BLUE DEMON: DESTRUCTOR OF SPIES (1968) ***

A mad villain kills a noted professor and steals his secret formula for a lethal gas, which he intends to turn loose on the entire world.  Meanwhile, some bad guys pay off Blue Demon’s opponents to kill him in the ring during a tag-team match.  Naturally, he gets the upper hand and handily defeats them.  He is then recruited by a duo of spies to help them take the megalomaniacal villain down.  

Blue Demon:  Destructor of Spies is a groovy Bond-influenced Lucha Libre movie.  It features plenty of cool gadgets you’d expect from a ‘60s spy flick.  There’s a false tooth that contains microfilm, a killer television set, a trumpet that shoots poisoned darts, and a flamethrower ring that also appeared in the sequel, Passport to Death.  I also liked the scene where the bad guy’s henchmen were running around in wetsuits, making them look like Diabolik rip-offs.  

There’s also plenty of Mexican wrestling to go around as Blue Demon has no less than three wrestling matches.  As with most of these films, the bad guys send an assassin to kill Blue Demon in the ring, not once but TWICE.  What makes one assassination attempt different than your typical Blue Demon flick is that the assassin uses a blow dart this time out instead of a sniper rifle.  The fights that take place outside the squared circle occur at a steady clip too (my favorite being the brawl in a funeral home), so there’s plenty of action to go around.

We also get FOUR completely unnecessary musical numbers.  Most of them feature a Beatles knockoff band that pays back-up to the lead singers.  Far and away the most bizarre dance sequence involves two Asian women in gold lame dresses dancing with a booty-shaking marionette.  It’s this level of WTF nuttiness that keeps me coming back to these Mexican wrestling flicks time after time.

It’s not all great.  Whenever Blue Demon isn’t on screen, the picture tends to drag a bit.  At least the scenes with the fetching Maura Monte provide enough eye candy to prevent the doldrums from setting in.  Still, as far as Blue Demon’s solo adventures go, this is one of his best outings.

AKA:  Blue Demon, Spy Smasher.