‘As the chief of our organisation, I would like to say that our plan for world domination will proceed.’
After duplicating U.S. currency plates whilst in transit, a secret organisation plans to wreck the world economy by flooding the market with millions of new bills. A team of two top secret agents are assigned the task of foiling the scheme and taking down the villainous group once and for all…
This week’s ‘Bond On A Budget’ is none other than the legendary Mexican wrestler and part-time monster hunter, Santo! Yes, the ‘Man in the Silver Mask’ is tangling with guns, girls and gadgets under the father and son directing team of René Cardona and René Cardona Jr.
A top secret criminal organisation set on world domination meet in a conference room overlooking Hong Kong Harbour. The Chief (Miguel Gómez Checa) outlines their latest plan; steal government currency plates while they’re being moved by armoured van and replace them with duplicates. The market can then be flooded with new, apparently genuine bills, while the authorities are left with counterfeit plates. The heist goes just as planned, and the distribution of wealth is assigned to top agent Ruth Taylor (Elizabeth Campbell) and her sinister sidekick Sadomi Suki (Noé Murayama). They assemble a team of 13 top agents, allocate each a large quantity of money to spread around and keep in touch with them via special communication devices.
However, Interpol has cottoned onto the scheme, sending top agents Santo and Jorge Rubio (Jorge Rivero) into the field. The villains attempt to kill both of them almost before they can get started, but Santo fights off a trio of well-armoured goons while Rivero shoots down a small plane with the bazooka he keeps handy in the boot of his car. Multiple further attempts follow, but the duo escape unscathed, even gaining a vital clue by capturing one of the wristwatch communicators and turning it over to their scientists for analysis. While waiting for the report, their boss introduces them to a foreign correspondent who wishes for an interview. As it’s a beautiful woman, Rivero takes charge of the situation, little knowing that the journalist is actually Campbell in disguise.
The world-conquering James Bond phenomenon really took off with ‘Goldfinger’ (1964), prompting a plague of wannabe 007’s running around the glamorous capitals of continental Europe, chasing supervillains, secret weapons and beautiful women, if not necessarily in that order. Spy games were suddenly a hot ticket, and it was inevitable that the trend would spread to other parts of the film world, although they never caught on elsewhere as much as they did in Europe. The Mexican film industry created a few examples, but the most notable were those in Santo’s Extended Cinematic Universe.
It’s clear from the get-go that more resources than usual were thrown at the great man’s first venture into the espionage world. For a start, he’s appearing for the first time in glorious colour. Not Technicolor, you understand, but colour all the same. As the titles roll, he fights men in business suits with machine guns who pirouette against a plain scarlet backdrop. It’s a stab at a Bond credit sequence without a trace of the originals’ style, expertise or confidence. After that, we’re into the heist of the bank plates, a surprisingly effective sequence where the prize is swapped between armoured vans by motorcycle after being duplicated via baking in some kind of a psychedelic microwave oven! The scene is entirely wordless, which evokes memories of Jules Dassin’s celebrated opening to ‘Riffifi’ (1955). However, the lack of dialogue was likely due to technical limitations rather than artistic choice.
The most surprising aspect of the film is the presence of Rivero. Rather than being relegated to sidekick status, as often happened to Blue Demon and other associates in Santo’s adventures, he’s clearly an equal partner. His presence is a little curious, but it may have been down to one of the main requirements of the Bond template: sex. Sure, Santo’s no slouch with the ladies and his credentials are firmly established by his introduction here as he lounges on the beach with a girlfriend. Of course, he keeps his mask on (no need for sunscreen), and, in a nice gag, the location is revealed to be the patio of the cool pad he shares with Rivero. No, the issue is that Santo’s far too much of a gentleman to play the field, hang around in iffy nightclubs ogling naked dancers and go all ‘From Here to Eternity’ in the surf with villainess Campbell. That’s Rivero’s job.
The romance between Campbell and Rivero is perhaps the silliest thing in the film. It arrives without warning in the film’s last fifteen minutes, is apparently genuine (at least on Campbell’s part), and serves little purpose in the story. It does provide the chance to see Campbell rising from the waves in a bikini like Ursula Andress and see some footage of Rivero with his shirt off, not that there’s been any shortage of that! Still, I guess it looked good in the trailer. Elsewhere, there’s also some fun with the wristwatch communicators, which are ‘welded’ to the wearer’s arm, apparently with a naked flame! They do come off quickly when the plot requires, though, and also allow Campbell and Noe to keep tabs on disloyal employees, frying them with a burst of fiery sparks when they get out of line.
As usual, the constant attempts to kill our heroes provide them with the clues they need to break the case. After all, Santo and Rivero weren’t getting anywhere on their own. Their brilliant plan revolved around the certainty that some of the gang would put their funny money into circulation by betting on major sporting events, specifically, the tag-team bout in which they are due to take part! This does seem to be a somewhat peculiar strategy, but it does work, so who’s to judge? It also allows the directors to feature some wrestling, which is far more important.
The increased production values also help, as Santo drives a silver, open-top sports car, which boasts built-in machine guns and a flame thrower as an optional extra. The filmmakers also had access to a private plane and a helicopter, which livens up the chase sequences. There’s also some full-frontal nudity, courtesy of Midori Nagashiro’s nightclub dance dressed as a Geisha Girl. This was a first for a Santo film, although the great man isn’t in attendance to see such an unseemly display, of course. But it’s a sign that the series was beginning to target an older audience, which would be reflected in some later entries.
For all the greater ambition on display, though, things are let down by the climax, which comes over as terribly rushed and is little more than a short gun battle on a cramped set. Of course, it would be unrealistic to expect hundreds of extra swarming of a massive secret base in a volcano, but it’s still quite a letdown. Unusually, the film has a direct sequel, with Santo and Rivero taking on the same criminal organisation in ‘The Treasure of Montezuma/El Tesoro de Moctezuma’ (1968). Rivero carried on solo in the secret agent business as Jorge Rubio in ‘Alerta, alta tensión’ (1969).
Although American by birth, Campbell appeared almost exclusively in Mexican cinema, finding national recognition as the Golden Rubi, one of the ‘Wrestling Women’ in the popular series that also starred Lorena Velásquez. More leading roles followed, including ‘The Chinese Room’ (1968) for producer Albert Zugsmith and one of the few other Mexican ‘Eurospy’ entries ‘Peligro…! Mujeres en Acción/Danger Girls’ (1969). She left the country to pursue her career in New York and dropped off the radar completely.
Rivero’s handsome looks, excellent physique and easy-screen personality eventually landed him a plumb role opposite John Wayne in Howard Hawks’ ‘Rio Lobo’ (1970). Later, he co-starred with Cha Elton Heston and James Coburn in ‘The Last Hard Men’ (1976), but his star faded quickly, and by the start of the next decade, he was top-lining Lucio Fulci’s dreary sword and sorcery adventure ‘Conquest’ (1983). Other less-than-inspiring projects followed, such as the undistinguished action flick ‘Goma-2/Killing Machine’ (1985), which co-starred Lee Van Cleef, and ‘Fist Fighter’ (1988) with Mike Connors. He carried on working through the 1990s on similar projects for the home video rental market.
This is one of Santo’s more technically accomplished and well-presented features, but there’s not enough of a budget to mount anything very memorable.
Santo will return ‘El Tesoro De Moctezuma’/The Treasure of Montezuma’ (1968).