Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta was born on 23 September 1917. We know him as El Santo. That is “The Saint” in English. He was a classic babyface in professional wrestling. Of course, we never saw his face! We care about him because he starred in over 50 films — over half of them with his name in the title.
El Santo pumped out the films. He made 22 in the 1960s alone. He increased this to 26 for the next decade. But he only managed five films in the 1980s — largely because he died in 1984.
Wrestling pictures were popular in Mexico in the 1950s. Filmmakers first combined wrestling with the supernatural in The Curse of the Aztec Mummy, as far as I know. But the sequel The Robot vs the Aztec Mummy didn’t repeat the gimmick. And that left the door open to El Santo to dominate the genre starting 4 years later.
Almost all El Santo films unfold the same way:
- Something strange and frightening happens
- The authorities are flummoxed and so ask the masked wrestler for help (as you do)
- Santo investigates and also continues to wrestle because… Priorities!
- He gets into a sticky situation that he escapes from
- He confronts the villain and generally wrestles them.
If this is giving you serious Batman TV show vibes, well, exactly! It’s just that Santo’s costume is much less ridiculous!
Sadly, only a handful of El Santo’s films were dubbed into English. And even more sadly, I haven’t been able to find any of them. Not that it really matters. You don’t watch these films for the dialogue. To celebrate El Santo’s birthday, let’s watch Santo vs the Zombies.
The film starts with the requisite 12 minutes of straight wrestling. Then we learn about Professor Rutherford who was studying zombies in Haiti before he disappeared. Some zombies show up and steal a bunch of jewelry. At that point, there is nothing for the authorities to do but call Santo. But first: 5 more minutes of wrestling! It only gets more exciting from there. And you will never believe the surprising ending! (That’s sarcasm; it’s obvious from the start.)
El Santo via Gobierno CDMX. It is in the public domain.