Santo en El tesoro de Drácula

The MST3K season 13 treatment of this movie is GREAT.

This was my introduction to Santos movies, I'm looking forward to discovering more of these cinematic jewels.

Ok this film is a jumble, but it is fun. It starts off with a long sequence in which a woman travels to her past life with the help of Santo's past life regression machine. The spinning spiral/ conveyor belt sequence where she goes back to her past life is pretty cool. Then after about 20 mins the past life sequence is over, the movie kicks into high gear, and we follow the trials of Santo as he attempts to recover Dracula's treasure to help the needy, and discover the secret of a masked man who seems to follow them and also seems to be evil. There is also a guy who stole RUN DMC's jewelry who is also cool. In short this movie rocks like a panther

'Santo and Dracula's Treasure' is my first experience of the amazing Santo, and it's probably as good a place to start as any. Santo, a legend in Mexico for decades, is a silver masked wrestler turned crime fighter. In this movie he's also a scientist and invents a device that can transport people back in time to relive their past lives. A small group of scientists gathered together by Santo's friend Dr. Supulveda greet this announcement with incredulity. Santo needs a volunteer to save his scientific reputation and Supulveda's daughter Luisa volunteers. Donning a silver jumpsuit she enters Santo's time tunnel device and is transported into the late 19th Century where she is now the daughter of a Professor Soler. Soler is worried about his daughter's declining health and has called in his old friend Professor Van Roth for advice. Van Roth immediately sizes up the situation and suspects Soler's neighbour the mysterious Count Alucard (yes, you guessed it!). Back in the present Santo, Supulveda and their cowardly friend Perico witness these events unfold on closed circuit television. After Luisa is bitten by Dracula, Santo saves her from a staking by returning her to the present. Santo and friends then decide to try and locate Dracula's treasure, but things are complicated by a masked stranger intent on the same goal, and when Dracula is resurrected he continues to have a hold over Luisa who he wishes to make his eternal consort... This movie is a lot of fun and it will definitely not be the last Santo movie I watch!

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.

"This is one of the best known films of Santo, especially because there are two versions: The original in black and white, a routine gothic horror production marketed under the title "The Treasure of Dracula", and one in color with some spicy nude scenes that bring it closer to the softcore genre - a version that was believed lost for many years, to the point that several of the Saint's followers and Mexican wrestling films came to consider its existence just an urban legend.

We have several elements along the footage that enrich the plot: On the one hand, science fiction (The Saint shows us here his scientific side, with the creation of a time machine "to better investigate past civilizations"), the more traditional Gothic horror (with the prototypical story of vampires taken from the Stokerian novel), the gangster cinema (with the "Black Hooded" and his henchmen, who try to take advantage of our hero's invention), wrestling (the fight Santo must have in the ring against the son of the Black Hooded man) and in the most explicit version, we also find sensual busty vampires who show their flesh with lust and profusion. All these sub-genres, seasoned with comedy (some of this comedy is involuntary and some not) are brought together in the film - resulting in a highly entertaining filmic experience."

I saw the uncut version of this film a while back and it is this one I am reviewing here. The uncut version of this film contains nudity which is just one of the reasons why I am recommending this film especially to those who are unfamiliar with the Santo films. This particular Santo film is in many ways unlike the usual run of the mill Santo films and that is another reason I recommend this film. I wish the uncut version of this film was more widely available in an English language version or at least in a version that contained easy to read and understand subtitles. If I have one complaint about this film it would be the hamminess and overacting of the actor who plays the ersatz vampire Dracula role. That aside, this is one of the best of the Santo series of films.