Meet Eric Williams (Roberto Canedo), an eccentric scientist who lives
on a yacht near Acapulco ... and oh yeah, he kidnaps and kills wrestlers
to create a race of fishmen. He's not very good at it though. Why he wants
to do it I don't know. Meet Batwoman (Maura Monti), a wrestling champ
who's actually out to investigate the many murders of wrestlers, and she
has little problems to track down professor Williams and find out what he
does - but she also attracts his attention in the process, and he tries
again and again to have her kidnapped - not only to get rid of her, but
also to use her in his experiments, which apparently only work when using
wrestlers (dont ask!). But of course, Batwoman is always able to outsmart
the professor and his henchemn. Eventually, professor Williams manages
to create his fishman, Pisces, and he sends him aftger Batwoman using a
transmitter attached to her cape that's pretty much fishman bait. Batwoman
though is able to turn off the transmitter just in time to avoid certain
doom. Desperate to get his hands on Batwoman, professor Williams kidnaps
her two male colleagues (Héctor Godoy, Armando Silvestre), figuring she
will rush to their rescue - and he's right of course, and Batwoman walks
right into the professor's trap, and before she knows it, she is strapped
to his operating table to be turned into fishwoman. But Batwoman hasn't
come unprepared, she has brought the transmitter for Pisces and attached
it to the professor's cloths, and when everything seems to be lost for
her, Pisces enters the lab and (unintentionally) comes to her rescue,
killing the professor and thrashing his lab. And Batwoman and her
companions manage to get off his lab just before it blows up ... Quite
obviously, La Mujer Murciélago was an attempt to cash in on the
then popular Batman
TV-series, and Batwoman's outfits were all more than a bit inspired by her
American counterpart - though her sexy bikini disguise (which she wears
mostly) is a definite improvement over Batgirl's more
conservative style. Having said that, to introduce a superheroine like
Batwoman into Mexican popular cinema is not too much a stretch, actually
the notion of a masked hero/heroine in a science fiction-inspired plot is
firmly rooted in the lucha libre (~ wrestling) genre, and after all,
Batwoman is presented as a wrestler (though when she's in th ewrestling
ring in full body suit, she looks rather butch and is probably played by
another woman - which is only an assumption). All that though doesn't
answer the question, is La Mujer Murciélago a good film? Well,
of course it's no masterpiece of arthouse cinema, but then it doesn't try
to be. Basically, it's your typical lucha libre film, of which director
René Cardona has made dozens, no better or worse than most of them - and
as such it's fun. It's not an exceptional movie in any way, not even among
the best of the genre - but amusing nevertheless. And Maura Monti does
look great wearing bikini, mask and cape ...
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