SANTO IN THE MYSTERY OF THE BLACK PEARL (1976) * ½

If the opening moments of Santo in the Mystery of the Black Pearl seem familiar to you, it’s because they have been taken entirely from Sam Fuller’s 1969 film, Shark.  Even though the editor tried to chop up the truck chase scene so you couldn’t tell who was driving, he clearly missed a few shots of Burt Reynolds’ face.  I can’t say this is a very good Lucha Libre flick, but what I can say is that this is probably the only time you’ll get to see Burt Reynolds and El Santo in the same movie, albeit not together. 

Like most bad El Santo movies, it takes a long time before he appears.  Not only do you have to sit through a long stretch of Shark, but there’s also a lethargic musical sequence taken from a much older film that makes the footage from that flick look ancient in comparison.  Later, there’s a nightclub act as well as a native dance routine that further pads the running time out.  There’s also an unrelated six-woman tag-team match, which is the kind of padding I don’t mind. 

After a good twenty minutes or so, El Santo finally shows up.  He gets an assignment to go after some jewel thieves who want to get their hands on some valuable pearls, none of which were black, as far as I could tell.  At least I think that’s what happened since my Spanish is limited and I watched the movie without the benefit of subtitles.  Even if I could make head or tails of the plot, the dingy cinematography, haphazard use of multiple film stocks (all of which are of poor quality), and slipshod editing (the continuity in the wrestling scenes is particularly laughable as the grapplers change positions on the mat several times because of all the jump cuts) make this one a tough sit.

I’ll admit, the film does have its moments, but the slow underwater scenes and frustrating pace keep Santo in the Mystery of the Black Pearl on the lower end of the El Santo spectrum.  It doesn’t help that El Santo only participates in one wrestling match.  He does get into a number of scrapes with various villains outside the ring though.  The best fight is his brawl with a guard in a prison cell that occurs late in the picture.  

Too bad El Santo seems to get knocked out, drugged, or indisposed of a lot in this one.  I mean not once but TWICE he’s left all by himself in the ocean and has to rely on helpful passersby to save his bacon.  The scene in which he’s tied to a post against the slowly rising tide has all the makings for a suspenseful sequence, but the resolution is so arbitrary that it takes the fun right out of it.  Thank goodness so many people just happened along to rescue El Santo, or this might’ve been his last adventure!

AKA:  Secret Mission in the Caribbean.