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Santo vs. los Villanos del Ring
Santo vs. the Villains of the Ring
Santo vs. the Ring Villains
Mexico 1968
produced by Alfonso Rosas Priego for Producciones Cinematograficas
directed by Alfredo B. Crevenna
starring Santo, Francisco Jambrina, Wolf Ruvinskis, Silvia Fournier, Graciela Lara, Eduardo Bonada, Jean Safont, Dick Medrano, Ray Mendoza, Beny Galán, Ignacio Gómez (as El Nazi), Ham Lee, Ramiro Orci, Consuelo Frank, Carlos Nieto, Roberto Araya, Marco Antonio Arzate, Enrique Cardenas
story by Rafael García Travesi, Mario García Camberos, screenplay by Rafael García Travesi, music by Antonio Díaz Conde
El Santo
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Santo's goddaughter Maria Elena (Silvia Fournier) has just inherited a
vast fortune from her estranged grandmother (Consuelo Frank), and of
course this is enough to earn fake spiritualist Francisco Iglesias' envy
(Francisco Jambrina), so he devises a plan that includes inviting the girl
to a séance to call upon her grandmother - for which Iglesias actually
has the old woman's body robbed from her grave -, who then tells her to
donate half her fortune to Iglesias. But of course, Iglesias is no fool,
he knows Santo will watch over Maria Elena, so he cooks up a plot to have
him killed, first fair and square in the ring, but when that doesn't work
he hires some wrestlers to beat him to a pulp wherever they can find him.
Fortunately though, Santo's best friends Rudolfo (Wolf Ruvinskis) - also
Maria Elena's fiancé - and Fernando (Eduardo Bonada) are always around to
help out, and before long other wrestlers join Santo's ranks as well,
always enough to chase away Iglesias' gang. However, all these attacks
make Santo think, and after Iglesias has successfully staged his séance
and pretty much persuaded Maria Elena to make that donation, Santo
presents her with Iglesias' police files that prove he has tried the
séance scam before. Santo and his friends get into another brawl with
Iglesias' wrestlers, and this time someone has the good sense to pull a
gun and shoot Santo dead. His death is kept out of the papers though, and
yet Iglesias shows up on Maria Elena's doorstep offering a séance to
contact Santo, with the fact that he knows about his death as proof of his
authenticity - and Maria Elena falls for it. And really, Iglesias manages
to make Santo - actually another wrestler (Beni Galán) in Santo's silver
mask - appear ... but then the real Santo, who has only faked his own
death, and his friends show up and finally give Iglesias and company the
good thrashing they deserve ... One of the duller Santo
pictures for sure, mostly because the action just consists of one battle
royale-style brawl after the next, and these scenes are not very
inventively or excitingly filmed. On top of this, the plot fails to be
really engaging and is far-fetched to the point where it defies reason -
just not in the fun way one has come to love from Santo movies. So if
you're not a Santo completist like me, it's ok to give this one a pass.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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