Earlier this year, Powerhouse Films released two of the first Santo movies as part of their Indicator Series. Santo vs. Evil Brain (Santo contra cerebro del mal) and Santo vs. Infernal Men (Santo contra hombres infernales), both directed by Joselito Rodríguez, came out in 1961 and started the popular luchador’s on screen reign. Lucha libre after all, is an integral part of Mexican popular culture and these two adventures of the masked super wrestler are credited as early super successful action films that took the myth a step further, with some further 50 or so movies as far as I can tell from a web search, just counting those with Santo. As a side note, the last thing I remember as a European is Chupa, the 2023 Netflix movie directed by Jonás Cuarón, which pays plenty of hommage to these films, but it is safe to say that lucha libre isn’t much of a thing outside Mexico, so what better way to try and understand it than by studying some if its cinematic reflections (and by doing so learning a bit about Mexico’s rich history and culture)? I received the two discs out of this release and without knowing much about the movies, I dove in.
“In Santo vs. Evil Brain the dastardly Doctor Campos is kidnapping and brainwashing scientists. When undercover detective Santo falls prey to Campos’ scheme, Lieutenant Zambrano (Enrique Zambrano) and El Incognito (Fernando Osés) must come to his assistance to foil Campos’ plans.” (Powerhouse). The action is a bit ridiculous, the effects cheap, the production shows its limitations – but it has lots of heart and atmosphere. That may be one way of summarizing this early Santo adventure. There is not much happening in all honesty, testament to how easy it must have been to excite audiences at the time. The movie is already super short at 72 minutes, but if you employed modern editing to it, you’d probably be left with just 40 minutes actual movie-worthy footage. I do not want to put the movie down, just saying. In that, the movie is pure exploitation: the movie has little going for (and going on for that matter), but I am sure they sold the hell out of it: a mad scientist, experiments, a masked hero, a scheme to conquer the world, police cars, a scene with a boat, Havana, and so on. The execution of it is something altogether different and more hamfisted. While the movie borrows heavily from Frankenstein and such, it is a very thin plot altogether and it barely registers that there are characters with backstories and dialogue, such is the quality of the storytelling here. But, there’s plenty of atmosphere, and an air of ambition that far exceeds what they were capable of putting together. Maybe a sign of things to come? Also it is nice to see some early 60s footage of Havana before it fell to the revolutionaries. All in all, an oddball movie, but from a historic perspective an imporant one. Now I am curious about the next one.
“Meanwhile, in the same year’s Santo vs. Infernal Men, the trio of Santo, El Incognito, and Zambrano team up once again to fight a band of drug smugglers.” (Powerhouse). Okay, so it’s not a step up exactly, but it’s entirely different. It recycles a lot of shots and entire scenes, and Santo barely shows up for a few minutes of screen time actually. It’s less of a Santo movie than the first. It is more of an undercover cop story with some great atmosphere scenes of the city, and a hint of a lovestory. There’s barely a story there once more, with most scenes again consisting of what other movies would consider filler material and takes lasting for way too long, but oh well. At times it feels artsier than the first even, I particularly enjoyed the beach sequences, that have quite an impact in its restored black and white beauty. The transfer here is a bit worse than the first movie on the other disc, but it once again is amazing to see this historic document in such a quality and recognize the ambition of the filmmakers even though one might laugh at the results. I didn’t laugh, I was amazed. There’s so much love for detail in there, one could forgive the hamfistedness of the action and the story.
“Shot in Cuba in the final days before Fidel Castro entered Havana, these two films represent the celluloid birth of a true screen legend, and spawned a further fifty Santo films. Beautifully restored in 4K from the original negatives, these thrilling films finally receive their world Blu-ray premieres in this individually numbered Limited Edition two-disc set, complete with new and archival extra features, including a feature-length documentary, a poster, and an 80-page book.” (Powerhouse)
The only other Mexican movie of the times I could probably recall is Los Diablos del Terror, a 1959 Mexploitation flick that is more a Robin Hood wild west adventure, but of course its heroes also wear masks. These were not the first movies starring masked luchadores, but they were the first with Santo, the last of the wrestlers to conquer the big screen. Since both were filmed at once, maybe they should have turned all the footage into one film, I think, but oh well, they made the most out of their trip to Cuba before it fell to Fidel. It is a fantastic double feature for those curious to explore early Mexican motion pictures. Both movies of this restoration effort (part of Nicolas Winding Refns initiative, the film preservation alliance) feature fantastic audio, the bad sound design not withstanding. The picture looks fantastic, it shows its age but the 4K scan is tremendous. It’s truly a marvel to see these movies restored to such quality!
And now for what you get in this box set. It may be partially out of print but it can still be procured. If you’re intrigued, grab it! Both movies arrive on BluRay for the first time ever, with their original mono audio restored and newly translated English subtitles. The resotrations are 4K scans from original 35mm camera negatives. The Indicator Series release is a box that also features:
- Limited edition exclusive 80-page book with a new essay by Luciano Castillo, an archival newspaper article on Mexican wrestling, Christian Cymet on the history of the mask in Mexican wrestling, extracts from Carlos Monsiváis’ The Rituals of Chaos and Jimmy Pantera’s Los tigres del ring, an archival interview with Griselda Cruz, daughter of comic-book writer José G Cruz, Michael Donnelly on Perdida, an archival interview with Viviana García Besné and Alistair Tremps, and film credits
- Limited edition exclusive double-sided poster
- Limited edition of 6,000 individually numbered units for the UK and US
SANTO VS. EVIL BRAIN extras are:
- Looking for El Santo (2023, 31 mins): Viviana García Besné’s search for filming locations in Havana, Cuba and the true story behind the making of the first two Santo films. Super interesting location hunt and quite heartwarming.
- A League of Gentlemen (2023, 12 mins): previously unseen interview, filmed in 2009, in which co-star Joaquín Cordero reminisces about his experience acting alongside El Santo and his friendship with producer Jorge García Besné
- Mascára vs. mascara (2023, 33 mins): the Killer Film, el critico enmascarado (the Masked Critic) discusses the early years of Mexican lucha libre, the birth of the luchador film genre and El Santo’s transition from wrestler to film star, cultural icon, and national treasure.
This is the extra that explains all you need to know about santo and lucha. What a great primer. and of course the big “wow” effect is learning that with the ban of lucha libre from television and a short lived ban of minors from wrestling stadiums, kids had only the movies to witness their lucha idols. Such a great interview.
SANTO VS. INFERNAL MEN extras are:
- Perdida (2011, 96 mins) feature-length documentary by Viviana García Besné, granddaughter of Jorge García Besné and Mate Calderón, exploring her family’s major contribution to Mexican cinema, including initiating the Santo series. Quite an amazing documentary actually and a must for all cinema aficionados interested in Mexican movie history.
- Perdida image galleries: rare and extensive collection of photographs and promotional materials from the Calderón family vaults
Buy now: From Amazon.com | From Amazon.co.uk
