BAT WOMAN (1968)
(a.k.a. LA MUJER MURCIELAGO)
Article #914 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-15-2003
Posting Date: 2-12-2004
Directed by Rene Cardona
Featuring Maura Monti, Roberto Conedo, Hoctor Godoy

An evil scientist intent on creating a sea monster gets some resistance from a masked hero.

This movie features The Miserable Dr. Eric Williams (reminiscent of THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF, THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK and THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z) who lives on the ship called REPTILICUS (doesn’t that remind you of a weedy Danish monster?) intent on creating a gill man (isn’t that what they called THE CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON?) which he refers to at one point as The Amphibian Man (wasn’t that a Russian science fiction movie?), but whom he renames Pisces. The monster ends up looking like a cross between the marine creatures in WAR-GODS OF THE DEEP and the ones in HORROR OF PARTY BEACH (without the hot dogs) with multifaceted eyes like THE FLY. He’s created the monster by using the pituitary glands of wrestlers (just so you know that the movie is from Mexico). He’s decided he needs to create a mate for his monster (shades of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN), and he sets his eyes on Bat Woman (think of Batman in a bikini after a sex change), who has an assistant named Mario (who doesn’t pick a single mushroom throughout the movie, so I won’t make a Nintendo joke). It’s all pretty awful, but when you consider the extensive underwater photography, you have to admit that this is pretty ambitious for what is in essence a Mexican wrestling film. You know you have a faded print when you see a credit for Eastmancolor and realize for the first time you’re watching a color movie. It’s even subtitled rather than dubbed, but I’m afraid it really doesn’t add to the dignity of the proceedings when they repeatedly spell yacht Y-A-T-C-H and you get to read such priceless lines as ‘You killed them, you bastard fish!’ Still, this is a good movie for putting on when you want to see how many other movies it can remind you of.