Santo en el museo de cera

A year after making the very successful "Santo Contra las Mujeres Vampiro", director Alfonso Corona Blake once again was reunited with most of that film's crew and directed this new adventure of the famed Mexican wrestler turned Superhero. "Santo en el Museo De Cera" would be the title of this story that would continue Santo's image as a fantastic warrior that uses his wrestling techniques to help the police and fight against evil and criminals. Obviously inspired by the 1953 horror classic "House of Wax" (starring Vincent Price), this Santo adventure repeated the formula of action, mystery and Gothic horror with very good results, and along "Santo Contra las Mujeres Vampiro" remains as one of the best Santo movies of his early career.

In this movie, a series of kidnappings begin to occur near a very popular Wax Museum. After a reporter of an important newspaper disappears while doing research for an article about the Museum, all the clues seem to point to the owner, Dr. Karol (Claudio Brook). However, to everyone's surprise, Karol asks crime-fighter Santo (himself) for protection as he fears someone wants to kill him. While Santo accepts to protect Dr. Karol, he begins his own investigation about the mysterious kidnappings, and soon he'll discover what's hidden in the Wax Museum.

Written by Corona Blake himself (adapting a story by Fernando Galiana and Julio Porter), this film once again makes Santo a superhero similar to Batman, that can be called to fight crime (most Santo films were adaptations of comic books, where Santo the real life wrestler became Santo the fantasy hero). While this makes for a poor development of Santo as character (this would change in future Santo films), it makes the adventure itself the focus of the story, making "El Museo De Cera" one of the most atmospheric and captivating of them, as well as the one that gave Santo one of his best villains in his career.

Like in "Santo Contra las Mujeres Vampiro", the direction by Corona Blake is subtle but effective. A very visual movie, the mix of action film with Gothic horror sounds unlikely but once again Corona and cinematographer José Ortiz Ramos (who would create some of the best Bava-influenced imagery in Mexican horror) craft something that feels both haunting and creepy. It's not really a movie meant to be scary, but a movie meant to be enjoyed as a fun action flick with horror and creepy atmosphere as a setting. Despite the low budget, Corona Blake manages to pull off a classy final product that at times reaches the level of his previous Santo film, setting the bar high for future adventures of the masked wrestler (sadly, few films came close to it).

In this film Santo has an greater role than in the previous ones, although here he is still the superhero called to do fight crime. While not really his best acting, the script is cleverly built to not let his lack of experience mess with the film, certainly Coronoa Blake knew that his star was not Oscar-material. The whole opposite is Claudio Brook, who like Lorena Velázquez in "Las Mujeres Vampiro", becomes the center of the film with a terrific performance as Dr. Karol. With more than a subtle nod to Vincent Price, Brook creates a complex ambiguous character that at times looks like a villain, while at others is really a sympathetic man. It is his ambiguous nature what drives the film for the most part, making Brook's performance the highlight of the movie.

Like in most (if not all) Mexican fantasy films, the serious problem the film has is its really low-budget. While Corona makes the best that he can do with what he's got, at times the cheap special effects and the bad make up truly take away the feeling of the film. Another small quibble is that the film loses a lot of steam by the ending, as it becomes another typical film by the moment of the final confrontation. Still, "Santo en el Museo De Cera" is one of the better Santo films, as it presents an atmospheric movie with beautiful Gothic cinematography. Watch the subtitled version as like in most Santo films, the dubbed one is truly awful and doesn't give justice to the film.

Along with "Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiro", "Santo in the Wax Museum" is a great addition to a Santo collection, and another of the best films with Mexican wrestlers as main characters. It may not be a classic horror film, but it's an entertaining film with a great performance by Claudio Brook. 7/10

1963's "Samson in the Wax Museum" ("Santo en el Museo de Cera") was the fifth entry in El Santo's starring movie series, 'The Silvermask Man' (as he's listed in the dubbed AIP-TV print) already a comic book hero since 1951 and by this time was doing the caped crime fighter thing in cinemas as well, director Alfonso Corona Blake previously at the helm for "The World of the Vampires" and "Samson vs the Vampire Women." As usual Santo/Samson has a secret lab where he collects evidence when not throwing opponents around the ring during his three bouts, the obvious inspiration here being Vincent Price's "House of Wax," Claudio Brook a poor substitute as a mad surgeon disfigured by Nazi atrocities (discussed, never shown), whose creations are hidden in underground catacombs, figures of Frankenstein, the Phantom of the Opera, the Wolf Man and Dr. Hyde, who sadly don't come to life until the final reel. Only two ordinary henchmen do all the kidnapping, the doctor planning to feature a Panther Woman in his exhibit but that never comes to pass. Aside from the frequent fisticuffs it's pretty dreary, not so much fun as "Invasion of the Zombies," but at least our hero has no use for a double to distract from his prowess in the ring (can't say the same for the Wrestling Women from "Doctor of Doom"). Claudio Brook is underwhelming as the villain, showing off his scarred hands but little else, and worked with Lon Chaney in 1955's "Daniel Boone Trail Blazer," William Shatner in 1974's "The Devil's Rain," and John Carradine in 1978's "The Bees," before doing a cameo as a bank president in the 1989 James Bond thriller "Licence to Kill" (as the cop, Madrid-born Ruben Rojo had previously featured in "The Brainiac," later playing opposite Boris Karloff in 1967's "Cauldron of Blood").

This was my first masked wrestler horror movie and it blew my mind. I'm giving it an extra star because I recognize quality even if it's bizarre to me.

Half of it looks like a gorgeous forties horror classic. Half of it is wrestling. Complete matches of wrestling. My mind is blown.

My first Santo movie but definitely not my last.

Wow... is this movie bad.

Words cannot describe how horribly cheesy, campy and utterly boring this movie is.

The plot is terrible, and the acting is sub-par (at best!)

The best thing about this entire movie is the wrestling scenes. Being a huge wrestling fan myself, I was very entertained by the wrestling scenes. However, the lack of commentary, and the fact that he went to wrestle at the weirdest times, made them a little lacking.

The only reason I even own this movie is for my knack for collecting wrestling memorabilia.

So, unless you are a huge wrestling fan (and I mean HUGE) I would not recommend this atrocity to the cinematic arts.

SANTO IN THE WAX MUSEUM (1963) **1/2 (D: Alfonso Corona Blake, Manuel San Fernando) Not bad as far as Santo films go. The masked man goes up against a mad doctor who kidnaps people and turns them into wax figures for his museum. Decent story, although (as usual) there are needless wrestling matches padding it. Similar to HOUSE OF WAX.