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Released by: Rise Above Entertainment
Released on: 6/10/2003
Director: Miguel M. Delgado
Released: 1973
Cast: El Santo, Blue Demon
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The Movie:
Rodolfo Guzman Huerta was better known the world over as El Santo, the name under which he wrestled from 1942 until 1982 when he finally hung up the belt at the age of 64. During this time, he appeared all over the place in Mexico, most notably in a long running series of comic books and adventure/horror movies, sometimes appearing in a half a dozen movies a year or more and starring in over fifty films by the end of his career.
Few of the silver masked one's films were ever released for American audiences, with a couple of exceptions being El Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiros and El Santo En El Museo De Cera, which were dubbed into English and shown on US television as Samson Vs. The Vampire Women and Samson In The Wax Museum.
It also wasn't uncommon for the producers to team Santo with other Luchadores, most notably Blue Demon, who also starred in over twenty-five feature films. Kicking of their Santo Collection with a bang, Rise Above Entertainment gives us two of the 'Santo Y Blue Demon' films presented for the first time with English subtitles.
Santo Y Blue Demon Contra Dracula Y El Hombre Lobo
This second feature begins when a friend of Santo's named Professor Cristaldi is warned that Dracula, who suffered defeat at the hands of his ancestors four hundred years ago, is back from the grave and sportin' some pretty mean sideburns (though not as mean as mine) and out for revenge and this time he has a wolfman named Rufus Rex along to help him. Not only do they want to kill off the entire remaining Cristaldi family, but they also want to turn the entire world into werewolves and vampires while they're at it.
Once again, Santo turns to the aid of his trusted friend, Blue Demon, who after finishing and winning a wrestling against Renato El Hippie, runs to Santo's side as the two of them rush to save the Cristaldi family from certain doom at the hands of Dracula and the Wolfman.
While the Santo films aren't exactly high art, they aren't without moments of genuine atmosphere but more importantly, they're always a lot of fun. The colorful cast of heroes and villains, outrageous situations, garish costumes and tough guy dialogue, it's pretty hard not to have a good time when watching a Santo movie.
The effects are hokey but fun, and the Universal/Hammer influences on a lot of the stories are undeniable, but that doesn't take away from their charm at all. How can you not love a pair of grown men running around in leisure suits who never take of their masks saving pretty girls from mad doctors and monsters galore?
Even if you're not into wrestling (I haven't watched any televised North American league matches in almost 15 years) or super-heroes, the films are still worth a look if for no other reason than they're a great look at an international icon who had an amazing career and still influences people today, over fifteen years since his death.
Video/Audio/Extras:
While the colors on the print used are nice and bright, there is grain and print damage throughout. Overall though, this looks better than expected, especially compared to the awful Beverly Whilshire 'Samson' films that came out on DVD a little while back. The film is presented fullframe and while it doesn't look too cropped, there was some noticeable information missing during the credits sequences.
The film is presented in Spanish in Dolby Digital Mono and while there is some hissing and popping here and there, for the most part the track is clean enough to understand. The bass is a bit heavy in the mix in one or two spots but it's never enough to take away from the film. Rise Above has supplied nice, easy to read English subtitles throughout the disc and it's great to finally be able to follow the dialogue in the film (previous VHS bootleg
The DVD features a two-minute clip of Santo in action entitled 'The Best of El Santo' as well as some trailers for other Santo films and a few unrelated Rise Above releases as well. There is also a decent photo gallery on the disc, but the real bonus of the extra features lies in the form of David Wilt's well-written and informative liner notes that serve as a nice background piece on the movie. Wilt is the author of the upcoming The Mexican Filmography: Feature Films 1916 - 2001 book.
The Final Word:
If you couldn't tell, I'm a big fan of El Santo and the Mexican Luchadores films in general and it's great to see them starting to get respectful releases on DVD. Even if the presentations aren't perfect, they're miles above the old VHS bootlegs floating around and non-Spanish speaking fans can finally follow the dialogue thanks to the subtitles.
I just thought I'd also mention that there is an upcoming Blue Demon Film Festival in Dallas, TX, coming up on the 5th and 8th of May. They will be playing Santo Y Blue Demon Contra Dracula Y El Hombre Lobo as well as Las Momias de Guanajuato. Here's a link for more info if you live anywhere close enough for a day trip: http://ow.ly/4MIBn