Santo In the Treasure of Dracula (1969) review

SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA 1969 aka SANTO EN EL TESORO DE DRACULA

Santo (Santo, El Enmascarado de Plata), Aldo Monti (Dracula), Noelia Noel (Luisa), Carlos Agosti (Dr. Cesar Sepulveda), Alberto Rojas (Perico), Roberto G. Rivera (Dr. Kurr), Jorge Mondragon (Professor Soler), Fernando Mendoza (Professor Van Roth), Guillermo 'Lobo Negro' Hernandez (wrestler)

Directed by Rene Cardona

The short Version: This late 60s Santo flick was originally in color, but for some reason, Rise Above Entertainment was only able to deliver a B/W version. With the level of Gothic atmosphere on display, the monochrome format fits just fine. It's yet another wacky Mexi-horror, this of the Lucha Libre school of absurdity. Santo is more than a wrestler this time out; he's a scientist who has created a time machine with which to go back in time and procure the treasure of Dracula. If only he could go and bring back the alternate sexy version of this production, the world would be a safer place.

Santo, masked wrestler, crime fighter and protector of children everywhere, has added a new profession to his resume; he's now a scientist who has built a time machine. For whatever reason, Rod Taylor wasn't available, so Santo sends Dr. Sepulveda's daughter, Luisa, back to past places instead.

Ending up in 19th century America(?!), Luisa is now part of a Mexican version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. After the Latino bloodsucker makes her his undead bride and co-owner of his vast treasure, Santo (who has been watching the whole thing unfold on his TV monitor) saves Luisa from being staked by Van Roth. Actually, the films editor rescues her by playing the film backwards. This also reverses the effect of Luisa's vampirification (Is that even a word?)

From there, Santo and friends go looking for Drac's tomb to locate his gold via his coveted medallion. How Dracula got to America, but buried in Mexico is never explained (Are they supposed to be in America the entire time?).

Realizing the vampire's ring is also required, a second trip reveals the ring has been stolen! The mysterious gangster, The Black Hood was secretly watching Santo's every move and barters for the medallion by challenging Santo to a match with his son, Atlas. If Santo wins, Black Hood forks over the ring; if Santo loses, then he has to relinquish the medallion. The Silver Masked superhero wins of course, but Black Hood brings Dracula back to life culminating in a big brawny battle above and below Drac's tomb. Yes, it's a battle royal, falls count anywhere, South of the Border Scuffle between Santo, Dracula, Black Hood and his beefcake goons and a last minute interference by Santo's wrestling pals.

Rene Cardona, that prolific director who spit out countless movies like candy being whacked from a pinata, helmed over a dozen masked wrestling movies. These were hugely popular in their native Mexico, but remain curious cult items in America enjoyed by the ragtag few who appreciate their undeniable kitschy charms. By the time he'd gotten around to shooting SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA, there had already been about twenty Santo flicks with Cardona the mastermind behind half a dozen of them.

Judging by the movies of his I've seen, Cardona was disinterested in artistic flourishes. He seemed to prefer a wide eyed fascination towards exploitation brought to motion picture life with an energetic ineptness seldom rivaled anywhere else.

TREASURE OF DRACULA slums it about a third of the time, but the balls out craziness of the plot, like just about all Mexi-Masked Man movies, is enough to make one wonder if they heard the plot synopsis right.

Throughout his career, Santo was always a wrestler; but at any given point during his film career, the fabled Enmascarado de Plata was moonlighting as a crime fighter, a Bond style spy, and in the case of this picture, a scientist! Yes, the Silver Masked One has devised a time machine. However, his intellectual colleagues laugh at his invention.

What's interesting, or not so interesting about this movie is that Santo isn't in it all that much till the halfway mark. This is because Santo claimed a woman was a better suited guinea pig to test his theory in time travel. He never explains this reasoning, but no doubt it's really because writer Alfredo Salazar couldn't come up with a suitable scenario to send Santo instead. So he and his two pals watch precariously from the wrestlers laboratory... sorry, I had a momentary chuckle fit.

Anyways, what makes this sequence so unintentionally humorous is that they're somehow able to see everything that's going on via television set and get so caught up in what they're watching, it's like they're catching a late night viewing of Creature Features.


Santo also gets a goofy, comic relief sidekick here in the form of Perico, a live action Tex Avery cartoon with these enormous glasses.

Some reviewers seem to have a problem with his character, but considering these movies were intended for the entire family (yes, apparently bloody stakings, decapitations and folks being tossed off buildings in various Santo movies were perfectly suitable for the small fry set in Mexico back then), he comes off like a Spanish speaking version of Shaggy from Scooby Doo without the ravenous appetite.

Carlos Agosti will be recognizable to fans of Mexi-horror. He played good and bad guys, two of the most notable being his turn as Count Siegfried Von Frankenhausen from THE BLOODY VAMPIRE (1962) and its surreal sequel INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES (1963). He's also in the typically wacky color Santo flick, SANTO AGAINST FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER (1971) among a slew of others.

Fans may also notice that Santo's fashion sense is different from past episodes. In earlier movies, he was runnin' around in his wrestling spandex and boots and flowing cape seemingly 24/7. By the end of the 60s, he was sporting a suit and tie and saved his wrestling gear for the ubiquitous squared circle confrontation; the one seen here occurring an hour into the feature.

Santo does brawl quite a lot here, though. These plentiful fight scenes in his movies make his career all the more remarkable; that he would go out and sling opponents around and get pummeled in the ring day in and day out and then beat the tar out of stuntmen and take a pounding himself on the sets of movies. Truly, Santo set the standard for famous wrestlers having an equally famous movie career. Even the highly overrated Hulk Hogan was never as popular both in the ring and on movie screens.


Somebody on this movie had a serious crush on fog machines; either that or the crew had a few poker games goin' on between takes. Nearly every scene has some foggy mist creepin' up on ya' in some way or other. There's also a bunch of spooky shots of Dracula peekin' in on potential victims through windows and big rubber bats flyin' in and out of frame.

In addition, Dracula has a harem of vampire women who put in a couple of appearances. Which brings us to what really makes SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA of special interest. All this Gothic ambiance suits the B/W version and makes the film look like it was made much earlier, akin to the fog enshrouded examples of Mexi-horrors from the early 60s.

Towards the end of the decade and into the 70s, some of the Mexi-ploitation movies were having alternate scenes made for export audiences much like their Spanish counterparts. Cardona's NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (1969) is a good example of this.

EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO was an adult version that was presumably intended for international release. Curiously, if this version was never intended for domestic consumption, why even have a Spanish title and poster?

Incidentally, it appears this racy movie, as mysterious as the Enmascarado de Plata himself, was finally exhumed and screened in its color version in Mexico. You can read about it HERE and HERE. Photos exist of the 'muy caliente' female Drac Pack lettin' it all hang out which appears to be all we're ever going to see of this alternate cut.


Rene Cardona continued directing even more wacky Mexi-movies even going so far as to lure his offspring, Cardona Jr. into the filmmaking fold with his own warped sense of movie mania. Cardona Sr. was also responsible for such TV favorites as DOCTOR OF DOOM ([1963]NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES was a remake of this), WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (1964) and WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE MURDEROUS ROBOT (1969). His movies, like so many of the Santo epics, rarely made much sense but were loads of goofy fun.

Never meant to be taken seriously, this is one of the beauties of Mexi-movie madness; they're totally unpredictable and sustain themselves on sheer brainless ingenuity that belies their meager budgets.

SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA isn't one of the best films in the series, but it's ineptly entertaining and to say it has an outrageous premise would be redundant where this genre is concerned.

Also, the movie is only 82 minutes long while the box erroneously lists it as 90 minutes. Those seeking a Santo slugfest could do much worse, but the film is nonetheless important from a historical perspective for its elusive alternate version that has proven to be as difficult to see as these films plots are difficult to figure out.

*Poster images: Google Images*

This review is representative of the Rise Above Entertainment DVD.

The Last Samurai (1974) review

THE LAST SAMURAI 1974 aka OKAMI YO RAKUJITSU O KIRE (THE FIVE WOLVES)

Takahashi Hideki (Sugi Toranosuke), Ogata Ken (Nakamura Hanjiro/Kirino Toshiaki), Taichi Kiwako (Ohide/Hoshuni), Matsuzaka Keiko (Reiko), Kando Masaomi (Iba Hachiro), Saiko Teruhiko (Okita Soji), Tamura Takahiro (Ikemoto Mohei), Tatsumi Ryutaro (Saigo Takamuri), Honami Chikako (Tsuya), Ryunosuke Minegishi (Aizawa Denshichiro)

Directed by: Misumi Kenji

The Short Version: The last production helmed by Kenji SHOGUN ASSASSIN Misumi is quite possibly the man's best work. It's easily the best film of his now legitimately available body of work on North American shores. This exemplary historical account is a sweeping, if somber depiction of the samurai warriors last days before Japan became more westernized upon entering the modern age. Highly dramatic, it contains a generous amount of action scenes that are made all the more exciting from the engaging performances and the melancholic romanticism of Akira Ifukube's brilliant score. Long dormant as an obscure footnote in Jidaigeki cinema, this licensed DVD will hopefully open up a new audience to those who only know the man by his work as the director of the LONE WOLF & CUB series.

Returning home after an eight year absence, Sugi Toranosuke discovers his father has passed away. A sickly boy growing up, Sugi had attempted suicide upon overhearing he was not likely to live past 20; and, because of his sickness, was to be disinherited from the family estate. Rescued from drowning and raised by Ikemoto Mohei, a Shogunate spy, Sugi is taught the ways of the Samurai; later becoming a skilled ronin.

Anxious to put his years of sword training to good use, Sugi is eventually tasked with escorting a Shogunate agent named Reiko to Kyoto. After an attack on the road, they're separated. While searching for her, Sugi meets with his master Ikemoto again. His teacher orders him to return to Edo and start a new life in order to avoid the impending violence of the Satsuma and Choshu rebellions that threaten to topple the declining Tokugawa Shogunate.


While pondering his decision, Sugi meets up with three swordsmen of different schools and backgrounds. One of the men, Iba Hachiro, is Sugi's good friend from Edo. Ignoring Ikemoto's request, Sugi decides to stay in Kyoto and instead of joining his friends in battle, Sugi marries Reiko, but the rampant violence won't allow them peace for long.

Through all the political turmoil, Sugi's friends end up in rival clans and ultimately fight against each other. After years of struggle and senseless loss of life, the Shogunate is no more. The Meiji Period takes hold leading to industrialization and westernized advances that signal the end for the Age of the Samurai. Sugi must now contemplate putting away his sword for good and embracing the impending modernity taking hold in Japan.


Having been the guiding force behind many of the best, and best remembered examples of Chambara cinema, it's naturally fitting that master filmmaker Kenji Misumi would close his directorial career on a film entitled THE LAST SAMURAI (not to be confused with either the 1990 or 2003 films of the same name); especially one as sprawling as this one. Misumi's dramatically gloomy style is clearly in evidence here, aided and abetted by the majestically melancholic cues of Akira Ifukube. The John Williams of Japan, Ifukube's oppressively bleak chords have worked magic for many entries in the immensely popular GODZILLA series, the Kaiju-Chambara crossover series of DAIMAJIN and numerous samurai sagas including a number of the ZATOICHI movies.


A monumentally epic production in every sense of the word, the 'GONE WITH THE WIND' of Jidaigeki (based upon a serialized novel entitled 'That Man' by Ikenami Shotaro) covers so much ground and explores a wealth of diverse characters, the near 3 hour running time is just barely able to contain it all. Broken up into two chapters--"The Passionate Storm" and "The Surging Waves", the proceedings unravel much like a gritty mini-series.

With so much drama involved, a movie entitled THE LAST SAMURAI wouldn't be complete without sword duels. Misumi's movie has an abundance of them (choreographed by Adachi Reichiro) throughout in addition to several large scale battle sequences which shows Japan engaging in increasingly Anglo enhanced styles of warfare.

With Misumi's name attached, some might go into this one expecting violence on the level of the LONE WOLF & CUB series. While there is definitely a lot of violence here, outside of one sequence towards the end (that features an incredible instance of brutality that recalls the end of every episode of VOLTRON), the savagery is never of the comic level of blood-spraying from that iconic samurai series.


Misumi has worked with a great many titans of the genre including such luminaries as Tomisaburo Wakayama (the LONE WOLF series), his brother Shintaro Katsu (the wildly popular ZATOICHI series) and Raizo Ichikawa (the SLEEPY EYES OF DEATH series) among others.

For this film, it's Hideki Takahashi and Ken Ogata. Both men deliver exemplary performances especially the former. His character of Sugi stubbornly follows his sword master much like a doting child would loyally tag alongside their father. Sugi looks to Ikemoto as his father, and much more in fact. Just as he refuses to abandon his master, he likewise refuses to obey him in his wish that Sugi return home and settle down; as opposed to becoming embroiled in samurai bloodshed during Japan's political and societal transition.

Sugi manages to avoid the battlefield, but does draw his sword occasionally. The difference is that it's of a personal level, not one of pride or country. During the finale, Sugi explains this to his longtime friend, Hanjiro when destiny ironically brings them together one last time.


Those mostly familiar with the directors ZATOICHI entries, his LONE WOLF & CUB films, or the abridged, 'Greatest Gore Hits' of SHOGUN ASSASSIN for that matter, will be in for a surprise here. It's as if Misumi knew his time was coming (the man died in September of 1975) and concentrated all his passions and effort into one last production.

Granted, this isn't a film for the rabid kung fu crowd, or for those seeking spurting blood and anti-heroic swordsmen. This is a serious historical account of one of Japan's most oft filmed time periods encapsulated within a near three hour time frame. At least know going in that this is one of those movies where you are going to absorb a lot of information and things you will miss, you will pick up in a second or third viewing.

The DVD supplements go a long way in putting the era and the time period the film is set in into perspective. The notes are simplified and to the point, and not confusing at all. They're really quite helpful in enhancing the experience of watching an epic unfold before your eyes.

A rare and obscure picture known mostly through devoted fan circles, Misumi's THE LAST SAMURAI was an ending in a few ways. It was his last movie and heralded the finality of the jidaigeki as fewer and fewer of them were coming out and even less possessed the magic of those of the earlier decades. Impeccably directed and acted, Misumi's last may quite possibly be his best.

You can purchase this DVD at amazon HERE and at Far East Flix HERE.

This review is representative of the Neptune Media DVD.