SANTO VS. INFERNAL MEN (1961) * ½

Joaquin Cordero stars as a cop who goes undercover to bust a ring of drug smugglers.  Whenever he’s in a tight spot, the famed Mexican wrestler El Santo shows up to save his bacon.  Eventually, the bad guys discover Cordero’s identity and kidnap his best girl (Gina Romand).  

Santo vs. Infernal Men is El Santo’s second movie and it’s painfully obvious the filmmakers hadn’t quite figured out the formula yet.  It was filmed back-to-back in Cuba with his first film, Brain of Evil, and it feels more like a Cuban travelogue than an honest to goodness El Santo adventure.  There are long stretches where nothing happens, and a good deal of time is spent on Cordero hanging out on a fishing boat or lounging around the docks.  The musical numbers also pale to the ones we’d see in future installments.  (A mariachi band performs two songs, and there’s a lone nightclub dance routine.)

The big problem is that El Santo plays second fiddle to the boring hero and only occasionally pops up to bust some heads.  In fact, El Santo’s character almost feels like a power-up in a video game.  If there’s too many bad guys for Cordero to handle, he calls on El Santo to clear the screen of his enemies.  Unfortunately, like most video game power-ups, El Santo’s appearances are a limited commodity.  

It would be one thing if the action was sparse, but what action we do get is lackluster at best.  There’s also a potentially great set-up for a finale aboard a rollercoaster that ultimately goes nowhere.  Thankfully, the series got much better as it went along, especially when the filmmakers finally figured out they should give El Santo more to do.  I mean, why would you hire Mexico’s most famous wrestler to be in your movie and then have him play second banana to a far inferior leading man?  Not only that, they don’t give him a single wrestling match!  Aye caramba!