Don't Believe the Hype

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Frankly, I'm not much of a Santo fan, but I watched "Santo y Blue Demon contra el Dr Frankenstein" (1974) mainly to catch the lovely Angelica Chain in her movie debut. She looks great too, and even though her role is not large, she does dominate a couple of scenes. Frankly, I found the well-rehearsed wrestling matches rather boring. In real life main events, something unexpected happens maybe once or twice, when one of the combatants muffs his cue, but that doesn't happen in the movies where even the ringside commentator is obviously reading from a pre-written script. One droll development for the movie-makers, however, was the way preview audience's enjoyed Agustin Meza de la Pena's performance as Professor Ruiz. Actually de la Pena (here making his on-camera debut) was the film's production manager who stepped into the role at short notice and there are actually a few inside jokes at his expense. In the original script, Ruiz was Frankenstein sans drugs, and at the climax the good doctor changed back into his real Ruiz self. This ploy outraged preview audiences who'd grown to love the vague, bumbling professor so the transformation now ends with an abrupt cut before Ruiz can actually be recognized. (The Rise Above DVD rates 10/10).

While it's far from the worst of the movies the two luchadores co-starred in, SANTO AND BLUE DEMON VS. DR. FRANKENSTEIN may very well have been one of the most disappointing. The potential for a true classic of the genre was there; all the ingredients but one: a decent script (the downfall of far too many of these movies). Santo and/or Blue Demon grappling with Frankenstein's monster- what fan wouldn't want to see THAT...? Unfortunately, grappling (of any kind, with anyone) is kept to a minimum here and the Herculean black Golem simply lumbers around looking big and menacing. If any of the Santo/Blue Demon movies deserves to be remade, it's this one- hands down.

'Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein' is one of the most enjoyable entries in the utterly bizarre Santo series. For those who don't know Santo is a Mexican silver masked wrestler cum crime fighter. He and his long time pal Blue Demon (Alejandro Cruz) are recruited by the local police to help in a perplexing investigation into a series of unusual murders. The evil genius behind them is none other than Dr. Frankenstein's grandson Irwin (Jorge Russek). The cigar chewing Irwin is experimenting with brain transplants and plans on creating a private army of radio controlled zombies and barks things like "We're beginning to lack fluid. Raise the charge of the transistors in the cerebellum to the max" and "They are wondering what I want to accomplish? If they knew they would pee their pants!". Santo and Blue Demon's bacteriologist lady friend Alicia (Sasha Montenegro) is kidnapped by Frankenstein's cronies in an attempt to resurrect his dead wife... or something like that. Believe me, it all makes some kind of sense when you're watching it. As usual in Santo movies there are a few wrestling matches, one of which is against Golem, an African zombie giant enslaved by Frankenstein who fights under the secret identity Mortis (with a mask - naturally!). My favourite bit in the movie apart from the Golem/Mortis scenes is a flash of a newspaper headline - "FOUR POLICEMEN TORN TO PIECES BY A STRANGE INDIVIDUAL. ONE OF THEM LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED". The Santo movies are pure entertainment, and if you haven't seen any, you're really missing out on something special!

Innocent women are being kidnapped and used as guinea pigs for a brain transplant experiment in SANTO AND BLUE DEMON VS. DR. FRANKENSTEIN. The diabolical Dr. Frankenstein continues his quest to perfect the brain transplant operation to bring back his deceased wife at any cost - even if it means paying with the lives of others.El Santo and Blue Demon are called in to help when their friend, Alicia, becomes Dr. Frankenstein's next target. It'll take both heroes to go up against the dastardly doctor and go "mano y mano" with his super strong zombie, Golem.The is a nice mexican movie with two masked wrestler as heroes. Very cool underground entertainment, like anything you ever seen in the genre. It is a curiosity worth watching!