HURRICANE RAMIREZ (1954) ***

 

I know I kind of watched these movies out of order, but the continuity is strong enough throughout the series that it wasn’t difficult to figure everything out, even without the benefit of subtitles.  In fact, after watching his antics in and out of the ring for two sequels, it was interesting to go back witness the humble origins of Hurricane Ramirez.  It also made me appreciate the family subplots in the later films a little more as their scenes in this one are better developed and entertaining to watch. 

Fernando (David Silva) works at night as a lounge singer, much to the dismay of his father Tonino (Tonino Jackson), a distinguished wrestler.  Little does his old man know, Fernando secretly moonlights as the masked wrestler Hurricane Ramirez.  When Hurricane refuses Tonino’s request for a wrestling bout, it drives father and son farther apart.  Their feud is put on hold when some gangsters kidnap Tonino and Hurricane swoops in to save the day.

The wrestling scenes are fast and furious.  Ramirez cuts a dashing figure in his wrestling matches, and Tonino has his moments to shine as well.  I think my favorite wrestling match was when Hurricane’s buddy puts on his mask to throw off suspicion to his true identity and winds up in the ring with an overly vain grappler who checks his hair in the mirror every two minutes.  The scene where father and son finally team up for a tag team match in the finale is a real barnburner too.  Heck, there’s even some women’s wrestling thrown in there for variety.  On the song and dance side of things, Silva’s numbers are a bit dull, but the cha-cha routines are full of energy. 

Hurricane Ramirez is indispensable as a historic milestone of Mexican (and the world, for that matter) cinema as it was one of the first Lucha Libre films ever made.  While it may feature a few too many dull musical numbers that gets in the way of the Mexican wrestling, the dynamic between Hurricane and his father gives the movie a dramatic core that many of its kind lacks.

As a connoisseur of these films, it’s fascinating to watch.  It may not be the best Lucha Libra movie ever made, but it’s interesting to see the genre taking its first formative steps.  After all, without Hurricane Ramirez, we wouldn’t have El Santo, so I think we all need to pay homage to the man who started it all.