SANTO EN EL TESORO DE DRACULA (1969)
aka Santo and Dracula’s Treasure
Article 3807 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-6-2012
Posting Date: 1-16-2012
Directed by Rene Cardona
Featuring Santo, Aldo Monti, Noelia Noel
Country: Mexico
What it is: Masked wrestlers and vampires

Santo, wrestler and scientist, has devised a time machine that can send people back into previous incarnations. He sends back the daughter of a fellow scientist, only to discover that she was one of Dracula’s victims. When the daughter returns to the present, Santo decides to prove his theories by using her knowledge to find Dracula’s crypt, where he can claim his medallion and ring and learn the location of his treasure. But an evil masked villain also wants the treasure… and isn’t above reviving Dracula to do it.

Apparently, this movie was in color, but my copy is in black and white. It was also released in a version with a lot of sexy scenes, but that version of the movie is apparently lost. At least my version has English subtitles, so I was easily able to follow this one. It’s one of the more focused Santo movies, and it has no extraneous wrestling scenes (there’s one wrestling sequence, but it’s incorporated into the plot) and no musical numbers; it does, however include a nerdy comic-relief character, who I don’t recall popping up in any of the other Santo movies I’ve seen. The time machine was at least partially inspired by the one in “The Time Tunnel”. The first half of the movie is largely a rehash of the original Dracula story, while the second half mostly pits Santo against a hooded villain, with Dracula only reentering the picture during the final fifteen minutes. It’s one of Santo’s better movies, but I wouldn’t place it with my very favorites. And, if the English translation is correct, Dracula is afraid of mistletoe, so that must be why there are so few Christmas vampire movies. Tomorrow, more Santo/vampire antics…