Film Year: 1962
Genre: Horror, Superhero, Sports
Director: Alfonso Corona Blake
Starring: EL SANTO!
MST Season: 6
The Movie
Samson vs. the Vampire Women is the first time we've seen a Mexican horror film on the show since Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy.
RUN!
But it's also one that stars a Mexican wrestling legend!
::stops running:: I'm oddly intrigued. Go on.
One of the most popular Lucha Libre wrestlers from Mexico, and probably the most popular honestly, was El Santo (roughly translated to English as The Saint...no not Roger Moore or Val Kilmer). He became such a phenomenon in the wildly popular sport he got his own series of movies where he was wrestler by day, crimefighting superhero by night. There are a whopping fifty-two Santo movies out there, starting with Santo vs. the Evil Brain in 1961. Samson vs. the Vampire Women is the seventh, released only a year later. Boy did Mexico really love these movies. It's like their Marvel Cinematic Universe or something.
Having his name changed to "Samson" for the English market, Samson vs. the Vampire Women has ancient vampire women being awakened after two hundred years, and their queen wishes to be reunited with her husband in Hell. To do so they need a successor, and they choose the descendant of a woman who escaped them centuries ago. Once the family catches wind of what is going on, Santo/Samson is enlisted to protect the young girl.
This movie is a very strange beast. There are some horror shots that use great angels and shadow and could have been quite effective, and the movie is somewhat shockingly brutal at times, but it undercuts itself with several choices that just come off as goofy. There's a shot or a moment that just doesn't fit in with the rest that gets an unintentional laugh, and it makes the virtues of the production seem lesser in hindsight.
Probably the biggest batch of silliness is Santo himself, who appears out of nowhere when the movie is halfway over. Mexican audiences were expecting a masked shirtless man to walk in and take control of the situation way back when, but watching this movie without context of who Santo is makes the experience jarring and unintentionally hilarious. There is no setup for Santo, nothing to prepare us for him, he just exists and the movie expects us to accept him. As the film goes on, it becomes evident that despite how worshiped Santo is, he's not really all that good at his job of smiting evil. He vows to protect a girl, then abandons her because he "has other plans," then almost gets her kidnapped because of it while several party guests are murdered, all because Santo didn't feel like being there that night. He rushes in and saves the day at the end so...yay for Santo? Not to mention in the climax Santo wins more out of sheer luck in that the vampire women failed to check their watches than out of actual skill.
Really the most heroic thing Santo does in this movie is wrestle a werewolf. And yet, I can't really look away. There's something oddly hypnotic about these Santo movies. I kind of want to watch more of them.
RUN!
But it's also one that stars a Mexican wrestling legend!
::stops running:: I'm oddly intrigued. Go on.
One of the most popular Lucha Libre wrestlers from Mexico, and probably the most popular honestly, was El Santo (roughly translated to English as The Saint...no not Roger Moore or Val Kilmer). He became such a phenomenon in the wildly popular sport he got his own series of movies where he was wrestler by day, crimefighting superhero by night. There are a whopping fifty-two Santo movies out there, starting with Santo vs. the Evil Brain in 1961. Samson vs. the Vampire Women is the seventh, released only a year later. Boy did Mexico really love these movies. It's like their Marvel Cinematic Universe or something.
Having his name changed to "Samson" for the English market, Samson vs. the Vampire Women has ancient vampire women being awakened after two hundred years, and their queen wishes to be reunited with her husband in Hell. To do so they need a successor, and they choose the descendant of a woman who escaped them centuries ago. Once the family catches wind of what is going on, Santo/Samson is enlisted to protect the young girl.
This movie is a very strange beast. There are some horror shots that use great angels and shadow and could have been quite effective, and the movie is somewhat shockingly brutal at times, but it undercuts itself with several choices that just come off as goofy. There's a shot or a moment that just doesn't fit in with the rest that gets an unintentional laugh, and it makes the virtues of the production seem lesser in hindsight.
Probably the biggest batch of silliness is Santo himself, who appears out of nowhere when the movie is halfway over. Mexican audiences were expecting a masked shirtless man to walk in and take control of the situation way back when, but watching this movie without context of who Santo is makes the experience jarring and unintentionally hilarious. There is no setup for Santo, nothing to prepare us for him, he just exists and the movie expects us to accept him. As the film goes on, it becomes evident that despite how worshiped Santo is, he's not really all that good at his job of smiting evil. He vows to protect a girl, then abandons her because he "has other plans," then almost gets her kidnapped because of it while several party guests are murdered, all because Santo didn't feel like being there that night. He rushes in and saves the day at the end so...yay for Santo? Not to mention in the climax Santo wins more out of sheer luck in that the vampire women failed to check their watches than out of actual skill.
Really the most heroic thing Santo does in this movie is wrestle a werewolf. And yet, I can't really look away. There's something oddly hypnotic about these Santo movies. I kind of want to watch more of them.
The Episode
This entire episode is set up like a goodbye for Frank Conniff, who decided to part ways with the show (he would eventually cameo in Soultaker in season ten). There's a moment of silence as a prologue to the episode, which is done with as much humor as you'd expect. The host segments feature Torgo the White, a reincarnation of Torgo in a play on Lord of the Rings, who comes and whisks away Frank to Second Banana Heaven as a haven for all abused lackeys. Frank mindlessly follows, and he really isn't in as much of the episode as you'd expect.
And yet, there is a lot of Frank's personality stamped across the episode. The opening Chinese food sketch I believe is meant to be an homage to the Three Stooges, who Frank was a big fan of, with Mike struggling with his clam soup (similar to bits in Dutiful but Dumb, Shivering Sherlocks, and Income Tax Sappy) and Servo gets licked by his hot dog (similar to a scene in Malice in the Palace). Though it should be noted that I believe that at the very least the clam soup bit was borrowed from another Columbia short that predates the Stooges' use of it. The movie selection is also said to be one that Frank had been pushing for, but other writers weren't enthused about. They decided to accept it as a "going away present" for him, replacing what was originally slated to be the season finale, Master Ninja III.
As much as we would like to drool about the idea of the show tackling another Master Ninja movie, what of the riff that we have? Unfortunately it's average at best. The movie on the surface seems so perfect for the show, but it's very belabored and dry. The tone of the entire riff is upbeat, but they never really find a groove for it. There is no symbiotic connection between the two that the best episodes have, and while occasionally there is a funny line, it's ultimately hard to pay attention to the riff in an episode where the movie is actually outshining it in interest value. The best moment of the riff comes from Santo's first appearance, which is so sudden that they all start laughing and their sudden upswing in goofiness fuels the rest of the riffs in the scene and Santo's further appearances in the picture. The problem is that now that we've all seen Santo, the shock of this scene doesn't play on rewatch value. Every time I try to watch this episode again the Santo scenes are far less funny. But boy did I laugh that first time.
I'm not convinced the episode is a total loss. There are moments that still work (Santo torching the vampire women at the end is still really funny) and while the host segments are more witty than funny, they're memorable. Dr. Forrester's song "Who Shall I Kill?" is a highlight, and the episode brings us almost to tears as Frank pushes the button one last time. We'll miss you, Frank. I would have hoped for a funnier sendoff than this, but it's one that's distinctly you. I guess that's what matters.
Average
The DVD
This tearjerker of an episode was brought to us in Shout Factory's Volume XXIII set, with good audio and slightly flawed video.
Headlining the special features is a mini-documentary called Lucha Gringo: K. Gordon Murray Meets Santo. For the most part this is more a documentary on the Lucha Libre wrestling culture in Mexico and how it transitioned into being something of a superhero lore in media. There is not a lot about K. Gordon Murray in it until the end, though it discusses a little bit of his fascination with these cult oddities from Mexico. Even Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy is brought up at one point.
And since this is Frank's last episode, it's only fitting that there be a Life After MST3K: Frank Conniff featurette. Frank discusses his various writing gigs over the years, including Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Invader Zim, and The Drew Carey Show. He also discusses Cinematic Titanic a little bit, and expresses his enjoyment of working on his own projects like Cartoon Dump.
There is also a TV spot for the movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment