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Santo
vs.
Frankenstein's Daughter
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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7
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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If
you ever wondered how Mexican wrestling superhero
El Santo would fare in a match-up with the monster
from Night of
the Bloody Apes, well, this is your movie!
In Santo vs. Frankenstein's
Daughter (Santo Contra La Hija De Frankenstein),
our hero faces yet another of the infamous mad
scientist's equally ruthless children, kept alive
through the centuries with a special youth elixir.
Freda Frankenstein (blonde Cuban actress Gina
Romand) is following in Dad's footsteps, robbing
graves for parts to build her very own square-headed
monster. She has other irons in the fire, too,
including the transformation of a man into an
ape-like creature via gorilla blood transfusions
and her feverish quest to perfect the anti-aging
serum that sustains her beauty. Things aren't
going well on the latter effort. The 'fountain
of youth' drug is wearing off faster and faster
between injections. (Maybe she just needs to slack
off on all the side-projects and concentrate on
one goal at a time.) This is where Santo, el
Enmascarado de Plata, enters the picture.
Freda determines that
she needs Santo's blood to create a longer-lasting
batch of the youth serum. Apparently the crimefighting
luchadore is some kind of genetic superman,
whose hemoglobin contains a rare element that
retards aging and accelerates healing. (And to
think... all this time I thought he was just a
bad-ass.) Somehow she's got to get Santo to her
secret laboratory. Considering the pathetic bunch
of losers she employs as henchmen this'll mean
luring the masked hero to her lair. The surefire
way to achieve this is by kidnapping Santo's girlfriend
Norma (Lucy Gallardo) and using her as bait. (Our
villainess has obviously seen other Santo movies.)
This results in an episodic parade of captures
and escapes, interspersed with the customary brawls
and ludicrous dialog. Santo is in for some tough
combat as he deals with both Truxón the
Ape-Man and Ursus, Freda's super-powerful creation
fashioned from corpses. A nod to the classic Bride
of Frankenstein is made with the inclusion
of that handiest of deux ex machina, a
self-destruct switch that blows up the lab...
Of course, if Freda had just asked her brother
Irving for the secret of eternal youth (see Santo
& Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein)
she wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble
in the first place!
The most fun I've had with a Santo picture
since Santo Contra las Mujeres
Vampiros (a.k.a. Samson Vs. The Vampire
Women), it's delightfully loopy... Romand's
over-the-top histrionics, combined with Santo's
energetic daring-do and accompanied by a bizarre,
Wall of Voodoo-goes-lounge-lizard score, makes
for solid 'So Bad It's Good' entertainment. One
scene in particular, in which Freda gives injections
of youth serum to an assembly of elderly, decrepit
geezers who then start writhing and howling in
agony, had me convulsing with laughter. Interestingly
enough our stoic hero loosens up in this one —
he cheekily flirts with his girlfriend's sister
and even blurts out a curse word! It's also bloodier
than one expects for a Santo movie; the fights
with the monsters are more brutal than is customary
for such kiddie-friendly fare. (Still strictly
PG material, however.) The fact that Santo battles
the exact same simian-human hybrid that appears
in 1968's Night of the Bloody
Apes — created by the same method and played
by the same actor/stunt man in identical makeup
— begins to establish some kind of weird pelicula
universe where these goofy plots are somehow all
intertwined.
This enjoyably silly Santo saga could make
an interesting double bill with Jesse
James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. But
show the Mexican film first — it's vastly superior
in the fun department.
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Like
the other Santo DVDs from Rise Above Entertainment,
Santo vs. Frankenstein's
Daughter is presented fullframe and in
the original Spanish with English subtitles. (The
subs are much better written this time out.) The
print used, though displaying its share of damage,
is in substantially better shape than those seen
on the Santo-Blue Demon discs, while the mono
audio track gets the job done satisfactorily.
Aside from an image gallery (production stills,
lobby cards) particular to this movie, the extras
included are the same as can be found on the other
Rise Above-Santo offerings: a short compilation
clip, The Best Of Santo, and two trailers
(Santo: Infraterrestre
and Santo & Blue Demon
vs. Dr. Frankenstein).
8/12/03
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