La mujer murciélago

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.

To wrestle she uses a Bat-suit. Only to save the world she wears the smallest bikini...

A mad scientist (who else?) tries to breed a mutant being between fish and wrestlers!!! To see how it works drops a Ken doll in a fish tank where a goldfish swims happily and nothing happens. Of course nothing will happen, he need to use real people in his experiments, not dolls!

As more and more experiments fail, mutant dead bodies are found on the beach and this is the time for the bat-signal! Bat-woman with her statuesque body, brief bikini and lethal karate moves will take care of that crazy Doctor Frankenfish...

Mr. René Cardona only wanted to take advantage of the Bat-craze during the Batman high peak, with his version of the hero in the shape of a beautiful woman, Maura Monti... and he got it.

"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.

The Batwoman (1968)

** (out of 4)

Dead wrestlers are turning up in the river and the police are baffled so Batwoman (Maura Monti) is called in to investigate. Before long she discovers a mad scientist who is doing bizarre experiments including making a sea monster.

LA MUJER MURCIELAGO, aka THE BATWOMAN, is a pretty weird Mexican film that mixes action, wrestling and a few horror elements. I've discovered that whenever you watch this type of movie it's best to be either drunk, stoned or suffering from a severe cold. Sadly, when I watched this, I wasn't any of them so perhaps that's why I didn't enjoy this as much as some of the other films in the genre.

I must say that there were a few good things here that kept the film mildly amusing and worth watching to fans of the genre. For starters, I found Monti to be extremely beautiful and I thought she did a good job in the role. She made for a good female superhero and this was a plus. I also liked the monster in the film. It's basically a rip-off of The Gillman from THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON but here the monster is a bright red just like the Devil. The look was cheap and silly but it was at least entertaining.

The biggest problem with the film is like so many other Mexican movies is the fact that there's not too much going on. There are way too many scenes where people are just standing around talking and the dialogue is bad and boring. There are way too many scenes where there's not any action or excitement. You've got a decent monster and a good hero and yet they really aren't on screen enough.

The Batwoman is the campiest movie ever made and I say that with great respect and admiration. Movies that are so bad they are good are hard to find and this one has it all. The well-endowed Maura Monti is Batwoman who wears a very revealing 2-piece bikini and a cape through most of the movie. She is called Batwoman but there is no bat about her - she is ALL woman! Not only is she the crime fighting heroine but she is also a pro wrestler and police agent who fights mad scientists. And what is a mad scientist who does not have a faithful servant name Igor and calls him Master? Well, this film has it all. Our mad scientist has created a fish man who is also a wrestler and now he wants to create a fish woman and that woman shall be none other than our favorite batwoman. He plans on creating an army of fish men/wrestlers to rule the sea! I admire his ambition. But the big question is will he get his woman, er I mean his bat, to create the first fish woman? I highly recommend this movie. It is so bad that it is good and highly entertaining.