Queria (Grace Renat) is a sexy priestess who wears slinky white Vegas showgirl outfits. During a healing ritual, she uses “The Star of Great Power” to cure crippled and blind villagers while her even sexier twin sister Kungyan (also Renat), who dresses like Elvira looks on. The evil twin then taunts her sister by turning into hairy wrestlers, snakes, and even a tiger via jump cuts. Kungyan then orders her badass henchman (Mexican wrestler Tinieblas) to steal the stone.
Desperate, Queria turns to her idol, “The Oracle” for help. The Oracle, it should be said, is nothing more than a C-3PO Halloween mask Krazy Glued to a funeral wreath. (Kungyan has an Oracle of her own, which is a C-3PO Halloween mask spray-painted purple and glued to a mirror, so it looks like a bizarre version of the Magic Mirror from Snow White.) Naturally, the Oracle tells her there is only one man who can help her, El Santo!
That’s right, El Santo doesn’t even show up for a good fifteen minutes, and it really doesn’t matter when so much of the movie is this entertaining. He was nearing the twilight of his life, and he’s older, slower, and lumpier than we’re used to seeing. That’s okay though because the supporting cast is colorful, exuberant, and a lot of fun to watch. I haven’t even mentioned the subplot about the Karate Prince (Steve Cheng) marrying the sexy Jungle Girl (Sandra Duarte) or the evil queen’s plot to sacrifice her.
I don’t know where Grace Renat has been all my life, but she is incredible. Yes, she is quite lovely as the good twin, but she is easily in the Hall of Fame when wearing her evil priestess outfit. WOW! She also does seductive dance numbers while wearing a spangly gold dress.
Renat looks like a million bucks, but so does the movie. It’s a lot more atmospheric and colorful than a lot of the later El Santo pictures. That doesn’t mean the overall cheapness of the production isn’t endearing. I mean, wait till you see the split-screen effect used to show both twin sisters on the screen at the same time. You’re guaranteed to howl with laughter.
Somewhere around the halfway point, the breakneck pacing and rampant hilarity begin to wane. It’s here where the film relies a little too heavily on padding in the form of scenes of El Santo walking through the jungle, taking leisurely boat rides, and going on scenic airplane trips. These scenes still contain a few moments of laugh-out-loud cheese though (like when Santo tosses a henchman into the business end of a propellor). Also, just when it looks like the film is about to peter out, Renat will do a crazed dance where she undulates wildly in front of the glowing stone, and everything is right with the world again.
One could complain that The Fist of Death is low on action as Santo only gets one wrestling match, and a tag team affair at that. The fights outside the ring are weak too, mostly due to his advanced age. Many revolve around him simply deking out of the way of the opponent’s attacks. Still, when the rest of the movie is this entertaining, it’s a minor quibble.
This was filmed in Florida back-to-back with Fury of the Karate Experts, which proved to be El Santo’s last starring vehicle.
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