Santo et Blue Demon contre Dracula et le loup-garou

Mexico's masked wrestling superhero, El Santo, is back in action - this time fighting Count Dracula and the Wolf Man! At his side is the legendary Blue Demon, another great wrestler/crimefighter. They make a mucho grande team. The film's a cheesy delight in part, marred by some slow moments. Still plenty of two-fisted action and loud '70s fashions, though. Highlights: the warehouse brawl, Santo and Blue enjoying a dinner date with their girlfriends at a restaurant, dressed in suits and wearing their masks. (Yep, they never take 'em off.)

I admit it, I'm starting to get seriously hooked on the surreal adventures of El Santo, the silver-masked wrestler cum crime fighter. One thing I really dig about the Santo movies is that continuity doesn't seem to be a big issue, so you can seemingly watch them in any order. At least that's my experience so far. Each one I've seen has Santo with a new love interest and a new set of adventures caused by a new acquaintance, usually a Professor of some sort. This time it's Professor Cristaldi (Jorge Mondragon), the Uncle of El Santo's girlfriend Lina (Nubia Marti). 400 years earlier the Professor's ancestor had defeated Count Dracula and he is worried that his family, which also includes his daughter and granddaughter, are in grave danger. Of course he's right, an evil hunchback called Eric (Wally Barron) raises Dracula (Aldo Monti) from the dead and also resurrects Dracula's sidekick The Wolfman, aka Rufus Rex (Agustin Martinez Solares). Santo enlists the help of his great buddy Blue Demon (Alejandro Cruz) after the Professor is kidnapped, and away we go. The movie is full of fun and fisticuffs and like the others I've seen in the series, seriously nutty. Some of my favourite moments included Santo and Blue Demon relaxing playing chess (with their masks on naturally!), a "walk the plank" scene featuring some meddlesome werewolves and a wrestling match against "Renato The Hippie". If you've never seen a Santo movie this is a great place to start!

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.

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.