While i could have waited to spring this one on you when The Batman Part 2 finally releases…. that date is still far away, but the Supergirl live action film is not, so why not, and there’s still shit like Batman Da Il Pianeta Eros or Batpussy i could review for the occasion.
I’ve been recently studying up on ye old lucha libre mexican cinema, whom some of you might have been exposed via the few localized american version of El Santo movies, which called him “Samson” since El Santo as a figure wasn’t really know in America… nor is it now, but him and many other masked luchadores were also starring in their own film as themselves.
Some of you might remember stuff like the MST3K fan favourite Samson VS The Vampire Vomen, or the adjacent “luchador free” old The Robot VS The Aztec Mummy, but let’s just say these are just the tip of the sweaty beef iceberg, as there are dozens, hundreds of these films made in Mexico, most about El Santo but other luchadores like Tinieblas, Mil Mascaras or Blue Demon had their own film series, which often mixed spy film, gothic horror, mad scientist and monsters and of course had crossover, with some like El Santo and Blue Demon now teaming up to undo a sinister scheme of world conquest or strange murders ordained by some comic book styled mad doctor.
These were basically superhero series of their own right, just that the hero existed inside and outside of the ring, and his masked identity was kept as such, so, in the same way we call Dwayne Johson by his nickname regardless of what movie he is or what character he is playing, these movie do star El Santo or Black Shadow in the credits, they are playing a character alright, but they’re still rocking the luchador persona as the main one, as you would due to lucha libre tradition in this regard.
Due to some cultural sensibilities in common, we in Italy did get a few more localized films of this genre, but this one today is a bit of a “cheat”, in the sense it was an Italian-Mexican co-production starring Maura Monti, an Italian-Mexican actress and model that was in many Mexican films in the 60s, aside from this one, even if this the one she’s more recognized from, alongside 1966’s neo noir thriller Rage, where she acted alonsgide Glenn Ford.
And also because this was also capitalizing on the old 60s Batman TV show with Adam West as the Caped Crusader, here obviously genderbent for sex appeal, and a disregard for copyright laws, since its original title, La Mujier Murcielago or the localized international one The Batwoman (in Italy it released as Batwoman: L’Invincibile Superdonna lit “Batwoman The Invincible Superwoman”)… well, it means exactly that, “(The) Bat Woman”, but i guess who cares.
I mean, when we have WB delete entire completed films like the Batgirl one, fuck ‘em.
This is not to say this specific Rene Cardona (the father, not Rene Cardona Jr, even though he also directed a lot of crap back in the day) directed 1968 movie is a complete anomaly, actually it fits the mold of these lucha films of the era to a tee, including the relatively short lived attempt at making female luchadores personas be their own thing, as seen in films like The Panther Women (1967).
What this means it’s that the plot involves a secret super agent that also is a known luchador helping the police or some international police force investigating a series of strange murders involving specifically lucha libre athletes.
In this case is this lady that goes under the alias of Batwoman and has her real identity know to few trusted people, called upon to help investigating the strange trail of luchador corpses that wash up ashore, this because a mad scientist, Dr. Williams, is kidnapping strong men from whom he harvests their pineal gland juice, which in turns he uses on fish to try and create a fishman monster he dubs Itticus, a bootleg Gill Man of sorts.
Which he eventually does (thanks to the help of radiations, obviously), but after Batwoman discovers his lab aboard the ship Reptilicus (a reference to a Danish giant monster of the same name, i assume, this movie also the mad scientist assistant called “Igor”, so most likely) and disfigures the mad doctor in self-defense, he now focuses on controlling the monster via acute sounds (which also stun the viewer in real life and i’m sure will be noticed by dogs in a 20 KM radius) so he can use it kidnap Batwoman and make a fishwoman out of her, while of course he has his undercover lackeys try to learn her true identity via any means.
BatwomanTM has basically a “bat bikini” (a “bakini”?) get up and a car similar to the one in the Adam West’s Batman TV show, and the fight coreography hits the same goofy notes, but she doesn’t have the many Batmobile weapons nor gadgets, aside from a pocket mirror that turns into a gun, and sure as hell the various goons are pretty trigger happy, in no mood for dancing the “Batussi”, despite the tasty jazz laden soundtrack.
I found it amazing the fuckin bootleg Gill Man underwater monster is somehow afraid of FIRE, but then again don’t question how throwing a doll into a pressurized fish tank and then sprucing pineal gland extracts leads to having your own merman monster, this movie runs on the same logic and premises of 40s-50s mad doctors films, down to the harvesting of the “pineal gland juice” from selected victims for the experiments, just instead of using it to make ape-human hybrid in gorilla suits (or gorillas with human brains) he makes bootleg fishman creatures to try and take over the world, because what else would he be doing with his free time? Curing cancer?
A fishman/Gill Man knock off water-based creature that is AFRAID OF FIRE, i have to reiterate, because i guess naming the lab assistant Ygor wasn’t as random as it sounded, even if it makes no sense, as much as does the entire frigging boat exploding because of the laboratory getting trashed and fires being set nearby beakers containing “science liquids”.
Though is worth noting that there is very little lucha, just a brief scene of men wrestling and like three (also very brief) scenes of Batwoman – in her costume and mask – teaching self defense combat to other women at the local gym, and no scene of people at the bar listening to local music and having a good ol’ drink, but there is the strangely costant good quality of the underwater cinematography that can be found in the films made by Cardona.
It’s delirious as it sound, but it’s also undeniably old school comic book styled stupid fun, it is quite entertaining exploitation b-movie stuff, done on the super-cheap as Mexican movies of this kind especially were (more so than usual, anyway) in the 60s and 70s, with often straight up toys being part of the “props” or special effects, and thanks to its 80 minutes runtime there’s no boring or slow parts to really point out, alongside the “bat bikini” clad costume Batwoman has on.
And the more i think about this, it’s extra funny how DC Comics didn’t pursue legal action against this one, but did for Jerry Warren’s stinker, the Wild World Of Batwoman.
As a final side note, the limited edition rare DVD release i used for review, the italian DVD one by Mosaico Media, isn’t quite “good”, at all, it will have to do, but i wish the audio was less choppy and it didn’t cut off immediatly after a sentence is done, which often does and almost makes it difficult to hear the dubbed Italian track, not that there is the original mexican audio with option for subtitles, there’s nothing besides “play movie” and the scene select.
Tha’s it. The video quality is ok, it’s watchable, but for a “limited edition” its lacking, so i’d think you would be wiser to look out for the double pack Blu Ray release by VCI Entertaiment that has restored 4K versions of this and the already mentioned The Panther Women.
Wise Cafe (International) 