Federico Curiel was a maniac and I mean that in the very best of ways. He wrote tons of great movies like El Baron del Terror, as well as directing stuff like the Nostradamus vampire movies, lucha films with Neutrón, Blue Demon and Santo, Westerns such as Super Colt 38 and so much more. He’s also the man who brought together so many luchadors for The Champions of Justice series.

Here, he delights us yet again with the tale of El Murcielago, a former wrestler who has become disfigured and obsessed with singer Marta Romano as he sits in his cave, wearing a jeweled robe, playing an organ and being generally awesome. He takes this beautiful girl and hides her away from the rest of the world to watch him fight and kill a series of other wrestlers until Blue Demon decides that he’s going to save the wrestling business.

The joy of lucha libre movies is that astounding things can just happen. Men can be disfigured and take over caves filled with henchman who listen as they regale them with dibble dabble keyboard musings and the rantings of a madman. Beautiful singers can be kidnapped and scream at every rat they ever see. And Blue Demon can show up and solve everything with wonderful violence.

There are also four musical numbers, which feels just about the right amount.

You can watch this on the amazing White Slaves of Chinatown channel on YouTube.

If you have an issue with seeing brains outside of skulls, perhaps this is a movie to avoid, as it seems like the main story thrust of this is to show brains as often as possible, but there’s also plenty of neon-hued labs, swinging go-go dance numbers, Blue Demon wrestling matches, future science that never really came true and Noé Murayama, the son of a Japanese dentist, as a mad scientist with female zombies in his employ.

Director Chano Urueta also made one of the most deranged movies I’ve ever delighted to see more than twenty times, El Baron del Terror. He worked on several of Blue Demon’s movies and the Los Leones del Ring series, which had Jorge Rivero as twin luchadors. He started making movies as far back as 1928 and his career lasted the whole way up until 1974. Ureta also acted in several movies and shows up in Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.

The best thing about a 1968 lucha movie is that it combines so many things that you love into one big combo. To wit: Eurospy movies, evil — and good — women in miniskirts and high boots (and occasionally berets), Adam West Batman-inspired sets, a caveman wrestling and so much more.

For some reason, it was decided that Blue Demon should have some superpowers in this film, so he learns how to teleport. He also can run through walls which is a great power to have.

I love the solo Blue Demon movies because I’d rather see him as a hero with agency instead of the foil or second banana to Santo. He just seems to try harder than the competition.

Back in Drive-In Asylum #8, I wrote about “John Carradine vs. Mil Mascaras” and this movie is the film where it happens.

Carradine had sold everything he owned to start a traveling Shakespeare actor’s company and when it folded, he was penniless, which led to the kind of roles that we love him in. In fact, the actor would get to go wild in these parts unlike any straight films he’d made. He’d make several movies in Mexico such as Diabolical Pact, Enigma de Muerte, Autopsy of a Ghost and La Señora Muerte, but this time, he’s a vampire!

A Transylvania Airlines plane has crashed in Mexico. bringing Aura to the country — all of the male vampires are dead — and into competition for leadership of the vampire women with Dracula’s widow Countess Véria. They’re also biting luchadors and using them as henchmen, which puts Mil on their trail.

Meanwhile, the women have Count Branos (Carradine). Once he was such a powerful vampire that he was the man who taught Dracula. Yet now, after a vampire hunter put a stake through his brain instead of his heart, he’s become a moronic and sad man, crying in a cage and dreaming of the days when he ruled the world of the undead.

Yet its a ruse, as Véria sacrifices her own life to make him powerful again and man, Carradine goes absolutely wild in the role as an unbound master vampire. Sure, it’s all the way at the end of the movie, but man, it’s great.

Also: a car runs Mil off the road and it’s driven by bats. By bats!

Even better, this movie starts off as all Carradine movies should, with him speaking directly to the camera. All movies should start this way.

You can watch this on YouTube.

The first of five collaborations between Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood — which also include Two Mules for Sister Sara, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry and Escape from Alcatraz — this movie tells the story of Arizona deputy sheriff Walt Coogan (Eastwood), who travels to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman (Don Stroud). However, when he tries to get him out as soon as possible, the maniac escapes, which draws the ire of Detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb).

While a controversial film due to its violence — there’s plenty of blood and Eastwood continually gets the worst of fights that he’s outnumbered in — this movie became the prototype for the action movies that Eastwood would star in for years. It also inspired the Dennis Weaver series McCloud, which was created by this film’s screenwriter Herman Miller.

This Kino Lorber blu ray release has some incredible extras, like a commentary track by filmmaker Alex Cox and another by Sledge Hammer! creator Alan Spencer. Plus, there are trailers, a radio ad and a poster gallery.

Translate this title as Hellish Spiders and you know what Blue Demon is up against and man, is there any better genre in the world than Mexican lucha libre movies? Get this. Blue Demon is up against the entire planet of Arácnea which is trying to cultivate human brains as food for their demanding queen. How magical!

This movie has an astounding wrestling match where Blue Demon’s opponent Arac suddenly has his hand turn into a spider hand that can bite and instantly kill people. Also, after a match, all sweaty, Blue Demon casually explains antimatter to a scientist and I lost what was left of my mind.

This movie needed a UFO scene so of all the movies they could steal a flying saucer from, Federico Curiel lifted the hubcap from Plan 9 from Outer Space. You know what they say: “El talento toma prestado, el genio roba.”

You can watch this on YouTube.

Alejandro Muñoz Moreno was the fifth of twelve children, the son of farmers, who worked on the National Railroad, who met the famous Mexican wrestler Rolando Vera and became his student. He soon put on a mask and became the Blue Demon, teaming with The Black Shadow as Los Hermanos Shadow (The Shadow Brothers).

After El Santo defeated Black Shadow and took his mask, Blue Demon became a tecnico. Even though this devil was now on the side of the angels, he and Santo would feud with Blue Demon coming out on top, even winning the NWA World Welterweight Championship from his rival. Even though would star together in films, there was always a rivalry.

Blue Demon shows up in the background of The Killers of Lucha Libre and Fury in the Ring, but he started acting in his own movies in 1964, as Santo had asked for more cash and producer Enrique Vergara wanted to add a second star. You can catch Blue Demon in twenty-five movies — nine with Santo — and three great movies where he leads Los Campeones Justicieros (The Champions of Justice) — whose members include El Medico Asesino, El Fantasma Blanco, El Avispon Escarlata, Superzan, Mil Máscaras, Tinieblas and Rayo de Jalisco (who Blue Demon defeated in a mascara contra mascara match in 1988, the year he retired).

Alfredo B. Crevenna (Planet of the Female Invaders, Santo vs. the Martian Invasion and 150 more movies) was the man behind the camera for this tale of Blue Demon — securely a part of the Eurospy world after his last movie, Blue Demon Destructor de Espías — battling an android. That android is a man in a silver suit with oven mitts, which makes me love this movie even more than I knew that I was going to. There’s also an astounding mascara contra cabellera match between a gigantic rudo and Blue Demon that ends with the losing maniac flipping out and attacking even the barber there to shave his head.

There’s also a swinging nightclub scene with a band named El Klan, which isn’t a name that any band would have today.

The brightest scientific minds in all of Mexico have gathered at the home of nuclear physicist Dr. César Sepúlveda to learn of an invention that is going to change everything that we know. Out of the shadows steps El Santo.

You may feel like the scientists in this movie who leave the room laughing when you think about Santo changing the world. After all, isn’t he just a wrestler?

No, Santo is everything: a millionaire playboy, a superhero, a spy, an enemy of the occult and, yes, the man who has just invented a time machine.

You read that right. A time machine.

Don’t they know that Santo already invented Facetime decades before it was on your phone?

Well, to test his machine, which only can send you back in time to watch the actions of your relatives or past lives or whatever magical nonsense that this movie chooses to baffle us with, Santo chooses his girlfriend Luisa, who was — of course — hunted by Dracula at som point when she was Luisa Soler. Somehow, Santo and everyone in our time is able to watch the past as if it were a TV show.

Luckily for those in the past, vampire hunter Professor Van Roth has fought off Count Alucard with mistletoe, which until now I had not realized could defeat vampires and was only an aid to sexual harassment. However, Dracula keeps up on trying to convert our heroine — by showing off all of his gold! — and finally does turn her, just in time for Santo to bring her back to our time where she’s struck by the vampire’s curse.

Meanwhile, an evil criminal known as the Black Hood and his gigantic son Atlas have been watching all of this and plan to steal Dracula’s treasure, which really seems like both the best idea for a movie and the worst idea for reality.

Somehow, this all ends up in a battle between Santo and Atlas in the ring for the ring and medallion of the king of the vampires. Even though the man in the silver mask wins, the Black Hood has found Dracula’s grave and plans to pull the stake out of his heart. If you think that Dracula isn’t going to get a harem of evil women and do a Satanic ritual to win Luisa over for good, then you haven’t watched Mexican lucha vs. the occult cinema.

And that’s where the story would end, one assumes, but director René Cardona had a trick up his sleeve.

While the original 1969 release of Santo en el Tesoro de Drácula was shot in black and white, there was another version of the film in color made for European markets called El Vampiro y el Sexo. Instead of just gowns for all of Dracula’s women, they now appear completely and totally nude in several scenes where Dracula paws at them.

There’s an urban legend that there are six different Santo films that feature alternate nude scenes, while another that Santo made a deal with Cardona to keep this film locked up.

For years, the only evidence that this alternate film existed was posters and photos.

Decades after filming, three original copies of El Vampiro y el Sexo were discovered in a vault in the film’s original production facility Cinematographic Calderón. The film was restored by the Guadalajara International Film Festival, which planned to show it to the public as part of a vampire film series curated by Guillermo del Toro.

Sadly the premiere was canceled due to protests from El Hijo del Santo and Santo’s estate, who claimed that showing the film would damage Santo’s reputation. After some debate, the film was shown twice in 2011 with no issue or stain on the memory of El Santo.

You can get the restored version of this film on blu ray from VCI.

The Cardona family has gifted us with some many wonderful films. The senior was a director and actor who made everything from the incredible Santa Claus to ZIndy the Swamp Boy, Survive! and several Santo films while his son made so many movies that I’m obsessed with like Guyana: Cult of the Damned; The Bermuda Triangle; Tintorera…Killer Shark and so many more. There’s also the grandson who made Vacaciones de Terror and Pesadilla Fatal.

Rene Sr. and Jr. worked together on this Santo film, which teams the man in the silver mask with Jorge Rivero — the star of Conquest! —  to protect Mexico from terrorists. It’s a sequel to Operation ’67 and lives up to my theory that Santo can be in any genre of film. Here, he’s in a globe-spanning — Paris, Hong Kong, Mexico and San Francisco — adventure battling the same Asian gangsters — dare we dream that they are Hanoi Xan’s World Crime League — as the first film.

Actually, there’s a lot that you need to see Operation ’67 to get, like why Jorge has that ring that has a map inside it. And that map? It leads to Montezuma’s treasure!

Every Eurospy movie needs a gorgeous female character and this film has Amadee Chabot, who was a former Miss California, Miss USA World and seventh runner-up to Miss Universe. After a role in the Matt Helm film Murderer’s Row, Chabot showed up in several great Mexican movies like Autopsy of a Ghost, Agent 00 Sexy, Danger …! Women in Action, Las Sicodélicas and Champions of the Ring. She’s a real estate agent today and still looks stunning.

Maura Monti also shows up a femme fatale, which is also welcome, as the Italian-born Monto has already warmed our hearts in films like Planet of the Female Invaders, The Batwoman and Santo vs. the Martian Invasion.

When I say, “This movie has an all-star cast,” this is the exact type of line-up that I am referring to.

Also known as Santo Attacks the Witches, this film finds the Mexican superhero wrestler El Santo trying to save a woman named Ofelia, who keeps having visions of Satan and his witch followers using her as a human sacrifice. Santo saves her by literally making the shadow of the cross with his body, stopping not only the witches but sending Satan away and waking up Ofelia. She’s had this dream ever since she’s been forced to live in the home of her dead parents in order to get their fortune in the will. Luckily, her boyfriend Arturo knows that Santo exists and sets out to contact him.

It turns out that the family secretary died fifteen years ago and has been a witch named Mayra* since then. She commands an army of witches who go out of their way to “infernally seduce” our hero who sends them on their way back to Hell. Santo uses all manner of weaponry to make that happen, from flaming torches to giant crosses.

Satan wants Ofelia and Santo out of the way, but our hero is just too much for those who trod the left hand path. By the end, the man in the silver mask has set dozens of occult dabblers ablaze, leaving the young lovers in an embrace as he jumps in his sportscar and drives away, presumably to wrestle a match or perhaps battle female werewolves.

There are better Santo movies, but honestly, a Santo movie is like a taco. They’re all good. Some are better than others. But even a bad taco is better than anything else.

*She’s played by Lorena Velázquez, who was also Thorina the Queen of the Vampires in Santo contra Las Mujeres Vampiros and Gloria Venus in the Wrestling Women series.

Based on the 1961 book Car, Boy, Girl by Gordon Buford, this was the first of many movies that woud feature Herbie the Love Bug, who is driven by Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) and worked on by Tennessee Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett), a mechanic who transforms used car parts into art.

Jones claimed that this film was so good with the fact that it was made when Walt Disney was still invovled with his films. It was released just two years after Walt’s death. I would also say that having Robert Stevenson as director — he also made Mary Poppins, That Darn Cat! and Old Yeller — helped.

Douglas has big dreams of racing, but all he getsto do is compete in demoltion derbies. After racing and crashing another car — an Edsel, no less — our protagonist comes across a car dealer named Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson, Mary Poppins) abusing a Volkswagen Beetle. The next morning, the car just so happens to show up at Douglas’ house and he’s nearly arrested until Thorndyke’s sales assistant and mechanic Carole Bennett (Michele Lee) convinces her boss to sell the car.

Herbie — so named by Tennessee — seems to have a mind of his own, but he’s able to help Douglas win several big races, to the continual chagrin of his former owner. Much like nearly every Dean Jones character, Douglas is a jerk and just wants a Lamborghini 400GT instead of the heroic little VW Bug. Herbie responds by running away, damaging big stretches of Chinatown and nearly driving himself off the Golden Gate Bridge in his depression. Yes, back in the day, live action Disney got dark.

Of course, not so dark that a small Volkswagen can’t win a race against cars with much more horsepower, like Thorndike’s Apollo GT (the avergae VW bug had 40 hp while the Apollo GT had 225 hp).