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Santo contra el Doctor Muerte
Santo vs. Doctor Death
Santo Strikes Again / Masked Man Strikes Again / Santo vs. el Dr. Muerte
Mexico / Spain 1973
produced by Manuel Torres, Joaquín Mortera (executive) for Cinematografica Pelimex, Oro Films
directed by Rafael Romero Marchent
starring Santo, Carlos Romero Marchent, Helga Liné, George Rigaud, Antonio Pica, Mirta Miller, Maribel Hidalgo, Frank Braña, Lorenzo Robledo, Eduardo Calvo, Eulália del Pino, Betsabé Ruiz, Mario Álex, Beni Deus, Emilio S. Espinosa, Maria De la Casa, Pablo Blanco, José María Portillo, Gregorio McGregor, Simón Arriaga, José Luis Chinchilla, Puma Norteño, Carlos Suarez, Bráulio Veliz
written by Rafael Romero Marchent, José Luis Navarro, music by Gregorio García Segura
El Santo
review by Mike Haberfelner
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In Madrid, a famour and priceless painting has been vandalized, and Dr.
Mann (George Rigaud) is tasked with the restauration. What nobody knows
though is Dr. Mann is actually behind the vandalization, together with his
right-hand-woman Sara (Helga Liné) and Peter (Antonio Pica), his field
agent who was the one to actually harm the painting and who in his
day-to-day life pretends he's blind. Mann's scheme is to during
restauration replace the real McCoy for a fake, denounce it a fake and
then sell the real one for a fortune. Interpol suspects something fishy
about the vandalization, so they call in their agent Santo from Mexico,
who comes over for a wrestling tour anyways so could enter Spain
insuspiciously - though Mann and company know about his real reason why he
comes to Europe all along, and do get nervous when he makes inquiries at
the British Museum and the Louvre in France and soon finds out about
similar cases there and a deceased restaurator who apparently had his
hands in this. But the deceased restaurator is of course Peter. Santo and
his local affiliate Paul (Carlos Romero Marchent) visit Dr. Mann
officially for a talk, but Mann is just too slick, so they place an agent,
Susan (Mirta Miller), within his organisation, and posing as an art model,
she finds out much more than Santo could ever have, including things about
Peter - but then she's found out, brutally tortured, and she and a friend,
Ester (Maribel Hidalgo), are thrown into a cage with Mann's former models,
which have all been infected with cancer because Mann for some reason
collects tumors. When Santo and Paul notice they've lost connection to
Susan, they break into Mann's mansion, and of course save the day in the
end ... Santo vs. Doctor Death is a tad unique in
Santo's filmography, as it's his only film that was shot in Spain with a
mostly Spanish cast and crew. But unfortunately, this is by far not as
unique as it sounds, as the film itself is a rather typical crime caper
with Santo tagged on, very much in line with his Mexican films. Now this
isn't to say Santo vs. Doctor Death is a horrible film - sure it
isn't a classic by any standards, but as routine crime flicks with a
little bit of science fiction and some pseudo James
Bond motives thrown in for good measure - which was pretty
much standard back in the day - this one's quite amusing. Sure, it's
nothing to write home about and a film you'll probably have forgotten in a
couple of days, but it's a fun ride while it lasts at least.
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