Benutzerrezensionen

The following review is an extract from the book "Santo, the Wrestler with the Silver Mask: A guide to all his films", which is now available on Amazon. Highly recommended for all Santo fans!

"Several bandits chase a masked man until they surround him in an alley and knock him out. Unconscious, they take him to the laboratory of Dr. Campos, who injects him with a serum to appropriate his will. From that moment on, the mysterious individual who covers his face (and who is none other than Santo) will blindly carry out Campos' orders. He leads a double life, because while he presents himself to society as a respectable and prestigious scientist, he is really a dangerous megalomaniac with aspirations of world domination.

It is a known fact that in Batista's Cuba organized crime was at large: The Mafia casinos, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky... This film also shows us that there was another class of criminals wreaking havoc on the Caribbean island: The mad scientists.

Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, such was his name in real life, was already known in his home country as a wrestling athlete. His role in "Santo contra cerebro del mal" was his first appearance in a movie. In the following decades, around fifty more would follow.

The film we are dealing with here is linked to "Santo vs. the Infernal Men " by several factors. Both are by the same director, and were shot in parallel in the same locations in Havana at the end of 1958 (shortly before the triumph of Castro's revolution). In addition to the Saint, several other actors in the cast are the same: Among them Joaquín Cordero, who in this "Evil Brain" embodies the mad scientist while in "Infernal Men" plays the hero. Enrique Zambrano, on the other hand, plays a similar role in both films: He is the police lieutenant (his character in "Cerebro del mal" has the same last name).

There are identical scenes and shots in both films: The agent of the foreign power who goes to meet Campos' men leaves the Colina Hotel (which still exists, by the way) and goes to a remote area where some individuals give him "instructions" and others try to assault him... Exactly the same scene also appears in "Infernal Men" in a different context. We also see the same performance of some singers ("Trío Servando Diaz") in a beach bar and the final scene at the airport is the same for both films - only in "Evil Brain" the lieutenant refers to two masked men (his companion asks him: "Why do they cover their faces, what nationality are they?" and the lieutenant answers: "They are citizens of the world, their duty has no borders. They cover their identity behind masks to do good for humanity." In the epilogue of "Infernal Men" we have identical dialogue but in the singular, since the only masked one that appears is El Santo).

The screenwriters of both films were Enrique Zambrano himself (the actor who plays the police lieutenant on both occasions) and Fernando Osés (the fighter who gives life to "Incognito")."

There isnt really anything special about "Cerebro del Mal" except for the fact that its the first Santo film. Its a very typical mad doctor flick with some luchadores thrown in. Decent performances by the main cast and entertaining fighting sequences are some of the best aspects of this movie.

Its very obvious that El Santo wasnt being made into a star yet, his voice isnt even dubbed like in later films, he just falls into the background for most of this movie. People driving, sneaking around and kidnapping others are some of the things that take most of the screentime, not the best or most enjoyable entry but its enough to keep you amused.