Santo contra las Mujeres Vampiro

Samson and the Vampire Women
Santo and the Vampire Women / Samson vs the Vampire Women / Santo vs the Vampire Women / El Santo contra las Vampiras / Superman contre les Femmes Vampires

Mexico 1962
produced by
Alberto López for Filmadora Panamericana
directed by Alfonso Corona Blake
starring Santo, Lorena Velázquez, María Duval, Jaime Fernández, Auguto Benedico, Xavier Loyá, Ofelia Montesco, Fernando Osés, Guillermo Hernández, Nathanael León (as Leon Moreno), Ricardo Adalid, Cavernario Galindo, El Indio (= Ray Mendoza), Black Shadow (= Alejandro Cruz), Bobby Bonales, Eduardo Bonada, Laura Marquetti, Javier Samperio, Marco Antonio Arzate, Gonzalo García, Margarito Luna, José Chávez Agundes, René Barrera, Jorge Casanova, Miguel Tejeda Santillana, Pedro de la Torre, Fabian Grey, Armando Acosta, Alfredo Wally Barrón, Antonio Padilla Picoro, Carlos Robles Gil, Victor Velázquez
story by Rafael García Travesi, Antonio Orellana, Fernando Osés, adaptation by Rafael García Travesi, screenplay by Alfonso Corona Blake

El Santo

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Diana's (María Duval) 21st birthday is just around the corner - and her father professor Orlof (Augusto Benedico) is worried, because he has deciphered a prophecy in which the queen of the vampires Zorina (Lorena Velazquez) will claim her on her birthday to make her her successor, something she tried with Diana's ancestor 200 years ago but failed thanks to a masked stranger ...

Orlof of course calls the police, but there's little they can do against a suspected vampire attack, so the professor does the next best thing of course: call a professional masked championship wrestler, Santo!

Santo manages to prevent Diana from being abducted at her birthday party, but now he has to feel the wrath of the vampires, who try to kill him both inside and outside the ring, with little success, though.

After much to and fro, the vampires have managed to kidnap Diana after all, since they easily outman Santo and the few policemen who Orlof has gotten for his daughter's protection after all. But by now, the professor has managed to totally decipher the prophecy, which gives away the vampires hiding place. Santo rushes to the rescue ... and walks into a death trap. But when the vampires are already about to kill our masked hero, the sun comes up and erradicates them all, and those who have managed to avoid the deadly rays are burned to a crisp by Santo personally.

Of course, this film isn't without its fails: There are plotholes aplenty, most plottwists are either hilarious or stupid or both, and ... why a masked wrestler to begin with?

That all said, as a prime example of early 1960's pulp cinema, this is also a pretty good movie: It's full of genre clichées, some of the vampires' costumes are hilariously camp, the story is enjoyably predictable, and the whole thing is very well paced.

So no, it's not a good movie by any measure (well, it's a pretty good Santo movie at least), it's just loads of fun!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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