GOLDFACE, THE FANTASTIC SUPERMAN (1967)
aka Goldface, il fantastico superman
Article 4396 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-19-2013
Directed by Bitto Albertini
Featuring Espartaco Santoni, Evi Marandi, Big Matthews
Country: Italy / Spain
What it is: Wrestling hero action

Wrestling hero Goldface takes on a terrorist organization specializing in extortion that is being run by a supervillain known as the Cobra.

Hey, here’s a novelty; it’s a masked wrestler movie not from Mexico, but from Italy. For the record, they may be better at this type of movie than than the Mexicans are; the movie is faster moving and has a lot more action than the Santo movies. It also has something that is generally in short supply in the Mexican masked wrestler movies; it has a genuine and intentional sense of humor. I like that Goldface has a peanut-munching sidekick who adds to the amusement, and my favorite scene has Goldface and his sidekick in a Goldface costume causing a villain to waste his gunfire shooting at an assortment of Goldface-shaped balloons. Still, it doesn’t quite have the charm of the Santo movies, and at least Santo is usually tussling with fantastically-themed enemies (martians, vampires, ghosts, etc), whereas Goldface is here facing off against a bargain basement Bondian supervillain. This brings up the problem of fantastic content. Despite the James Bond trappings, there is no gadgetry at play in this movie (unless the inflatable Goldface balloons count for something), and the main fantastic content that my sources list is problematic; according to them, both Goldface and his sidekick have super strength. Now I will admit that they both are strong, but there’s not a point in this movie where I see any demonstration of strength that seems humanly impossible. Still, this is certainly not the first time I’ve covered a movie about a masked hero with no superpowers for this series.