Santo contra los jinetes del terror / Santo vs. the Riders of Terror (1970)

[GlacierTuba]

As part of a double feature evening with Las Mujeres Panteras, I gave the 2nd of the 3 latest dollops of Mexican goodness from Indicator a try. This one though, was a little different...

Unbeknownst to me, Mexican cinema was rather fond of highlighting trout, flaccid angling and simulated humping. Usually spliced in at a later date and exported to countries that produce higher quantities of speedy trouser custard than audience feature film engagement. Thus, Lepers and Sex is the product of just such an era in the juggernaut that is Mexican cinema.

Lepers and Sex was a byproduct of the 1970 Santo luchador film Santo vs. The Riders of Terror. An otherwise fairly family/young adult-friendly film. It just had a bunch of soft core sex spliced in at 3 random intervals, consisting of some stilted priliminary groping and complete with hilarious not-sexy-at-all Herp Albert and the Tijuana Brass style elevator music.

The scenes are so obviously spliced in as to totally detract from the rest of the film, which is rather nicely shot in Eastman Colour. The powerwank scenes look like they were shot on 8mm with whatever film stock was left over in the office cupboards. It is noted in the excellent packed-in book (as is always of excellent standard from Indicator), that the smut scenes apparently were a bit longer, and hardcore. The footage may well be lost though, and no, it isn't included on this disc as that would raise it from an 18 to R18 rating.

Interestingly, the book details further that Santo vs The Riders Of Terror wasn't the only film to have smut spliced in to it. Many more films were given similar treatment and retitled under the banner of 'FILMTITLE y El Sexo'. Apparently The Bat Woman y El Sexo was just one of many titles to get such treatment. The sixth film in the luchadoras series (the Robot one) apparently has an El Sexo version too.

I decided to watch the film in it's 'full uncut' form under the title Lepers and Sex just to get the full film, full fat, in one go. It was alright but the 'sex' was completely unnecessary and added absolutely nothing to the main film. It's really is tame stuff and, if watching the film again, I'd just go with the standard theatrical cut.

The main feature itself is reasonably entertaining but very formulaic. I also found that the Star of the show, Santo, almost plays more second fiddle to the sheriff of the town Santo is trying to save from the lepers spreading disease and burgling properties. I would have thought Santo would be the star of the show here given his name is plastered all over it. Maybe the theatrical version presents the film differently to the El Sexo version and is paced better?

Make up and effects should be mentioned. There's little in the way of fancy stunts, epic shootouts and all the rest of the ingredients that make a quality Western. Make up is good though, particularly on the lepers. Make up looks squelchy and squishy and grisly enough to do it's job, though do look out for one scene in a cave where a lepers facial make up looks like it comes away from his face!

As alluded to prior, I thought the image quality for the main feature was very nice. Sharp and very colourful. A few moments of damage and shifts in quality are apparent here and there, plus the 'bonus' sex scenes of course that look to be graded entirely differently to the main feature and stick out like a sore thumb. Audio is good and sounded better to me than Las Mujeres Panteras. Again though, there is no mention of what the audio track actually is. Come on Indicator, it's not hard to note it down somewhere!

Like The Panther Women that I watched before this, I found the film fairly average, campy and kitsch but still entertaining enough. The film isn't anywhere near as endearing though but is given further life with the support of excellent on-disc extras and another juicy book to read that give far more insight to the film and the seedy history of the El Sexo spin offs exported worldwide. It's the extras like this and attention to detail that add so much more to a film you would otherwise likely watch once, shrug your shoulders and think nothing more about.

Recommended, but I think this is the weaker of the two of three titles I've watched so far - that might change if the theatrical cut makes the film better. Mexican cinema fans, such as myself, will likely still pick it up anyway.

[WaverBoy]

I’m glad I didn’t pick up the VCI Santo set, as it appears Indicator is releasing these films freshly restored with original Spanish tracks and without DNR. I’m definitely gonna be picking this up!