girl is saved from being turned into a “panther girl” and put in the museums lower floor and in one scene Santo cooks four or five monsters with a vat of boiling wax. Claudio Brook is great as Dr. Karol and in one scene does a classic mad scientist laugh that goes on and on. Santo is really strange as he stands around people’s apartments discussing the case in his mask and with his exposed chest and belly seemingly drawing no special attention from anyone. Like I said the dubbing adds to the fun, especially Dr. Karol’s radio announcer monotone. I liked it a lot and look forward to getting my others Santos films burned so I can lie back on my sofa and be thrilled at the marvel that is El Santo. For cheese lovers only.

Here is a genre I really know very little about except that the few things I have been able to get a hold of (like a few of the Aztec Mummy series and the lush Mexican version of Dracula) were moody, beautiful at times, creepy and mostly entertaining. Dracula was released about the same time as the Universal version and was equally atmospheric with camera work to rival the big Hollywood studio and a real ringer for Bela. I have never had the pleasure of seeing any of the Santos superhero wrestler movies. But it is not due to a lack of trying to find them and will continue searching online. The films I have seen were fun and exciting and, of course, more than a little corny. The women are luscious (Dracula’s Mexican brides are far sexier than what Bela Lugosi shared his crypt with) and the monsters sometimes are actually a bit freaky. what wild imaginations. What I am posting here today are some samples of some of the great poster art along with a few stills for your viewing pleasure. Expect more on this subject if I can acquire some viewing material. Enjoy amigo.

A THUMBNAIL GALLERY OF

MEXICAN MONSTER MOVIES

A – Z LIST OF URANIUM CAFE TOPICS