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The
feature will be from 1962, the first and best Mexican
wrestling film, THE WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC
APE. God bless the Mexicans and their love of all
things wrestling. The only entertainment many of
these poor people can afford is the experience of
watching paragons of questionable athleticism toss
and kick each other across the square circle for
untold minutes of merriment. For our southern neighbor,
these physical fiestas are places where masked heroes
and outrageous villains play their roles in an actual
reflection of the tough existence within a third
world nation. It seems that when they transfer the
wristlock onto motion picture screens, these seemingly
noble contests of good vs. evil are required to
be contained within all manner of monster and maniac
trappings. Seems like our superwomen can't really
prove themselves worthy unless they do it against
creatures and creations from the realm of the superstitious
and the supernatural. Only then can they truly be
called champions. Thus we have The Wrestling Women
vs. the Aztec Ape (aka Doctor of Doom). And just
like anything else associated with takedowns and
half nelsons, it walks the thin line between spectator
sport and high camp.
When
a crazy mad scientist determines that the brains
of common street trash females are not good enough
for his hideous head experiments, he sends his henchmen
out, along with laboratory blunder beast-man "Gomar,"
to round up some professional gal gray matter. They
kidnap Alice, the sister of famous female fighter
Gloria Venus, and open up her bouffant to see what
goes on inside. But it turns out that even the most
educated mademoiselle medulla oblongata cannot survive
the sinister scoop and plop. He decides to place
his monkey man's brain in the body of the Fabulous
Mulla, and before you know it, international stupid
star "Vendetta" is born. This man made
mauler takes on our twin titans of teased hair in
an all-out third act padding, two falls and no time
limit test of wills and skills and the attending
audience just eats it up.
Some
manner of ceremonial endorsement must also be awarded
to K. Gordon Murray, the world cinema purveyor,
for finding and financing the "Americanization"
of movies like this for the horror and kiddie matinee
market. Murray scoured obscure overseas markets
(the Eastern European and Russian Block, South and
Central America) and came up with demented visions
of popular fairytales and mythical monsters that
seemed mined from a different planet, let alone
nation. He understood that the unusual social and
cultural components that went into these festive
foreign films would, with a little help from horrible
English translations and even worse dubbing, turn
into fantastic flights of freaked out fancy. The
evening will begin with a compilation of "Coming
Attractions" from his other movies including
Little Red Riding Hood vs the Monsters and The Robot
vs the Aztec Mummy!
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