Los campeones justicieros (1970) review

LOS CAMPEONES JUSTICIEROS 1970 (THE CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE)

Blue Demon (himself), Mil Mascaras (himself), El Medico Asesino (The Killer Doctor/himself), Alejandro Cruz (The Black Shadow), Tinieblas (Darkness/himself), La Sombra Vengadora (The Avenging Shadow/himself), David Silva (Dr. Zarkoff/Black Hand), Elsa Cardenas (Elsa)

Directed by Federico Curiel

The Short Version: Before THE AVENGERS movie, there was THE CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE. Five of Mexico's biggest wrestling stars engage a mad scientist and his superhuman, machine gun totin' midget militia in a neverending string of action set pieces. Just like the action, the jazzy soundtrack seldom slows down. Beautiful girls, some explosions, and slicker production values than usual enhance this lively, absolutely bonkers, low budget Bondian piece of Lucha madness. 

Dr. Marius Zarkoff, alias Black Hand, seeks revenge against The Champions of Justice for putting him in prison five years earlier. The Champions are a five man team of wrestlers that fight evil when they're not battling opponents in the ring. To see his vendetta through, Black Hand creates an army of superhuman midgets he uses to kidnap the Goddaughters of the Champions -- all of whom are beauty contest participants -- in addition to setting a variety of traps for our heroes. Zarkoff eventually captures one of the Justice members and takes control of his mind. The rest of the Champions battle their way to Zarkoff's hideout for a final showdown.

Prolific Mexican director Curiel is often reliable in delivering shoestring entertainment that satisfies its core audience; other times, not so much. Thankfully, this is among the man's best efforts. LOS CAMPEONES JUSTICIEROS is also one of the best of the Lucha canon, and appears to have been granted something resembling a budget. Make no mistake, it's still an impoverished affair, but rarely has mediocrity been this ingeniously rewarding. 

The action sequences are (moderately) varied as opposed to having the heroes and villains slug it out in the same locales over and over again; cars and boats are blown up, which is unusual for this sort of thing. The heroes drive motorcycles, as well as their own signature vehicles that only adds to spice up their personalities. If nothing else, this Mexican 'Justice League' is ambitious well beyond its means.

For this genre, wrestling is an integral factor to the success of these pictures. There's often at least two, but for this first entry in the trilogy, there's only one wrestling match, and that's at the very beginning. Oftentimes these matches have no impact on the plot, but sometimes are integrated into the storyline. The one that opens LOS CAMPEONES JUSTICIEROS seems like it's the former, but turns out to be the latter when one of Black Hand's peewee perpetrators attempts to assassinate three of our heroes with a machine gun!

Blue Demon (real name Alejandro Munoz Moreno) was a hugely popular Lucha star; not worshiped to the level of the one and only Santo, but his popularity was on par with that of El Enmascarado De Plata; as was a long standing rivalry between the two that began with the unmasking of Blue's then partner, Black Shadow in 1952. Making his first wrestling appearance in 1948 in Laredo, Texas, Moreno made his way back to Mexico where he adopted the famous Blue Demon persona. On September 25th, 1953, Blue defeated El Santo, and his career skyrocketed from there. In 1964, Blue began a film career that spanned 25 films (a little under half of the number Santo starred in); 27 if you count his first two minor roles. Blue retired from the spotlight in 1989. He died from a heart attack on December 16th, 2000 while coming home from a gym. He was 78 years old.

Mil Mascaras (real name Aaron Rodriguez) is among the biggest, most popular Mexican wrestlers in history. His legendary status is due in no small part to his crossing borders around the world cementing his name in the United States and Japan to name two. Debuting in 1964 as Ricardo Duran, he was spotted by Valente Perez, a magazine owner who was looking for a man to fill the mask of a new Lucha character. On July 16th, 1965, Ricardo Duran had officially become Mil Mascaras, or Thousand Masks. Mil was voted Most Popular Wrestler in American wrestling publications in the 1970s. In 1966, he began a film career that prospered till 1977 with 14 movies. Between 1980 and 2010, Mil starred in 5 more pictures, and counting. Clarifying in a 1977 interview, Mil has stated he will unmask upon his retirement. At 74 years old, Thousand Masks is still wrestling today. 

At 6'3", Tinieblas (Darkness) earned his subtitle, El Gigante. He debuted in the ring shortly after he made his big-screen debut in this film. Despite his imposing size and bodybuilder status, Darkness never got a film series of his own, but did co-star with virtually all the big names within a ten year span. His last two pictures were with Lucha cinema king, El Santo. Like the Saintly one, Darkness was popular enough to garner his own comic book series that outlasted his film career. Under his real name, Manuel Leal, the giant played Satan in the classic smash THE MUMMIES OF GUANAJUATO (1970). His nicknames were El Gigante Sabio (The Wise Giant) and Captain Adventure. Like many Luchas, his son carries on the Darkness tradition. Tinieblas, Sr. retired from the ring May 21st, 2011 at 72 years of age.

El Medico Asesino of CHAMPIONS was not the same as the original Killer Doctor (Dr. Wagner, real name Manuel Gonzalez Rivera), who was the star of 1952 movie THE MAN IN THE SILVER MASK; a role turned down by Santo (and one he accepted in 1958 leading to a famous series of 52 films). Gran Markus, the Killer Doctor (real name Juan Chavarria Galicia) began his professional wrestling career in 1963 as Doctor Markus, and teamed with the original Medico Asesino some time later. Like Mil Mascaras, Gran Markus wrestled in America; particularly in the once thriving Texas organization, World Class Championship Wrestling teaming with Gino Hernandez. His film career began in 1969 where he was a stuntman in SANTO & BLUE DEMON VS. THE MONSTERS (1970). His onscreen debut as The Killer Doctor started with CHAMPIONS in 1970. died at 64 on November 15th, 2007 from diabetes.

Alejandro Cruz Ortiz began wrestling at 19, but didn't go under the mask as The Black Shadow (above at left) till 1947. At that time, Black Shadow teamed with Blue Demon, begetting an intense rivalry with Santo; this culminated in a 70 minute match wherein Black Shadow lost both the match, and his mask. He was famous for his versatility, and fathering some of the sports most famous tropes like high-flying maneuvers. Despite losing his mask, Ortiz's career never slowed down. He supplemented his wrestling career with one on the Silver Screen appearing in numerous Santo films as a wrestler. He wore his mask in CHAMPIONS, and even played Blue Demon's doppelganger in SANTO & BLUE DEMON VS. THE MONSTERS (1970). Ortiz passed away March 8th, 2007 from pneumonia at 82 years of age.

The Avenging Shadow (also listed as the Shadow Avenger) is a movie character created by producer Luis Manrique, and played by Fernando Oses in four movies all from 1954, and directed by Rafael Baledon. The character appeared again in at least two films in the 1960s. LOS CAMPEONES JUSTICIEROS was the last onscreen appearance of The Shadow Avenger. Oses was a well-rounded talent, not only as a wrestler and an actor, but also as a prolific writer, producer and director. Onscreen he mostly played bit parts as wrestlers, or henchmen of the bad guys; and on some occasions, the main antagonist like the vampire BARON BRAKOLA (1965). Oses had a rugged look about him, and his matches with El Santo were some of the best, often most brutal matches seen in Lucha cinema. The Man of a Thousand Talents, Fernando Oses, died May 2nd, 1999.

Another popular wrestler Rayo de Jalisco (Lightning from Jalisco) wore an almost identical outfit for his in-ring persona, and took the place of the Avenging Shadow in the two sequels, VUELVEN LOS CAMPEONES JUSTICIEROS and EL TRIUNFO LOS CAMPEONES JUSTICIEROS.

Black Hand (not to be confused with the wrestler of the same name) is your typical mad scientist that crops up in these movies, virtually interchangeable from the last. Where Zarkoff differs is in his small army of midgets (redundant, ain't it?). These are no ordinary half-pints, mind you. They dress all in red, wear capes, and have an 'M' emblazoned on their chest. These lethal little people have been scientifically enhanced with the strength of ten hombres. Your jaw will hit the floor when you see agitated midgets beating the hell out of Blue Demon, Mil and the rest. There's also some spectacular dummy moments where the heroes show off their midget tossing skills.

Much like the Italian sword and sandal movies during their declining years, midgets were a popular plot device in Mexican genre pictures. It made sense considering midget wrestling matches were always crowd pleasing attractions around the world in the sport of professional wrestling. It gets hysterical watching the wrestlers having to bend down in some way so the hyperactive halflings can Karate chop them. The little guys get to strut their stuff a lot in this one.

Much of the fun factor of CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE is due to some glaringly ridiculous, brain-dead moments; some of these include The Killer Doctor and Tinieblas on a boat wired to explode. For some unexplained reason, they never notice the explosives in plain sight just to the right of them. Apparently watching the bikini clad Elsa Cardenas on water skis was too much of a distraction. Another perplexing scene has our maniacal Lilliputians shooting ray guns that emit flame, but instead of setting the target on fire, it freezes them instead.

Federico Curiel has been so prolific in Mexican cinema, his name bears mentioning twice. The man's hand guided numerous Mexican genre pictures from the Nostradamus vampire quartet, and several Lucha films of varying entertainment value; one of which was the biggest Lucha hit of them all, the aforementioned THE MUMMIES OF GUANAJUATO (1970). He helmed the first sequel to CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE, VUELVEN LOS CAMPEONES JUSTICIEROS (1972) while Rafael Lanuza took the reigns of the third, and final entry, EL TRIUNFO DE LOS CAMPEONES JUSTICIEROS (1974).

Fans of masked wrestler pictures will get more than their money's worth from this one. The box office smash from 1970, THE MUMMIES OF GUANAJUATO gave you three Luchas, this one gives you five in a typically nutty adventure packed with mad scientists, midgets, and mucho acciones.

This review is representative of the Brentwood/BCI DVD.

Reel Bad Cinema: Blue Demon y Zovek en La invasion de los muertos (1973) review

BLUE DEMON Y ZOVEK EN LA INVASION DE LOS MUERTOS 1971 (BLUE DEMON & ZOVEK IN THE INVASION OF THE DEAD)

Professor Zovek (himself), Blue Demon (himself), Christa Linder (Erika), Raul Ramirez (Professor Bruno Volpi), Carlos Cardan, Polo Ortin

Directed by Rene Cardona, Sr.

The Short Version: Cardona's bonkers Lucha-monster mess was the second, and last for the Incredible Professor Zovek: amazing feat expert, and escape artist extraordinaire who was killed performing an aerial stunt during a break in filming. Blue Demon was then tasked with stretching the running time out to 81 absolutely insane minutes. An attempt at a plot description is futile for this rotting corpse of a film -- nothing makes any sense whatsoever. Some striking shots of the zombies en mass are the worthiest moments found in what is easily one of the worst such movies through no fault of its own. If you ever wondered what PLAN 9 meets NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in Mexico would look like, and you have an unusually high threshold for pain, then add this to your masochistic movie list. Zovek clunkily kung fu's his way through an ever growing army of zombies that drive cars and fly helicopters while being chased cross country for 40 minutes with the stunning Christa Linder in tow. THRILLER this ain't.

Professor Zovek's services are called upon by an archeologist to decipher some strange markings on a rock formation near his ranch that turn out to be a Tibetan prophecy! Fireballs inexplicably crash into the Earth, one of which being a smoking spaceship landing out in the desert. In an apparent plan to conquer the Earth, the aliens (whom we never see, but only hear about) command the dead to rise after a rain storm and attack random people. Meanwhile, Blue Demon gets reports of UFO's and headless corpses (again, we never see), while communicating (not really) with Zovek from his top secret boiler room command center about the situation. Zovek battles the zombies while Blue Demon, showing up late to the party, dukes it out with a couple of werewolves that appear out of nowhere.

It's a terrible shame that Zovek's second, and last motion picture is such a monumental mess. The potential for an enjoyable nights entertainment on a level matching the first movie falls apart almost immediately. It's made all the more devastating that the star, a larger than life character in the real world, the Incredible Zovek was killed during a break in the production. How ironic that after overcoming obstacles that would have immobilized the average human being, one of Mexico's national heroes of the 70s would die under such shocking, mysterious circumstances. But before we get into more about Zovek, the man, let's look at his movie; or what little of it there is to discuss.

When it comes to Rene Cardona, Sr., it's a coin toss as to what sort of movie you're going to get -- a good or bad one. It's more often the latter than the former, and in this case, the latter it is. His sequel to his own THE INCREDIBLE PROFESSOR ZOVEK (1972) starts off on a perplexing note with a portion of a quote from Genesis 22:17 accompanying a narrator in 50s SciFi mode, "...as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore". Apparently this biblical passage correlates to "planting the seeds of the dead"; or cultivating them, perhaps? Dozens of dead people -- with little to no sign of decomposition -- rise from their graves after a rain storm (acid rain?) in what will instantly recall THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985). Sadly, no 'Party Time' from 45 Grave blares on the soundtrack, but you will hear it playing in your head. From there it's one long chase sequence, and an uphill climb to find something good to say about it.

At its heart, Rene Cardona, Jr's script is a remake of Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959). Yes, you read that right. I guess if you're going to remake a movie, it's best to do a version of one that has a comparable budget and equally atrocious special effects. Unfortunately, there's no Tor Johnson, Vampira, Dudley Manlove, or excessive use of the word 'there'. Unlike Blue Demon's equally awful, yet entertaining ARANAS INFERNALES (HELLISH SPIDERS) from 1966 (which actually uses "special effects" footage from PLAN 9 and TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE), we never even see the damn aliens; just a fireball rolling down a hill at the beginning (that's never explained), and another fireball that actually plummets to the Earth housing a circular shaped UFO.

It would seem this second Zovek feature (of a nine picture deal) was shot at the same time as the first movie. The sequence where we see the Professor perform a stunt is done on the same set with the same crowd as before. You even see the water tank at the right of the frame. This time Zovek pulls off his most famous escape -- strapped inside a straightjacket, bound from head to toe with chains and leather belts, he's placed inside an Egyptian coffin which is then set aflame. It's been written that times he'd performed this stunt live on television, he'd not come away unscathed resulting in a trip to the hospital.


Into a life with such widespread popularity, a little scandal must fall. Sometime in 1971, the Professor became embroiled in rumors of involvement with training a government paramilitary group dubbed The Wolves. Nothing ever came of it, but the worst was yet to come. Zovek may have escaped Polio, and a number of dangerous scenarios, but fate caught up with him on March 10th, 1972 during a break in the filming of LA INVASION DE LOS MUERTOS. 

Notoriety outside of Mexico seemed to have eluded Zovek, but he did attract a lot of attention in Japan. Several days prior to going there for a television appearance on a Japanese stunt show, Zovek was to reportedly help out a friend's circus by performing a stunt while hanging from a helicopter. Some 4,000 people had converged on the grounds to watch the spectacular arrival of Zovek from high in the air -- descending from a rope. Suddenly the helicopter maneuvered upward and spun around. Zovek hung on, but eventually lost his grip and fell 200 feet to his death. With massive fractures all over his body including his skull and chest, doctors were unable to save him. Mexico's famous fitness guru, strongman, escape artist died on March 10th, 1972, a little over a month before his birthday. He was only 31 years old.

According to Spanish source materials, many questions were asked regarding Zovek's death -- whether something more sinister was behind this seemingly suspicious accident. Apparently the stunt had been rehearsed without problems prior to the fateful day. The pilot, Arroyo Merino, allegedly had some unflattering points against his flying record, but he was later cleared. In a chilling bit of irony, Zovek flies a helicopter in the picture, and is chased by a zombie flying one (Merino was flying the rotocraft in the film). 

As for Zovek's two films in an all too short celluloid career, both pictures were shot in 1971. The first, THE INCREDIBLE PROFESSOR ZOVEK, premiered in Mexico on May 13th, 1972, approximately two months after his death. INVASION OF THE DEAD premiered in Mexican theaters on June 21st, 1973.

The Professor had four children, and his youngest, Zovek Carrillo Chapa, took up his father's mantle as a death defying feats performer. The legend of Professor Zovek carries on.

Losing the main star was a major blow, and the resultant film rarely makes sense, and is often as inert as its living dead. The bulk of the footage for INVASION OF THE DEAD was shot. Even without Blue Demon's scenes, the entire film is basically all there. It's just not filmed very well with a budget that looks far less than what was afforded the first time around (and even that was pretty low). Cardona's direction is unimaginative. The action is limited to chases and scenes of "zombies" choking people who then come back to life. Makeup is limited, and in most cases, the living dead look like normal people walking around. The inclusion of the monster from the first film, alongside a burlier, hairier werewolf-looking man is never explained at all. Curiously, the previous movie had cannibalistic midgets; and yet the filmmakers waste a perfect opportunity for flesh-eating ghouls in this one. Obviously, since Blue Demon was brought aboard to salvage the picture, his scenes connecting the Zovek sequences recalls those God-awful Godfrey Ho ninjer movie mix-n-match crapfests that garnered a minor degree of popularity over the years.

It would be interesting to know how Blue Demon felt about appearing in this nonsensical mishmash of elements -- none of which gel in a manner resembling cohesiveness. That's not to say the Demon hadn't done his share of dreck, but Blue's inclusion offers nothing aside from making the movie even more confusing. He does very little till the conclusion. His comedy relief sidekick offers some minor intentional laughs when he pretends to be a zombie to avoid becoming one for real! Things just happen, or go on too long.Why do we need five minutes of the rancher stalking a mountain lion before stumbling onto the markings on the rock?

On the bright side, there's some nicely eerie location shots in this remote village that raise a BLIND DEAD vibe, and the sequence where Zovek ends up in a potentially dangerous situation with river rapids yields some nice shots of waterfalls.

German model and actress Christa Linder is extremely easy on the eyes. She never fights in this movie like her predecessor Tere Velazquez, resigned to damsel in distress status. She's one of the best things about the picture, and there's not many where INVASION OF THE DEAD is concerned.

In reading a quote from Cardona regarding his work on this production, it would seem he was trying to create an atmosphere comparable to INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) -- that anyone could be one of the invading monsters and you'd never know it. In a very small way (and this reviewer is being generous), he succeeds, but fails 98% of the time. Arguably the best thing to be said is that LA INVASION DE LOS MUERTOS makes you want to watch the better movies it riffs off of. By itself it's definitely a tough sell even by Mexican genre standards. Recommended only for curiosity seekers, Zovek fans, and hardcore Mexi-movie completists.

This review is representative of the RTC/Televisa DVD. There are no English options.