5 September 2011

In Praise of El Santo

A legend, a pop culture icon, and the face of a thousand ludicrous B-movies. El Santo is truly Mexico's greatest export. He starred in such greats as El Santo vs. The Diabolical Brain, El Santo vs. The Vampire Women, El Santo and The Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein, and the classic El Santo vs the Blue Demon in Atlantis. While discussing the follow up to cult Glasplotation flick Babes Beyond the Barras, I found many of El Santo's movies online and am happily wasting my day off cherrypicking the best bits of El Santo Vs Las Lobos. This classic piece of celluloid concerns a clan of werewolves (duh), a family immune to said werewolves (and thus forever hated by said wolves) who call upon the great El Santo. This silver-clad mix of Batman, Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat and Sherlock Holmes steps in to help - who better to solve the problems of the common man, than the Saint who applied a Scorpion leglock to Dracula and choked out the Loch Ness Monster with his trademark Camel Clutch?

(Of course. Silver, werewolves. Werewolves, Silver. I get it!)

Should your spanish be up to scratch, the entire film begins here, split into parts, as this is youtube. Comedic moments can be found throughout, even without understanding a word of it. A particularly good example lies in the practically non-existent production values, for example, here. 30 seconds of Santo confronted by a crazed werewolf. Who sort of.... Falls out of a cupboard onto him. If nothing else, watch this small clip. It will improve your day immeasurably.

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