As
with most of the El Santo movies I watch, Anonymous Death Threat did not come
with the benefit of subtitles. I think
the plot was simple enough to follow though.
Random citizens receive anonymous death threats just before they are
murdered in broad daylight. The detectives
on the case are puzzled, so they call on El Santo to help. After nearly being killed in the ring, he
does some investigating and finds out it’s all the work of Nazis!
Anonymous
Death Threat isn’t as much fun as the majority of El Santo’s output, mostly
because he doesn’t fight any monsters. I
guess you can argue that the Nazis were the worst monsters of all. I won’t dispute that claim, but the truth of
the matter is, El Santo movies work best when he’s fighting stuntmen covered in
fake hair, vampire capes, or paper Mache make-up. While it is cool to see everyone’s favorite
Mexican wrestler duking it out with goose-stepping Gestapo agents, you have to
wait until the film is halfway over before they’re even revealed as the
villains. Until then, it’s kind of a
slog.
The
early scenes are the slowest. In fact,
you have to wait a while before El Santo is even introduced in this one. The long stretches featuring his sidekick
Pablo and his girlfriend are particularly dull.
At least Sasha Montenegro makes a memorable impression as the raven-haired
beauty in league with the Nazis.
Although
El Santo’s scenes are far and away the best in the movie, they lack the punch
of his best work. The action sequences
are few and far between (and mostly take place in cramped quarters like
janitor’s closets and dark hallways) and there are only two wrestling matches in
the film. The highlight of course, is
his match with El Nazi, who has swastikas on his boots. Naturally, an assassin tries to kill El Santo
with a sniper rifle and accidentally kills his opponent instead. (Just like in Santo vs. the Strangler.)
AKA: Santo in Anonymous Death Threat.
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