By Chris Jackson
Enter Santo brings together the first two films starring Rodolfo Guzman Huerta, better known as Mexico’s most famous luchador, El Santo. Produced in parallel in 1958 in Havana at the height of the Cuban Revolution, these films helped kickstart the luchador action movie genre that eventually saw Santo (along with several others) become a genuine folk hero and pop culture icon in his home country. His career didn’t get off to the most promising of starts though, as the two films in this collection demonstrate.
In Santo vs. the Evil Brain, police officer Santo is kidnapped and brainwashed by the evil Doctor Campos, a maniac determined to gain world domination through the use of mind control, while in Santo vs. the Infernal Men, Santo helps the authorities to take down a gang of drug smugglers. The former film is easily the more entertaining of the two, but neither of them could really be considered “must-see” unless you’re a hardcore Santo completist. Due to the two being made at the same time, and probably also courtesy of some severe budget restrictions, a lot of locations and actors appear in both films, making for quite a confusing double bill as the déjà vu creeps in almost immediately when the second film starts. Both are endearingly ropey, with campy sci-fi B-movie plots, shaky camerawork and questionable continuity (watch for extras appearing and disappearing between shots), but the scenes of 1950s Havana are a treat to see, beautifully clear and detailed thanks to a tremendous 4K transfer. Considering the age of the footage, the conditions the films were made under, and the journey that the tapes have probably taken over the last 60 years, it’s held up remarkably well.
The special features, however, are the real high point of this set. “Looking for El Santo” is a 30-minute mini-documentary following Viviana Garcia Besne – granddaughter of the producer of both films – as she spends four days in Havana visiting locations that were used in the films. Viviana returns for a full-length feature, “Perdida”, where she goes into detail about her family and their contribution to both Santo’s movie career and the wider realms of Mexican cinema. Elsewhere, there’s a 10-minute interview with Joaquín Cordero (Evil Brain’s Doctor Campos), and the 30-minute Máscara vs máscara, in which a lucha movie expert called The Killer Film delves into Santo’s wrestling and movie career and the history of Mexican wrestling and lucha movies. Between all of these features, there’s plenty of archive photos and memorabilia, forming a fascinating insight into a world that’s rarely talked about.
Enter Santo contains a couple of entertaining (albeit primitive) main features, backed with some excellent extras. Plus, luchadors running around battering people just looks cool as heck. Fun stuff indeed!
