Viva El Santo! - Vintage Luchador Movies Thread

[El_Fez]

So just who the hell is Santo? This trailer from the old Rise Above Entertainment DVDs should tell you everything you need to know about the awesome, cheesy world of Santo, El Enmascarado de Plata!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_uc...ature=youtu.be

Santo is like Batman, if Batman never took off his mask EVER, wore a velvet smoking jacket with a turtleneck sweater, and invented a time machine so he can go back to the 1800's to wrestle Dracula for his treasure. Or stopped a Martian invasion with a flying scissors kick. Or fought gangsters and witches - at the same time.

(BTW, the "never without the mask" thing applies to real life Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, too. Shortly after his retirement, El Santo unexpectedly unmasked himself on the Mexican television talk show Contrapunto, the only recorded case of him ever showing his real face in public, as one last goodbye to his fans. He died a week later.)



For completion's sake, here is the full listing from the 8 movie VCI box set:

• Santo in the Wax Museum • Santo in the Treasure of Dracula (no nudity version) • Santo vs the Riders of Terror • Santo in the Vengeance of the Mummy • Santo vs Frankenstein's Daughter • Santo and Blue Demon vs Dracula and the Wolfman • Santo and Blue Demon vs DR. Frankenstein) • Santo and Mantequilla Napoles in Vengeance of the Crying Woman

Also the lack of Spanish audio on the VCI set was because of the original rights holder. Here's an interview with the president of VCI about the licensing issues:

Why VCI's SANTO Blu-rays Don't Have Spanish Audio Options (El Enmascarado de Plata) - YouTube

Non-Santo Luchador section:

[El_Fez]

This space was reserved originally for the K/L discs, but since we know who has Evil Brain and The Infernal Men, please enjoy this assortment of El Santo trailers. . . . .

[Show spoiler]

Trailer, El hombre detrás de la máscara - YouTube

El Santo and Blue Demon vs Dracula And The Wolfman - YouTube

El Santo and Blue Demon Vs Doctor Frankestein - YouTube

El Santo Vs Daughter Of Frankestein - YouTube

El Santo vs the Martians - YouTube

Santo vs. Doctor Death (1973) [Vinegar Syndrome Archive Blu-ray Promo Trailer] - YouTube

El Santo In Infraterrestre - YouTube

(yes, that last one was more modern, starring The Son of Santo with Huerta's real life son)

[evilive]

Outstanding news! I grew up watching these flicks as a kid with my parents.

[MadDrZbu]

I couldn't believe it when I saw it on Facebook. This is epic. I can hardly wait to see if they continue the series and such.

[Jobla]

As always, that may depend on how the sales are for the first two titles released.

[El_Fez]

Originally Posted by evilive

Outstanding news! I grew up watching these flicks as a kid with my parents.

I was a latecomer to Santo. It was one night when me and a buddy were at the rental shop on a quest to find a couple of Beer and Pizza Movies for a night in. Neither of us had heard of the series until that evening - and my world has never been the same.

Originally Posted by MadDrZbu

I couldn't believe it when I saw it on Facebook. This is epic. I can hardly wait to see if they continue the series and such.

My eyes initially rolled right over the poster artwork until this morning. I was quite happy to see that pop up in my feed.

Originally Posted by Jobla

As always, that may depend on how the sales are for the first two titles released.

With K/L discs I might be on the fence for, I'll often wait until it pops up in a sale. These ones? Day one, if nothing else but to send a strong message "Hey, I want more please!"

[elsanto]

I'm so happy to see that Kino is releasing these movies.

My obsession began with El Santo when I saw him discussed in the early 90's on the Discovery channel's airing of the Incredibly Strange Film Show (Season 2 had El Santo).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_In...ange_Film_Show

So many interesting filmmakers were discussed in that show.

Viva El Santo!

[HaroldnMaude]

"The masters are in really sad shape, so don't hold your breath"
That has never stopped Kino from putting anything out in the past. I have purchased a bunch of their new releases this year that looked like complete garbage. Most recently the Tony Curtis boxset - Perfect Furlough is in very bad shape & obviously just from the old DVD - didn't stop them.
It is nice to get stuff on blu-ray, but don't get your hopes too high re quality.

[evilive]

Originally Posted by El_Fez

I was a latecomer to Santo. It was one night when me and a buddy were at the rental shop on a quest to find a couple of Beer and Pizza Movies for a night in. Neither of us had heard of the series until that evening - and my world has never been the same.

Best way to watch 'em.

[dcmatthews]

Originally Posted by Jobla

As always, that may depend on how the sales are for the first two titles released.

I'd love to add the more fantasy-tinged films like Santo contra la Invasión de los Marcianos (Santo vs. the Martian Invaders) and Santo contra Los Mujeres Vampiros (Santo vs. the Vampire Women) to my collection; so I may have to buy at least one of these new releases to encourage K/L to release the others.

[silverlakephil]

I will support these releases by purchasing them, sight unseen. My interest in Classic Mexican Cinema was piqued when I purchased the BD-R releases by VCI Entertainment. I'm sure there are tons more that have yet to be released if ever. My only knowledge beforehand was the Luis Bunuel films when he was in Mexico.

[El_Fez]

Originally Posted by HaroldnMaude

"The masters are in really sad shape, so don't hold your breath"
That has never stopped Kino from putting anything out in the past. I have purchased a bunch of their new releases this year that looked like complete garbage. Most recently the Tony Curtis boxset - Perfect Furlough is in very bad shape & obviously just from the old DVD - didn't stop them.
It is nice to get stuff on blu-ray, but don't get your hopes too high re quality.

That's fair enough. Given the overall production of the time, the archive standards of the country, and the general age of the flick, expecting to be blown away by the prints is asking a lot. I'm just hoping for an overall increase of A/V quality from my old Rise Above DVDs from 15 years ago.

At the very least Vs the Evil Brain and Vs Infernal Men never got a DVD release (as far as I remember), so that's a plus right there.

[vertigop1ayer]

Very, very cool news. Aren't these the first two movies? If so, I hope that means they'd just keep dropping them on Blu-ray if they sell well enough.

[HipsterTrash]

Awesome. Just learnt about him being in movies a few weeks ago. Someone in a thread on the Criterion subreddit was suggesting his entire filmography be released there. But it seems like a better fit for Kino.

[Mystic]

It would be cool to see Kino obtain the license to the wonderfully atmospheric and spooky Mexican Horror films from the early '60s that Casa Negra released on DVD about a decade ago. The masters were in excellent shape and the movies looked great on DVD at the time. The titles included:

The Curse of the Crying Woman
The Witches Mirror
The Black Pit of Dr. M
The Man And The Monster

[Telstar]

I was fortunate enough to catch a restored print of SANTO VS THE EVIL BRAIN at a local film society screening a year or so ago and it looked fantastic. The film itself is not nearly as outrageous or purely entertaining as a classic like SANTO VS THE VAMPIRE WOMEN, but still pretty great stuff.

[vertigop1ayer]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

Awesome. Just learnt about him being in movies a few weeks ago. Someone in a thread on the Criterion subreddit was suggesting his entire filmography be released there. But it seems like a better fit for Kino.

Criterion handling it like Zatoichi or Godzilla would be awesome. That said, the Santo series is about the same size as both of those combined, so they'd almost need to do volumes.

[El_Fez]

Originally Posted by vertigop1ayer

Very, very cool news. Aren't these the first two movies? If so, I hope that means they'd just keep dropping them on Blu-ray if they sell well enough.

Yeah, looks like. Assuming Wiki is accurate, Brain and Infernal Men are 1 and 2, both from '61. So only 50 left to go (or 48 left to go, if you disregard the two movies where El Santo appeared just a cameo).

Originally Posted by Mystic

It would be cool to see Kino obtain the license to the wonderfully atmospheric and spooky Mexican Horror films from the early '60s that Casa Negra released on DVD about a decade ago.

I gotta admit that my knowledge of mexican horror is pretty much limited to Santo's movies and Night of Bloody Apes - so I'd gladly pick up some random mexi-horror to expand my horizons.

[Mystic]

Originally Posted by El_Fez

I gotta admit that my knowledge of mexican horror is pretty much limited to Santo's movies and Night of Bloody Apes - so I'd gladly pick up some random mexi-horror to expand my horizons.

The Mexican Horror films from the late '50s to the mid '60s are Mexico's answer to the Gothic horror films produced by Universal Studios in the '30s & '40s. These films are stylish, atmospheric, and moody horror films that appear to almost be homages to the older Universal films. I first saw these films on late night TV back in the late '70s, and have loved them ever since.

Here's a trailer to the Witches Mirror (1960):

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbRH7sKnog0

[brettgallman]

I'm excited about this. To my knowledge, the only decent DVD releases for the Santo movies were in a box set that's now out-of-print. VCI released some too, but without English subtitles. I hope this leads to more because there are a ton of these movies, and it'll bug me to only have some of them in my collection.