GRAVE ROBBERS (1966) ***

A mad doctor is going around robbing graves and performing experiments on dead bodies.  He wants to bring them back to life, but soon determines they are far too weak to resurrect.  He reasons he needs a resilient and strong specimen if his experiment is to be a success.  Naturally, he sets his sights on El Santo for his next experiment.  When the attempt on El Santo’s life fails, the mad doctor sets a trap for him by kidnapping his friends.  

The scarred doctor doesn’t work alone.  He has team of informants who keep him up to date with El Santo sightings.  (One even pretends to be a flamboyant hairdresser!)  He also has the power to turn ordinary everyday objects into death traps.  Of the film’s three musical numbers, two are interrupted by the villain’s creations.  One hip-shaking dance number ends abruptly when the strings of a violin attack its musician, flies out of his hands, and spontaneously combusts!  Gina Romand’s big number is also cut short when her wig comes to life and tries to kill her!  The sight of a flopping killer wig running around like a mini Cousin It is one I won’t soon forget, and its demise is equally memorable.  (El Santo stomps on it and blood gushes out.)    

On the wrestling side of things, we get two matches.  The first one contains a surprising show of sportsmanship as El Santo’s opponent embraces him after being defeated.  This is a nice change of pace as his opponents are usually trying to kill him.  Which is exactly what happens during the second wrestling match.  The doctor’s hunchbacked assistant Igor injects El Santo’s opponent with a serum that drives him crazy in the ring.  He soon leaps into the audience, causing panic, before dying in the dressing room.

The centerpiece sequence is when the villain sends El Santo a lamp through the mail.  Thinking it’s an anonymous gift, he plugs it in, and it emits a piercing sound that nearly kills him.  This scene is highlighted by some great camerawork that helps to punctuate the suspense (and absurdity).  

Outside the ring, El Santo gets into a good fight in a graveyard with the mad doctor’s henchman.  The brawl ends when they knock El Santo out cold and bury him alive.  This is very similar to the scene in The Ghost of the Strangler (which came out the same year) in which the same exact thing happened to El Santo.  It really doesn’t matter if the circumstances are overly familiar, especially when it culminates in a great moment when El Santo rises from his grave.

Grave Robbers should please even the most die-hard lucha libre fan.  There’s plenty of nutty moments, genuine atmosphere, and lots of body slams to keep most everyone happy.  Sure, it may borrow (or rob) from some of El Santo’s other adventures, but I say any movie featuring killer violins, evil wigs, and homicidal lamps is a helluva lot of fun.