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Santo
vs.
the Riders of Terror
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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6
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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The
Man in the Silver Mask, El Santo, rides again
—
literally —
in this latest adventure to make it to DVD. This
one's quite a departure from the usual Santo vs.
mad doctors and monsters formula. For one thing
the film takes place entirely in the 1800s, which
means our protagonist must be an ancestor of the
crimefighting luchadore whose adventures
are typically chronicled in these films. (See
Santo in "The Diabolical
Axe" for an explanation of the character's
origins and lineage.) I'm also fairly confident
this is the only western in the history of motion
pictures starring a masked wrestling superhero
in which leprosy is a key element of the plot.
That's right: leprosy.
The peace and quiet
of a remote rural community is shattered when
a group of horribly disfigured lepers, desperate
to escape their prison-like confinement, break
out of a sanitarium. In search of food and supplies
the lepers enter people's homes and take what
they need when the owners run away in fear. (These
scenes are hysterical.) Alarmed townsfolk are
driven to the brink of mob violence when Sheriff
Dario (Armando Silvestri) tells them that, to
prevent the deadly disease from spreading, houses
invaded by the lepers will have to be burned down.
Working with the sanitarium's doctor, the goodhearted
lawman wants only to capture the lepers and return
them for treatment, not kill them. But keeping
a lid on the potentially explosive situation proves
difficult.
Taking advantage
of the crisis is Camerino (Julio Aldama), the
town's resident loudmouth. He and his pals form
a criminal gang and start robbing and killing,
conveniently placing the blame for their activities
on the fugitive lepers. Camerino eventually approaches
the lepers, who are hiding out in a cave, with
a proposition: if they'll help his gang with the
robberies then he'll provide regular deliveries
of food, booze and other essentials. They'll also
split all the loot, which will be stored in the
cave. Sick, desperate men with nothing to lose,
the lepers accept the deal. Of course Camerino
and his compañeros merely want the
lepers as fall guys for their crimes, and eventually
plan to murder them and keep all the booty for
themselves.
So where the heck is el Enmascardo de Plata?
Santo shows up at the 22-minute mark, wrestling
a snake oil salesman's beefy ringer for a 10,000-peso
prize. Naturally Santo wins — he gives the prize
money to some nuns who run an orphanage — then
rides out on his next errand of mercy. Sheriff
Dario has summoned him to help capture the lepers
and return them to the sanitarium before vigilante-minded
citizens make matters worse. Once apprised of
the facts Santo quickly comes to suspect that
the lepers aren't solely responsible for the crime
wave terrorizing the area. Urging the townspeople
to show patience and compassion, he lays a trap
which he hopes will reveal the true culprits.
While the setting of Santo
vs. the Riders of Terror may be different
you can expect the same level of goofy, cheese-encrusted
goodness of other series entries. It's as if Batman
stepped into an episode of Gunsmoke in
which everybody speaks Spanish. The leper angle
is certainly an oddball twist; in the film's opening
they're presented like horror movie zombies, complete
with rotted-flesh makeup appliances, but are later
accorded sympathy in the script. (One of the lepers
even gets a romantic subplot involving the cute
señorita his illness forced him
to leave.)
I was slightly disappointed that Santo does
less brawling in this one. Here, the ass-whuppin'
is almost always mano a mano — there's
no real battle royale with our hero wading into
a squad of henchman as in most of his other adventures.
It may be the Wild West but Santo still prefers
fists and feet as weapons, eschewing the standard
six-gun, though at one point he's given no choice
but to use a rifle and shoot one of the bad guys.
(Merely to wound, of course.) Noble Santo doesn't
ever kill anyone but Riders
still has a fairly high body count courtesy of
its murderous, trigger-happy villain. (Some of
the shootings are actually rather violent for
ostensibly kid-friendly fare.) Thankfully the
dialog — or at least the English translation of
it — is as ludicrous as ever.
I wonder... Did the Lone Ranger ever do any
wrestling?
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Expect much the same as the other discs in Rise
Above's Santo Collection. The fullframe transfer
utilizes a worn and occasionally beat-up print
but is quite watchable. Likewise, this one's also
in the original Spanish with easy-to-read English
subtitles. Translations have gotten progressively
better but there are still occasional errors.
("Will" is often misspelled as the contraction
"we'll" for some reason.)
The extras provided will be familiar to anyone
who already owns any of the other RA discs: the
brief Best of Santo highlight reel, a small
photo gallery, and trailers for Santo
& Blue Demon vs. Dracula & the Wolf Man
and Santo
vs. Frankenstein's Daughter. The informative
liner notes by Mexi-film authority David Wilt
are always a plus. (Note: Though the packaging
lists the film's running time as 91 minutes, it
clocked in at 77 on my player.)
10/20/03
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