Mexican wrestling superhero El Santo starred in an astonishing 58 movies during his cinematic career. They exist in a Mondo Bizarro all their own, featuring the masked crimefighter battling mad scientists, mummies, and even Dracula and the Wolf Man when not taking down opponents in the ring. Santo Contra La Invasion De Los Marcianos ("Santo Vs. The Martian Invasion") is one of the goofiest — and consequently fun — of Santo's many screen adventures. VCI brings it to DVD in a stunning original language edition that's sure to please his legion of fans on both sides of the border.
    Crewing a toy spaceship that makes noises cribbed from Forbidden Planet, a platoon of shirtless, spandex-wearing Martians with long blond hair land in Mexico. Their aim is to force the nations of Earth to renounce war and atomic experimentation or suffer the consequences. The invaders announce their presence by cutting in on a TV broadcast. Unfortunately no one takes them seriously... believing instead that the Martians' ultimatum was some kind of comedy skit! To demonstrate their power the aliens decide to kill a bunch of Earthlings. Using teleportation belts, a pair of Martians materializes at a sporting field, where (stock footage of) a big bicycle race is occurring. Santo happens to be giving a wrestling demonstration to a group of kids there. The Martians rather cold-bloodedly start disintegrating hundreds of people with the Astral Eye, a blinking eye-shaped light built into their helmets. Santo is stunned when some of the kids he's instructing are vaporized before his eyes. (To tell the truth, so was I!) Springing into action, our hero puts a number of wrestling moves on the Martians who are forced to beat a hasty retreat via their teleportation belts. (Which, by the way, make a ridiculous "boing!" sound effect when used.) While the authorities put out cover stories to avert panic, Santo consults with yet another scientist pal of his, the esteemed Prof. Onorico (Manuel Zozaya), in a search for possible countermeasures. The Martian commander, Argos (Wolf Ruvinskis), orders the kidnapping of various Mexican nationals and the capture of the "extraordinary" Santo for eventual dissection back on Mars. The Man in the Silver Mask thwarts them time and again, even when busty Martian babes are dispatched to seduce him. The physically strongest of the aliens pulls a switcheroo with one of his wrestling opponents (the Undead tried the exact same thing in Samson Vs. The Vampire Women), and is even able to — gasp! — remove Santo's mask in the ring. (Don't worry; our hero's cleverly wearing a spare underneath.) Santo reasons that his best chance of defeating the Martians is to gain possession of one of their belts and locate the hidden spaceship. He stages a wrestling bout in a deserted arena, hoping the Martians will appear and challenge him.
    Santo Contra La Invasion De Los Marcianos is as silly as all get-out — what else could you expect from a low budget Mexican sci-fi wrestling flick? If you've seen any other Santo adventures then you know what I mean. Despite the ludicrous plot and costumes, plus the fact that it's basically a kiddie movie to begin with, everything is played in deadly earnest, with straight faces throughout. El Santo makes for a great, stalwart good guy. He's the type of superhero who relaxes at home in costume, shown reclining on his bed reading a book while decked out in full wrestling regalia. You can't but help rooting for him in his battle to save Earth. (In his fifties by the time of filming, Santo's still in great shape but a bit slower here than in earlier pics, certainly less energetic. Some of the wrestling bouts in this one can get a bit dry.)
    I have to admit, though, that the Santo films are the rare instances when I prefer dubbed versions to the original Spanish. Goofy fun in any language, we nonetheless missed the often hysterical dub work done for the Santo flicks imported for American TV in the '60s by K. Gordon Murray. (In which Santo is re-named "Samson".)

VCI's release of Santo Contra La Invasion De Los Marcianos on DVD is undeniably the most deluxe treatment a Santo film has ever received for home video. The slightly letterboxed print is in nearly pristine shape, an immense improvement over the 16mm dupes used for BWF's two Santo discs, Samson In The Wax Museum and Samson Vs. The Vampire Women. The original Spanish language track sounds remarkably good. And in a commendable move, the film and included supplements are presented in a way that's user-friendly to both Spanish and English-speaking viewers. Upon loading, the disc defaults to the Spanish language menu. Clicking on the American flag at the bottom right of the screen loads the English menu, which automatically enables all spoken audio with easy-to-read English subtitles.
    A plethora of Extras are provided. Prof. Juan Carlos Vargos of Mexico's University of Guadalajara provides informative audio essays on both El Santo and costar Ruvinskis (himself a popular Mexican TV star) which are accentuated with numerous movie stills. Santo also merits a separate essay on his extensive filmography utilizing posters and lobby cards. The masked El Hijo del Santo (the "Son of Santo") speaks on camera for a 30 minute interview discussing not only the career of his illustrious father but his own donning of the silver mask, in 1982, to follow in his footsteps.
    The original theatrical trailer to Santo Contra La Invasion De Los Marcianos is also included — one of the Martians is played by a Mexican wrestler actually billed as "El Nazi" — along with trailers to three other Mexifilms... which, unfortunately, have nothing to do with wrestling. (One's a singing cowboy-soap opera kind of thing, apparently.) All of these trailers are in marvelous shape, including Santo's; I really wish the others had been previews of wrestling-fanstasy adventures as well. But that's just nitpicking. Based on this terrific disc, I sincerely hope that Kit Parker Films, via VCI, will bring even more Santo films to DVD in the future. 3/07/02