We're back
into the wonderful world of Mexican wrestling with this charming adventure, Santo and the Vengeance of the Mummy! Santo, who's real name was Rodolfo Guzmán
Huerta started his professional wrestling career in the middle of the thirties
and kept fighting until his retirement in 1983. About one year later he did a
talk show appearance and showed his face, quickly, for the first and only time.
He then went home about a week later he died. Did he break the magic? "Bullshit
or Not?" as Henry Silva would say in Amazon Women on the Moon. We will
never know, but deep inside I feel it was something weird going on. On the
other hand, he was a great artist - an entertainer, and what a way to go!
This film
beings, as usual, Santo fighting two dangerous opponents: Gori Casanova and
Angelo, and is almost defeated - when he's suddenly gets his strength back and
beats them both! Lucky for us, wouldn't be so much movie left without him! This
time he follows his a professor and his crew out in the jungle to excavate an
old Aztec (I suppose it is...) temple and their gold is to find the tomb of Nanoc,
a legendary warrior! The find it - very easy - and goes back to the camp... but
so does Nanoc - armed with bow and arrow, and he starts killing of the team
members one by one... and now it's up to Santo to stop him!
Like the
one I reviewed yesterday, Santo & Blue Demon vs. Doctor Frankenstein, this
one has an amazing flow. It waste no time with character development, and instead
we gets an awesome wrestling match - shot with a real audience and with the
same typical flair as usual from director René Cardona. It feels real and the
handheld camera and lack of a static studio background helps the action. Then
there's a very typical, close to mega-generic, jungle adventure, but in that
charming way - in a studio and with a few pick-ups here and there on location.
It also sports some very neat stock footage from a bigger budgeted movie with
Aztec Indians slacking around a very cool temple.
One
annoying detail is the presence of Son of Santo, Santo's real son, who plays
some farmer boy being adopted (!) by Santo! He's not as annoying and awful as
the Japanese kids with short trousers and cap slumming in our beloved Kaiju
films, but because of his stupidity the mummy actually kills more people than
he what was probably planned from the beginning - and the boy even doesn't feel
sad when his dear grandpa dies by the rotting hands of the monster!
There's not
much wrestling in the jungle either, except the end fight between Santo and
Nanoc - but it's never boring and there's two great fights in the ring to look
forward to. Maybe not the best Santo movie to start with, at least if you want
wrestling all the time - but its a good matinee adventure and well worth
watching!
2 comments:
"We will never know, but deep inside I feel it was something weird going on."
Is there a Santo curse?
Some people say there is a curse about Superman and some of the tragedies that happens to people involved in that franchise.
"Then there's a very typical, close to mega-generic, jungle adventure, but in that charming way - in a studio and with a few pick-ups here and there on location."
Ah yesss......bright studio lighting in the middle of the jungle.....
"but because of his stupidity the mummy actually kills more people than he what was probably planned from the beginning - and the boy even doesn't feel sad when his dear grandpa dies by the rotting hands of the monster!"
Annoying kids, some smart producers idea of boosting sales numbers, sometimes it works and sometimes not.
"Maybe not the best Santo movie to start with, at least if you want wrestling all the time - but its a good matinee adventure and well worth watching!"
Adventure films are usually fun to watch, I think, thanks ninja, good review.
Megatron
Santo vs. The Zombies was solid, but that's the only one I've seen. Your review made me realize that there were a lot more of these than I had originally thought.
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