The Fist Of Death

The Fist of Death (El Punode la Muerte) (1982)

Runtime: I saw a version that was 87 minutes long

Directed by: Alfredo B. Crevenna

Starring: El Santo, Grace Renet, Cesar Sobrevals, Steve Cheng, Carlos Suarez

From: Victor Films

Not even C-3PO Oracle can save this El Santo picture.

In the past year I have seen a few Santo movies, mainly due to a channel that is now defunct (the El Rey Network; a shame that it went away) and last night I happened to stumble upon-via YouTube, if we are to be frank-the second to last movie he ever starred in... although to be honest, his role seems more like a supporting one here. Like some of his movies beforehand (and plenty of Mexican television) this nonsense was filmed in South Florida.

From description it sounds like a gas: a woman and her sister (both played by Grace Renet, the sort of gal that Russ Meyer would have loved... so did the director of this, judging from her skimpy tops that somehow held on) are in a “Far East” country and both want a magic rock which is tied to a jungle girl named... Jungle Girl, and she has a wolf as a companion, actually a German Shepherd. I was not joking about the whole oracle thing: it is simply a C-3PO mask! The balls to do something so blatant... if that sounds appealing, then I am making it much more enjoyable than it was. The movie's low budget shines brighter than that C-3PO mask, whether it's the incredibly lame “action”-the nadir “fight” between a tiger and Santo where the tiger is OBVIOUSLY tied around the neck but it was supposed to be a free wild animal-and because this had an immediate sequel (The Fury of the Karate Experts) the ending is a giant popcorn fart that was not satisfying whatsoever. “Dreary” is the best description of this movie, even with all the cleavage and bouncing around on display.

Santo was around 65 when this was made, so him not doing all that much was understandable; at least he was in great shape for his age. I cannot defend his sidekick, informally known as Carlitos; he was a bald mustached buffoon who was odious comic relief and judging from other reviews, what he did here was actually tolerable in comparisons to other pictures. Another luchador (Tinieblas; he's large in comparison to other luchadors) is the villain's henchman and he does more in terms of fighting. I presume Fury is about as “good” so I'll note it was a sad end to Santo's movie career-he passed away two years after this was released.