Santo y Blue Demon vs Dracula y el Hombre Lobo

I am no expert on the Mexican luchador films. I know they made more than 50 El Santo films as well as quite a few Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras pictures (many with El Santo). I've only seen about a half dozen so far and recently bought a few more (which I'll be reviewing soon)--so as I said, I have hardly an expert on the movies. But, at least I know that "Santo y Blue Demon vs Drácula y el Hombre Lobo" is better than the others I've seen so far. However, given that ALL of these films are bad, it's not saying much!!

In this installment, the two masked heroes are out to battle Dracula and the Wolfman in this hilariously silly movie. Why is it so funny? Well, because these two guys go EVERYWHERE and do EVERYTHING in character-- with their wrestling masks on when they go on dates, fight evil...whatever. However, it's still a lot better than in "Mystery in the Bermuda Triangel" where El Santo even showers in his mask!! Also, while it is a bad film, it did have a few rather slow portions-- something I haven't noticed in other films of the genre.

Among the many wonderful things you'll see in the film are some decent wrestling matches in front of fake crowds, a pit filled with stakes in Dracula's lair(????--this is like Superman keeping Kryptonite in his Fortress of Solitude!), a wrestler named Renato the Hippie and a wolfman whose hands are SOMETIMES hairy when he transforms and sometimes not (due to bad editing). It's all very funny in a kitschy way--and a lot of fun despite being awful. Also, while the films are mostly ridiculous and stupid, the wrestling scenes are still pretty incredible to watch considering that El Santo was in his 50s when he was performing!

This is a seriously scholocky movie. Imagine being shadowed by two masked wrestlers in a convertable. Two wrestlers who are so unaware that they didn't notice the young woman hiding under the small blanket in the back seat. Unaware, yet brilliant! They play chess. Blue Demon invented a wrist watch radio. It is a lot like Batman (the Adam West version)...

With seriously short mini-skirts, three full length Mexican wrestling matches and more werewolves than one could shake a sacred dagger at, this is a good time at the bad movies. Enjoy it with someone who has the same low standards that I do...

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.

"Entertaining to the highest degree, and with relatively high production values, this is one of the best films in the Silver Mask saga. The story is very well elaborated, there are ingenious turns of script that bring intrigue, the gothic atmosphere of the crypt is optimal. Despite the similarity in theme, the film is on the whole very different from "Santo y Blue Demon contra los monstruos" (Gilberto Martínez Solares, 1970), a chaotic festival of delirium that would well serve as a paradigm for the B-movies.

The film we are dealing with, on the contrary, has a very well worked plot and mise en scène. There is no lack of the characteristic polarizing symbolism present in most of Santo´s films, where our hero embodies the absolute good and justice in its maximum expression while his opponents come directly from the Underworld: It is the eternal cosmic combat, the force of Light against the powers of Darkness (which this time are represented by a vampire and a lycanthrope). These monsters will give the Silver Mask more than one headache. Blue Demon to his comrade Santo: "When you say more than ten words in a row, I know you are worried".

(...)

Miguel M. Delgado, the usual director of the films of the comedian Cantinflas, directed other films of the Saint's saga such as "La venganza de la Llorona" (1974) and the highly recommended "Santo y Blue Demon contra el Dr. Frankenstein" (1974)."

The only version of this movie I could find was neither dubbed, nor subtitled. This means that, as a white girl who was born and raised in California, I understand about 25% of what the characters are saying. No matter, I still love this film! The good and noble El Santo, professional wrestler and crimefighter, teams up with his best buddy, the Blue Demon, to battle the newly risen Dracula and his gold disco-shirted sidekick, Rufus Rex the Werewolf! There's some great, cheesy, fun stuff here: underground laboratories, a rubber bat that flaps its wings spastically (in a scene that made me laugh so hard I almost fell off my chair) before turning into the suave Dracula, a little girl with the worlds worst mullet and, last but not least, a pit lined with sharpened stakes, over which our heroes must walk on a narrow plank. Darn those pesky werewolves, they keep shaking the plank and the tension is insufferable!!! El Santo battles through it all to save his lovely girlfriend and his buddy Blue Demon, and there's time enough for a few games of chess and cards and, of course, a couple of wrestling matches before it's all over and the good guys live happily ever after.

If you like corny Dracula films and honest-to-goodness wrestling matches, then do NOT miss this one! It's a lot of fun. All of the Santo films are.

Santo and The Blue Demon etc... is a surprisingly inventive movie from 1973. While you laugh there are a few chills as the story unfolds. It looks vaguely like a Hammer Studios Dracula film, with some nice color, and the two girls whom Dracula would like to make a part of his army of darkness dressed in each scene in cute miniskirts as they walk off into the night to heed his call. There's enough tension and character development to get the viewer at least a little interested in the sorry fate that awaits them if Dracula succeeds. No matter though, because the ending fought over a pit of sharp stakes is one of the best parts of the movie, which though isn't full of great parts, has more than anyone would have any right to expect.