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When he accidently kills his opponent during a wretling match, masked
championship wrestler Superargo (Gianfranco Cianfriglio) decides to end
his career in the ring, both out of a feeling of guilt and because he
realizes his superhuman strength and invulnerability might pose a threat
to others. Unable to shake his guilt, he falls into deep depressions, in
such a way that his girlfriend Lidia (Mónica Randall) and his friend
Kenton, who is also the head of the secret service, start worrying about
him. Then though, when a gang of thugs rob shipment after shipment of
Uranium and Mercury, the tides begin to turn, because now Kenton needs
someone as invincible as Superargo, and Superargo needs a task to redeem
himself ... et voilà, he has become a secret agent. However, before he
can do anything, a bunch of agents set out to kill him - which makes
Superargo realize there is a mole in the secret service, so he, with the
help of Kenton and Lidia - the only two who know he's still alive -
pretends the agents really have killed him.
Soon enough, Superargo is sent to a supposedly dessert island that is
suspected to be the hideout of the Uranium thieves - and indeed, Superargo
finds the vast underground headquarters of an organisation run by one
Diabolikus (Gérard Tichy) ... and before he knows it, he becomes
Diabolikus' captive. Like all proper villains, Diabolikus doesn't kill
Superargo right away, but first takes time out gloating. He tells
Superargo that he has found a way to turn Mercury into gold with the help
of Uranium and how he wants to take down world economy with that knowledge
and then become the world's ruler. Then he devices a series of
increasingly complicated ways to kill Superargo, but since he thinks this
Superargo is an imposter (after all, the real Superargo was reported
dead), he drops his guard for just long enough to let Superargo escape.
Back home, conrad, one of the heads of the secret service and obviously
the mole, learns that Superargo's still alive and promptly has his
girlfriend Lidia abducted. Superargo does his best to pursue the
kidnappers and free Lidia but they give him the slip, and ultimately
Superargo has to go back to Diabolikus' island, tear the whole place down
and free Lidia. Diabolikus, realizing his cause is lost, sets the island
on self-destruct mode and plans to leave by escape rocket - but Superargo
is able to close the gates of the rocket's hatch just in time that
Diabolikus' rocket crashes and he blows to kingdom come with his whole
island ...
A mix of James Bond- and Santo-motives
that might be a bit on the childish side but in all, the film isn't even
bad: Sets and action are quite ok and the budget was obviously sufficient
for a film of that scale (even if the film is by far less excessive than
your average James Bond flick). The script is of course a
tad silly, but then aren't all superhero- and superspy-scripts ?
All that said, the film is still far from great, the direction is
merely functional and nowhere near as inventive as in Mario Bava's
similarly themed Danger Diabolik,
the whole thing is of course on the cheesy side (another genre hazard),
and the fil is anything but a revelation in the realm of superhero cinema.
What remains is a colourful, cheesy and sometimes unintentionally funny
piece of 1960's comicbook cinema that is quite entertaining for those who
refuse to take it seriously ...
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