I was digging through the stockpile of DVD’s from my mainman, Mr. X and I pulled out one that holds a pedigree of mystery. It’s a ‘lost film’ from Mexico’s popular Santo series.
Santo (Rodolfo Guzman Huerta) became a national legend as Mexico’s most iconic luchadore enmascarado or masked wrestler. He began his career in the mid 1930s using numerous identities, but settled in as El Santo (the saint) the following decade. He was unbelievably popular in this capacity into the 1950s. But fate would take him beyond this. In the late 50’s he was persuaded to take on the character in film. His earliest movies failed to catch on but he struck gold in 1961 with “Santo Contra Los Zombies”. This began a series of motion pictures issued between the years from 1961 to 1982 that numbered over 50.
The Santo films were decidedly formulaic. In them he played a combination wrestler, crime fighter and adventurer and typically battled enemies of a supernatural nature. These included a host of vampires, witches, mummies, zombies and werewolves. Often times his crime busting was officially sanctioned by the authorities. They almost always provided him with a chaste, love interest, but without any continuity from film to film. Scientists and professors were stock characters, as well as bumbling, buffoons for comic relief. The latter usually exhibited a high quotient of cowardice. The movies would almost always contain a complete, 3 round wrestling match as well.
The Santo movies also dealt into the mix, a bizarre but charming convention. Santo is never seen unmasked, even when doing the most mundane activities like eating dinner or sleeping. This extended into reality, as he was never billed as Huerta but only as Santo. Until 1984, he never publicly revealed his face, when he did so unexpectedly on a Mexican talk show.
Mr. X has hooked me up with several of the series entries and in spite of the stenciled plots, I just love these flicks. They exude a goofy allure with a similar tone to Wiesmuller’s Tarzan films or the 50s Superman TV series.
In 1969 a fairly typical installment appeared, in the form of “Santo and Dracula’s Treasure”. It begins in a straightforward series manner but does add one new element. Santo’s attributes go beyond being a crime fighter, wrestler and swashbuckler but also a brilliant scientist. He has developed a time machine, which works in a very specific and particular manner. To begin with the time traveler must be female and the device sends the subject to one of their past incarnations. During their mission, people in the present day can watch their goings-on on a television. The design of the apparatus is flat out stolen from the one used in the old TV series “Time Tunnel”. Ostensibly this process will allow archeologists a better understanding of past cultures.
In “Santo and Dracula’s Treasure” the ‘chrononaut’ is Santo’s girlfriend Luisa. She returns to her previous incarnation as the daughter of a wealthy Mexican nobleman in the 19th century. She is now pail and weak suffering from some unknown malady. Only periodic blood transfusions seem to help, albeit temporarily. Her father sends for an old friend and medical scholar Professor Van Roth to aid in a diagnosis and treatment. Van Roth has some suspicions based upon his travels through Eastern Europe, but is wary to disclose them. A regular, new visitor to the household is a titled immigrant to Mexico, Count Alucard. Soon enough the truth comes to light, that Luisa has succumbed to spell of a vampire. Not just any fiend but the prince of vampire’s, Count Dracula. The Count declares Luisa to be his ultimate partner and shows her an immense cache of treasure that will support them into the centuries. Before Dracula can finalize her journey into the undead, he’s met by Van Roth and her father. They manage to drive a stake through his heart and the 20th Century crew retrieves her to the present.
Armed with Luisa’s first hand knowledge, Santo and company locates the whereabouts of Dracula’s tomb. They hope to find a medallion and ring, which together will ferret out the location of the treasure. Unbeknownst to them a hooded figure has been spying on them and will compete with them to find the treasure. Of course in the end, Santo triumphs over his adversaries.
If that were the whole story of the film, then it would remain just another unremarkable episode of the cycle. But there were other elements involved. Santo was not just popular in Mexico but in many Spanish speaking countries, including Spain. Now in Europe horror films were on the rise, many containing adult content. Based on anecdotal evidence, it was rumored that a different, longer cut of the movie ran in Europe under the name “El Vampiro Y El Sexo” which included nude scenes. Further that it was in color versus the B&W of the surviving prints of “Santo and Dracula’s Treasure”.
The idea of a Santo nudie seemed too strange to be believed. Santo was a beloved, family friendly personality and it would run contrary to his established cannon. It would be like having a nude version of the 1966 Adam West Batman movie. But incredibly a couple years ago an unedited version was discovered. Santo fan and master filmmaker Guillermo Del Torro put up money to have the movie digitally restored. But before the film could be re-shown the surviving Huerta family objected, saying that it would damage the memory of Santo. Amazingly Del Torro acquiesced to their will and surrendered the restored print to the family. Soon thereafter though, it was bootlegged on a host of torrent sites.
In fairness to the memory of Santo, it must be said that the “blue” scenes never involve the wrestler but occur with the Dracula character. Besides the luscious breasts of Noelia Noel as Luisa, we are privy to the naked loveliness of about eight other women and these include some fine asses and some bush.
Again my thanks go out to Mr. X for treating me to this trashy delight.
Pat Hilger
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