Dreadfully Boring

Brilliant and touching

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Another K. Gordon Murray masterpiece, this is one of those south-of-the-border wrestlin'-movies-mixed-in-with-a-bit-of-a-sci-fi-plot, and plenty of action both in and out of the ring to get those Mexicans whooping in the aisles. DOCTOR OF DOOM is a cheap, brainless, poorly-made movie with an inadequate budget and a plot that defies description. How can it be anything other than a Z-grade classic? Forget the sweaty muscles of Santo and Neutron, this is a film that introduced a whole new prolific sub-genre: the Wrestling Woman; namely Lorena Velazquez, who would carve a niche for herself as a badly-dressed female freedom fighter and purveyor of all things right and honourable. Other than the novelty of the heroine's gender, it follows the straightforward formula set by all other Mexican wrestling classics: a top wrestler becomes involved in the schemes of a mad scientist and has to fight him, with the aid of the police, at every turn.It goes without saying that many Mexican movies from this period are hit-and-miss affairs. DOCTOR OF DOOM isn't always successful, but at least it hits the mark more often than not. The worst aspect of the film are the long, drawn-out wrestling matches thrown in to satisfy the rabid wrestling fans in the audience, but thankfully these don't linger too much. Instead the film is happy to focus on all the enjoyable old clichéd genre elements: the cackling mad scientist; the heroic policeman; the old acid-in-the-face gag; the hulking monster with a human body and gorilla's brain (!); the caped wrestling monster; the old who-is-the-bad-guy sub-plot with a very unsurprising unmasking; bad guys dressed like the Ku-Klux-Klan; even the (very) old serial staple, where the good guys get locked in a room and a spiked wall moves in to crush them to death.The acting is pretty horrendous with the actors giving new meaning to the word "wooden". Apart from the mad scientist that is – he overacts instead, helped by an insane dubbing job that just adds to the fun of the thing. Genre regular Armando Silvestre is at hand but has a boring role as a straight-arrow cop. Other characters include Gomad, a hairy brute of a man who is supposed to have a gorilla's brain, and who wears a hilarious suit of armour to protect him from bullets! It has to be seen to be believed. Keep your eyes out for short cop Tommy, the butt of many a joke, whose blossoming relationship with hulking wrestler Golden Rubi adds an extra level of sentimentality and meaning to the plot. Yeah right.DOCTOR OF DOOM succeeds by offering up tons of action to be enjoyed. The scientist has loads of ugly Mexican guys to do his bidding and there are some tremendously fun abductions and battles to behold before the finale. The sets are cheap and tend to be burnt down and there are brain experiments galore for the horror fan. In some of the night-time stalking sequences the film actually manages to be pretty atmospheric and spooky too, which has to be a good thing. Check out the ending, which seems to have been ripped from HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM. Director Rene Cardona would return to his favourite subject – gorilla brain experimentation – with 1968's "video nasty", NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES.

Doctor of Doom (1963) ** (out of 4) Very silly but entertaining Mexican horror film about a mad scientist who is putting the hearts of apes into the bodies of females. When all of the females keep dying the doctor decides to use a stronger body, that of a female wrestler, and by doing so he plans on using her to kill a couple other female wrestlers who blew up his laboratory. If you're wanting some sort of art picture then I'd recommend several films by Luis Bunuel because that's not what you're going to be getting out of this picture. DOCTOR OF DOOM makes very little sense, the special effects aren't that special and the performances rank just above a middle-school production but all of this just adds to the charm. I think what makes the film work so well is that the pacing is pretty fast and there's always something crazy going on. It's funny hearing dialogue early on talking about how women are "too weak" to be experimented on and yet the doctor just keeps using them. He blames women for not being strong enough to live through his operations but then he sends his men out to get another woman. We also have an accident of the doctors, which is a half man, half ape creation who does the majority of the dirty work. You can tell that didn't have too much money to fix him us as he's just got a few patches of hair scattered around his body. In the English dubbed version we get some hilarious heavy breathing from the creature, which makes him more charming than scary. Then, of course, you have the downright silly wrestling scenes that add nothing and I'm still trying to figure out why they were so important in the first place. Naturally these must have been very popular in the day but today it just comes off rather silly and childish. While there's no tension or drama, the director at least keeps the pace rather fast and it's funny seeing the various ways that the story changes for no reason or watching things happen, which couldn't have possibly happened. Just check out the highlight when a couple cops are about to be smashed to death in a secret room (think THE RAVEN torture trap) and the wall is just a foot or so away from them. They use their watches to call out for help and the female wrestlers, in a different location, have time to drive to them, walk around the house slowly and then finally track them down. Seeing this scene play out is a non-stop laugh and one of the reasons the film remains entertaining.

I'm not sure about you, but I find there's something mildly fetishistic about masked wrestlers. But women without masks throwing grown men around the ring… Wrestling Women vs The Aztec Ape was the first in a series of six Wrestling Women or "Las Luchadoras" films, an attempt to feminize the almost entirely masculine world of masked wrestling movies. The first three team Mexican genre icon Lorena Velasquez with American cupcake Elizabeth Campbell, and two were successful enough to get the K. Gordon Murray treatment. Thus Las Luchadoras Contra el Medico Asesino becomes "Doctor Of Doom", and later in the 80s gets a bogus surf soundtrack and is re-dubbed "Rock And Roll Wrestling Women vs The Aztec Ape".Lorena Velasquez is Gloria Venus, a gorgeous almond-eyed wrestling dynamo who gets thrown around the ring then leaves it without a hair from her Elizabeth Taylor do out of place. She's teamed up with new partner The Golden Rubi, a red-haired firebrand from North of the Border, and from the moment they meet they become the best of friends. But not that good, if you know what I mean.Wrestling Women… opens with a series of murders attributed to a killer branded the Mad Doctor, who leaves his female victims completely brainless. The Doctor, who spends most of the film with his head in a pillowcase with eye-holes, is intent on perfecting brain transplants, and has even grafted a gorilla's brain into a man's body. The resulting monobrowed monster known as Gomar, a goofy-looking creature with arms covered in carpet fluff, is sent out to grab more women, and one happens to be wrestler Gloria Venus' sister Alice Fontaine (or Alicia Flores). As she dies on the table, the Mad Doctor decides he needs a more resilient female subject - physically strong, as well as intelligent, and with a profession. It's no stretch of the imagination who he picks – Lorena Velasquez, I'm looking at you! Aided by the Golden Rubi, the inspector and his diminutive assistant as well Alice's kindly boss Professor Wright (who's dubbed to sound like James Mason), Gloria sets out to seek revenge. After a few false endings the Doctor manages to escape the gauntlet, and successfully transplants the Ape's killer brain into the body of a female wrestler (complete with cries of "She's alive! She's alive!"). Adding a mask, she becomes "Vendetta", and the Mad Doctor, also in a ghoulish mask posing as her masked manager, challenges Gloria to a death match. The plan is to legally murder her in the ring, and so Gloria now needs to fight for her life! Aztec Ape is directed by masked wrestling specialist Rene Cardona Sr, who masterminded all six Wrestling Women films, and also directed Lorena Velasquez in Santo vs The Zombies and Santo vs The Vampire Women. Lorena was one of the few wrestling movie icons to NOT be a professional wrestler, and subsequently needed a body double for many of her ring sequences. And you can tell she's not a real wrestler - she's certainly more "leggy" than the other girls at the Wrestling Academy.Prepare yourself to be thrown kicking and screaming into the ring with Las Luchadoras in Wrestling Women vs The Aztec Ape.

I recently (and reluctantly) posted a somewhat negative review of the Mexican classic BRAINIAC. Last night I watched DOCTOR OF DOOM and my faith has been restored! This is the kind of goofy fun I expect from old south of the border exploitation films. A mad scientist kidnaps women for brain transplant experiments! His henchman is a hulking guy with a gorilla brain in his skull! The detectives are trapped in one of those rooms with spiked walls that close in on you! Wrestling women who look like Laura Petrie on steroids save the day! Oh man, it doesn't get better than this. I especially liked the detective captain's sidekick, a little guy one of the women refers to as a "five foot lightning bolt." He's actually funny and engaging. At one point he faces nearly certain doom and radios his girl friend for help. If she doesn't hurry, he says, they'll never walk down the aisle together. "Don't talk like that, small hero!" she responds, "I'll be there like white lightning!" I felt like I'd been drinking white lightning while I watched this. Check it out!