SANTO VS EL ESTRANGULADOR (1965)
aka Santo vs the Strangler
Article 2926 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-12-2009
Posting Date: 8-18-2009
Directed by Rene Cardona
Featuring Santo, Alberto Vazquez, Maria Duval
Country: Mexico

Someone is strangling actresses at a theater. It is up to Santo to discover the killer’s identity.

In the first twenty minutes of this film, we have one murder, two wrestling scenes, and five songs. When the padding gets this dense, I can only marvel. It settles into the plot after that, but maybe I should be grateful for the padding; after all, it’s easier to enjoy the music and the wrestling in an undubbed, unsubtitled movie than it often is to enjoy the plot, which becomes difficult to follow. Besides, one of the numbers is obviously a Spanish language version of “Fever”, and their version of “Sixteen Tons” is actually sung in English. There’s a hunchback on hand, and Santo’s lab has lots of gadgetry, which adds to the fantastic content in this PHANTOM OF THE OPERA-style thriller. And it’s good to see that Santo has taken to tucking his cape into the car when he goes cruising around in the Santomobile rather than letting it run the risk of being caught in the tires.