(469) SANTO in FURY OF FIGHTING GODDESS (1982) His Last Film!
4565DVD
Mexican/Spanish
title: SANTO EN LA FURIA DE LOS KARATESCAS [Santo in the Fury of the Karate Fighters]
alternative Spanish title: SANTO CONTRA FURIA DE LA DIOSA DE LUCHA [Santo vs the Fury of the Fighting Goddess]
director: Alfredo B Crevenna
starring: Santo · Grace Renat · Cesar Sobrevals · Edgardo Gazcon · Tinieblas
· Rene Cardona
This
hard-to-find 1982 movie, is the very last film starring the legendary
wrestling icon Santo. Set in an unspecified, remote jungle kingdom,
it's basically the story of a power struggle between two sisters (both
played by the impossibly big-breasted Grace Renat). Good sister Kungyab
is always in a white bikini and lives with her rich husband in a wilderness
mansion; while the evil twin sister, Queria, wears a black bikini [that
seems to shrink noticeably as the film unspools] and is assisted in
her web of nastiness by a muscular superman servant Tinieblas. Their
struggle is essentially over the Crystal of Power, a pulsating
magic stone that fell to earth with the arrival of an interstellar cosmic
heroine called Jungle Girl. In the midst of the turmoil [which includes
arson, robbery and the creation of a monster during a pagan ritual],
everyone has congregated in the jungle for a wedding ceremony between
Prince Aching Ka and the Jungle Girl.
Santo was 65 years
old when he made this film. Unfortunately, his film wrestling style was
beginning to suffer visibly. In the movie, he has three fights with the
much younger Tinieblas. Only one of these is memorable, containing mere
flashes of the greatness that made Santo a legend. Realizing his best
days were behind him (SANTO
IN THE HOTEL OF DEATH, SANTO
VS THE ZOMBIES, SANTO
AGAINST THE VAMPIRE WOMEN, or SANTO
AND BLUE DEMON AGAINST THE MONSTERS), Santo retired from motion
pictures and the ring. He appeared on a Mexican variety TV show a few
months later and - for the first and only time - unmasked himself. He
then embarked on a brief career as an escape artist before dying from
a heart attack in February 1984.
The
scantily-clad, busty Grace Renat (born Graciela Prior Marín in
1947) spends a lot of time gyrating to various exotic dances here. She
was a covergirl model and professional dancer before her career in movies.
Grace retired in 1993 after a successful TV series Papá Soltero.
Carlos Suárez was Santo's manager throughout his career. He sometimes
would play the villain in a Santo film (SANTO
VS THE RIDERS OF TERROR, SANTO
AND THE BLUE DEMON VS DRACULA AND THE WOLFMAN, et al) but
this time he plays Santo's traveling buddy, Cliff. Another interesting
actor is former Mexican master director Rene Cardona (BAT
WOMAN and BESTIA
HUMANA: NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APE) in the role of Professor Williams.
This movie was shot totally in Miami Florida USA, the lavish sets are
actually (the Vizcaya Museum, Monkey Jungle and Coral Castle).
The "Los
Karatescas" [Karate Fighters] title is very misleading. Steve Cheng
is the only martial artist in the movie. And he doesn't do any karate.
In fact his scenes are inexplicably brief as he disappears halfway through
to join evil queen Queria's gang and is replaced in the wedding by wealthy
Prince Tegal. No one seems bothered by the interchangeable grooms.
A Mexican
film with optional ON/OFF English subtitles; fullscreen format,
uncut 89 minutes; DVD encoded for ALL REGION NTSC WORLD FORMAT.
Extras include theatrical Santo trailers
Adult
Material/SemiNudity/Violence/Sexual Themes
For Mature Audiences
