Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter

Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter (Santo vs. La Hija De Frankenstein) (1971)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: Miguel M. Delgado

Starring: El Santo, Gina Romand, Anel, Roberto Canedo, Carlos Agosti

From: Cinematogrica Calderon S.A.

Better than Jesse James vs. Frankenstein's Daughter.

Late (Saturday) night this played on the El Rey Network; I know that during the Halloween season where I see plenty of horror movies (that will start in a few days) a few will star the legendary masked man. This will be an acceptable entry on one of those lists for those that want to have a campy good time with a movie where much of the action takes place either in the villain's underground lair or the adjacent spooky graveyard.

Frankenstein's daughter and her minions are all ancient in terms of age but due to a serum they all appear to be much younger. She wants Santo's blood because it's special-a nonsense explanation was given... it might as well have been “because his midi-chlorian count was high.” Our hero did not also write the script although no one would be mistaken to think that way... besides him having special blood, he is in his mid 50's yet has a girlfriend who age-wise should play his daughter instead and TWO different women note how handsome he is sans mask. At least he is in great shape for his age.

Anyhow, the girlfriend is kidnapped so he goes to the villain lair and there are two different brutes to deal with: there is a new Frankenstein's monster and in addition, the daughter created a “half-human/half-beast” hybrid that went awry. For me, this was the right kind of cheese as it was never dull & plenty was going on. This includes the daughter proving time and time again how ruthless she was. Also, this had some dark moments-for example, threatened eye gouging. There was plenty of action & entertainment and for whatever it's worth, this is the best of the Santo movies I have viewed thus far. Various critiques (the villainess's hair style obviously changing a few times when all the action takes place in the span of a few hours is an obvious one) can be downplayed as this was a pretty good time.