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Released by: Rise Above Entertainment
Released on: 7/29/2003
Directors: Miguel M. Delgado/Rene Cardona
Cast: Santo, Gina Romand, Carlos Agosti, Aldo Monti, Noelia Noel
Year: 1971
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The Movie:
Rise Above Entertainment continues releasing the Santo films with English subtitles for the first time in North America. The second round of the series kicks off with…
SANTO CONTRA LA HIJA DE FRANKENSTEIN (SANTO VS. FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER)
This time out, we find our masked hero involved in a plot in which Freda Frankenstein (Gina Roman, who played a foxy succubus in Santo Vs. The Vampire Women), daughter of the legendary scientist, intends on using Santo's super blood in an experiment to create the ultimate youth serum.
Unfortunately for Santo, Freda has at her disposal a powerful henchman/monster named Ursus (who looks uncannily like a certain monster made famous by Boris Karloff) who is only more than happy to do her evil bidding and take down the silver masked superhero once and for all.
In order to bait their evil trap, the two of them kidnap Santo's lovesick girlfriend, Norma. This of course sends Santo running to her rescue and he ultimately ends up in Freda's secret laboratory where he and Norma's sister get involved in a grand monster mash finale that borrows a little too liberally from the Universal Classic, Bride Of Frankenstein.
With a little more bloodshed than your average Santo film and some nice, gothic, Hammer-esque sets used to nice effect, Santo Vs. Frankenstein's Daughter is an above average entry in the series and holds up pretty well.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Santo Vs. Frankenstein's Daughter looks quite nice with sharp colors, nice deep blacks, and only very minor print damage. It's quite watchable, but it's not going to win any awards for visual quality and there is quite a bit of print damage. Both films are presented fullframe.
The Dolby Digital Mono track is serviceable enough. It's presented in its original Spanish language with nice, clear, removable English subtitles. There is some hiss and background noise in a few scenes but it's easily ignored.
The 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 each of the two films. Wilt is the author of the upcoming The Mexican Filmography: Feature Films 1916 - 2001 book.
The Final Word:
There's just something undeniably fun about masked wrestlers fighting monsters and Santo fans are going to want to add these titles to their libraries despite a less than perfect DVD presentation.