‘I want to be the star because I am young, I am beautiful, and I sing better than that.’
A masked serial killer targets actresses at a variety theatre. Unable to apprehend him, the investigating police inspector calls in a silver-masked wrestler to break the case…
It’s another crime-busting assignment for real life, Mexican wrestling legend Santo. René Cardona takes the director’s chair for the first time in the series and co-writes with Rafael García Travesi.
Tensions are running high at the theatre owned by businesswoman Claudia (Emma Arvizu). The show must go on, of course, but after the recent two murders committed by the notorious Strangler, performer Odette (Mayte Carol) has had enough. One last trip alone to her dressing room to change, and then she’s clearing out for good. Unfortunately, the killer’s calling card of a White Gardenia is on her table when she gets there, and one quick swish of a sliding panel later, she’s history. It’s the last straw for Inspector Villegas (Carlos López Moctezuma), who orders the theatre closed and calls in his old friend, Santo.
Before the wrestler can start his investigation, the Strangler recruits some local talent to rub him out and, when that fails, shoots at him with a sniper rifle during a wrestling match. The bullet kills his opponent, Jerry Marcos (Eric del Castillo), the boyfriend of the theatre’s resident bitch, Lilian (Ofelia Montesco). Arvizu’s lawyers have overturned Moctezuma’s court order, and the theatre reopens. On the opening night, the Strangler waits to kill again while Santo and Moctezuma plan to catch him.
It’s Santo: the Musical! Taking obvious inspiration from ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, writer-director Cardona pits the iconic luchador against ‘The Phantom of a Small Variety Theatre’! Skulking backstage in a mask, hat and cape, the killer is already on the job when the film starts, having claimed two victims already, although the film never bothers the audience with details of who they were. The evening’s show is also in progress with Edith Barr belting out some jazz, Montesco giving us a more sophisticated, slinky number, Irene (Begoña Palacios) making a decent stab at Peggy Lee’s ‘Fever’, Javier (Alberto Vázquez) ripping through Tennessee Ernie Ford’s ’16 Tons’ (mainly in English), and a number from the star of the show, Laura (María Duval). In between the songs are a few lines of dialogue, Carol’s quick backstage murder and a couple of brief trips to see Santo in action in the ring!
Once all that’s over, we’re twenty minutes in, and it’s time for Moctezuma to ’round up the usual suspects’ after Carol’s body is found. This scene introduces our leading players; the wonderfully cold-blooded Montesco, her dumb wrestler boyfriend del Castillo, arrogant stage manager Julian Fiorelli (Julián de Meriche), owner Claudia (Arvizu), heartthrob Vázquez and singing sisters Duval and Palacios. Moctezuma doesn’t bother inviting hunchbacked caretaker Guillermo Bravo Sosa to the party, so he just hangs around outside, looking suspicious.
Santo prepares for the case by hanging out in his secret lab and talking to the Inspector on his big-screen TV. However, his hideaway doesn’t seem all that secret, considering the Strangler has his phone number! Perhaps it’s listed in the yellow pages. Our mysterious villain’s long record of dastardly crimes is often mentioned, but no details are provided, so the audience gets no context. His attempts to kill Santo are a little puzzling, too, as the only headway our muscular hero makes in the case is the direct result of these botched attempts on his life. It’s more of a ‘whodunnit’ than anything else, as Santo suspects the Strangler is hiding in plain sight as a member of the theatre company.
A strange development is the sudden appearance halfway through the picture of annoying orphan Milton Ray who pops up from the back seat of Santo’s car and wants the grappler to adopt him! It comes completely out of left field and has almost nothing to do with the rest of the film. What’s weirder is that Santo just agrees to do it, and everything is fixed up in moments. No need to bother with all that pesky official paperwork! Later, the kid even gets to sing ‘Blame It On The Bossa Nova’ on stage at the theatre! It’s baffling until you consider the possibility of a record industry tie-up with the film.
Vázquez, Duval, Barr and Sonora Santanera (a group who perform a song about football!) were all established recording artists in Mexico when the film was made. Vázquez’s label, Musart, is credited in the opening titles and was a major player in the national music industry, distributing many famous recordings from the ‘British Invasion’ of the 1960s, including singles by Manfred Mann, The Animals and the Beatles. The company still exists today. It’s not unusual for Mexican films to feature a song or two, but the sheer number included here suggests a joint financing arrangement of some kind may have been in place.
Over half a century later, production information on Santo’s films is hard to come by. There is even some difficulty in establishing a clear order of the shooting and theatrical release of the entries in the series. Most sources credit this film with a date of 1965, yet it seems more likely that it was made as early as 1963. Curiously enough, the secret lab that appeared in the loose ‘trilogy’ of early films made by director Fernando Curiel in 1961 (but released in 1963!) makes a reappearance here, when it had not featured in the films, which were apparently shot in between. Whatever the truth of it, given the duplication of some of the cast and crew, it’s highly likely that the sequel, ‘Santo vs. The Ghost of the Strangler/Espectro del estrangulador’ (1963), was shot back to back with this one. After all, actor Roberto Cañedo is third-billed here, which makes little sense considering his small role, but he features heavily in the next film.
Cardona was a Cuban national born in Havana in 1905. Due to political unrest in their homeland, his family relocated to New York in 1926. After working as an extra in films, he went to Hollywood and shot its first feature film in the Spanish language. He directed ‘Sombras habaneras’ (1930), wrote it, produced it and took one of the leading roles. In 1932, he moved to Mexico, where he began a dual career as an actor and a director. Over the next half century, he racked up over 100 acting appearances and almost 150 directing credits, mainly in different projects. He first crossed Santo’s path when he unsuccessfully attempted to get the wrestler to star in his own film vehicle ‘El Enmascarado de Plata/The Silver-Masked Man (1954). He began to embrace the fantastical aspects of cinema with ghostly folk tale ‘La Llorona’ (1960) and ‘Doctor of Doom/Las luchadoras contra el médico asesino’ (1963). He would go on to direct nine of Santo’s cinematic adventures and many other horror and science fiction titles before his death in 1988.
It’s an odd mixture, and the musical numbers slow things down considerably, but there are still some good moments for fans of the great man.
Santo will return in ‘Santo vs. The Ghost of the Strangler/Espectro del estrangulador’ (1963).