LET’S GET PHYSICAL: SANTO IN THE WAX MUSEUM (1963) ***

FORMAT:  BLU-RAY

ORIGINAL REVIEW:  

SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM (1963) ***

(As posted on March 9th, 2012)

The mysterious Dr. Karol opens a new wax museum in town. The main attraction features sculptures of famous people like Gary Cooper, Gandhi, Joseph Stalin, and Pancho Villa. In the basement, he keeps wax figures of Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. A pretty young journalist goes to do a story on the museum and quickly disappears. Her family then asks the great wrestler-turned-crime fighter, Samson to find her. Predictably, Samson learns that Dr. Karol is the mastermind behind her kidnapping. He also intends to turn her into a “Panther Woman” for his latest attraction.

The first half hour of Samson in the Wax Museum is needlessly talky and criminally low on Samson action. If you can get past the shaky beginning, I think you’ll enjoy this entry. While it’s not quite as good as Samson vs. the Vampire Women, it does have a lot more footage of him in the ring. We’re talking about some solid Lucha Libre here. There are three wrestling scenes in total; all of which help liven things up when the plot slows down. By far the best wrestling match is Samson’s final bout with a swishy opponent. (The scenes of Samson tussling with hired thugs in people’s backyards are a blast too.)

I guess it goes without saying, but Samson in the Wax Museum is kinda like a refried version of House of Wax. The thing that’s kinda cool about it is that it also borrows freely from The Island of Lost Souls too as Dr. Karol keeps a race of animal men in his dungeon (and naturally they turn on their creator and kill him). These final scenes are electric. Shortcomings aside, this movie features Samson fighting monsters in a cool mad scientist lab; so what more could you ask for?

AKA: Santo in the Wax Museum.

QUICK THOUGHTS:  

If you’ve seen VCI’s other El Santo releases, you know that they have been redubbed in such an atrocious manner that it makes the worst Kung Fu dubbing seem like Oscar-caliber material.  (Of course, I still dig them since it adds to the overall cheese factor.)  Their release of Santo in the Wax Museum is a bit different.  They basically used the same dub from the old K. Gordon Murray release (that was titled “Samson in the Wax Museum”) from the ‘60s, and simply added in a new title sequence retaining the original title, Santo in the Wax Museum. 

As for the movie, my original review still stands.  The only addition I can make is a word about the villain’s origin story.  Future filmmakers:  I implore you.  If you’re planning on making the villain of your silly Mexican wrestling/monster movie a Holocaust survivor… don’t.