NEUTRON THE ATOMIC SUPER-MAN AND THE BLACK MASK (1962)
aka Neutron and the Black Mask, Neutron el enmascarado negro
Article 1906 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-3-2006
Posting Date: 10-31-2006
Directed by Federico Curiel
Featuring Wolf Ruvinskis, Armando Silvestre, Rosa Arenas

When a new weapon called the Neutron Bomb is created, an ambitious assistant tries to steal the formula, an act that results in his mutilation and the deaths of two men. In order to get the formula, he hooks up with an evil supergenius named Dr. Caronte. However, both villains are opposed by that non-wrestling masked hero, Neutron.

Title-parsing time again. As far as I can tell, the correct translation of the Spanish title is NEUTRON, THE BLACK MASK. This is correct, as Neutron does wear a black mask. However, most of the English titles (such as the one on my copy) imply that the black mask is a different character; I’ve even seen the movie titled NEUTRON VS. THE BLACK MASK. These titles are confusing, as the mask-wearing villain Dr. Caronte wears a white mask. And as far as that “Atomic Super-Man” moniker goes, we’ve been there before and don’t get me started.

Now is a good time to recap the whole Neutron series. There were six Neutron movies made, and I’ve covered five of them. This may well end my exploration of this series, as NEUTRON VS. THE INVISIBLE KILLERS seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. Three of the movies seem to make a trilogy about Dr. Caronte; this is the first one, as it seems to predate NEUTRON AND THE KILLER ROBOTS or NEUTRON VS. THE AMAZING DR. CARONTE . For those who need to be reminded what Neutron is all about, he’s that masked hero who doesn’t wrestle on the side, so instead of padding out the movie with wrestling scenes, they pad it out with musical numbers. This one is fairly lean in that regard; there’s only one musical number. Yes, it’s really silly, but if you like this kind of thing (and I must confess that I do), it’s rather fun.