| Perhaps you’re already familiar with the exploits of El Santo, the heroic masked wrestler. (If not, take a moment to read the review of Santo vs. the Vampire Women elsewhere in this issue.) The cool thing about Santo and other Luchadores Enmascarado (masked wrestlers), such as Mil Mascaras and the Blue Demon, was that they were already popular public figures by the time they started defeating Aztec Mummies and whatnot in films. You could see El Santo in the ring during a wrestling match, get his autograph and then see him save the world from aliens in his next movie. No matter how preposterous the movies got (and believe me, they got pretty weird), there would be a wisp of suspension of disbelief, due to the fact that you could see El Santo himself in person, shaking hands with kids in the street. Superman might disguise himself as Clark Kent from time to time, but a masked wrestler never appeared in public without his mask. Santo was actually buried wearing his mask, after he succumbed to a heart attack in 1984.
In Mexico, the "sport" of professional wrestling is called Lucha Libre (literally "free war"), which is also the name of one of the most peculiar film genres yet to emerge from the human mind. Lucha Libre films portray their burly protagonists as crusading superheroes who take time off from their wrestling careers to defeat vampire invasions, and vice versa. Santo had a computer-filled crime lab worthy of Batman, and would rush off in his white roadster to battle evil at a moment’s notice, provided he wasn’t in the ring when the call came in. These ridiculous melodramas were played absolutely straight, which is part of their charm. None of the characters scoff in disbelief at the "alien blob" that clearly consists of actors under a tarpaulin, or at Santo’s plan to defeat vampires using ordinary wrestling moves. Furthermore, even though the hero is a short guy in a mask and cape who won’t reveal his true identity, nobody doubts for a moment that he’s humanity’s greatest hero.
At the end of Santo vs. the Vampire Women (1962), one of the characters casts an adoring glance at the departing hero and sighs "In this age where there are certain evil men who propose to destroy us, Samson is an example to men of good will who serve justice"
Hey, wait a minute… "Samson"? Well, yes. You see, when producer K. Gordon Murray bought the rights to two of Santo’s Lucha Libre films and dubbed them into English for domestic release, he changed the name of the wrestling hero to Samson. You can still hear the crowds chanting "Santo! Santo!" during the wrestling scenes, though.
Samson vs. the Vampire Women remains the most popular of the Lucha Libre films in this country, even though the other Santo film that Murray imported, Samson in the Wax Museum (a.k.a. El Santo en el Museo de Cera ) (1963) is superior to it in almost every way. The latter film has an actual mystery to unravel, so Santo gets to do detective work, instead of wandering around waiting to be attacked by goofy-looking vampires. A young woman is kidnapped outside a wax museum, and the police suspect the museum’s creepy but well-spoken proprietor Dr. Karol (Claudio Brook) as the perpetrator. In a refreshing twist, Santo’s crime-fighting services are requested not by the girl’s father or fiancé, but by Dr. Karol himself, who wants the real criminals brought to justice in order to clear his name. Claudio Brook, a wonderful actor who has appeared in a number of Luis Bunuel’s films (including Simon of the Desert, in which he was the star) and went on to appear in a James Bond film (License to Kill) and Guillermo del Toro’s 1993 cult hit, Cronos, delivers a performance as the charismatic, urbane Dr. Karol that is a highlight of Samson in the Wax Museum. He comes dangerously close to upstaging the diminutive hero on a number of occasions.
Not all Mexican wrestlers were male. Las Luchadoras ("The Wrestling Women") appeared in six films, the most famous being The Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy (1964) and Doctor of Doom (1962).
There’s even a recent Saturday morning cartoon featuring masked wrestlers. Mucha Lucha! is an English-language animated series in which an elementary school is filled with masked luchadores who go around having adventures. It’s a fun introduction to the Lucha Libre genre, and is much easier to find on video than the real thing.
The legend of El Santo lives on. When the fun-filled cult film Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter (2001) played Calgary, the audience gasped in happy recognition when a certain silver-masked luchadore appeared onscreen. Jeff Moffet played "Santos," a benevolent wrestling hero who joined Christ Our Lord in a battle against lesbian vampires. So why the misspelled name, with the extra "s" at the end? I’m not sure, but I suspect it’s to avoid trademark infringement. You see, the son of the real El Santo (Jorge Guzman) has recently taken on his father’s mask and identity, and is now making modern-day Lucha Libre movies himself. Viva Santo! |
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