Crew
Director – Miguel M. Delgado, Screenplay – Alfredo Salazar, Producer – Guillermo Calderon Stell, Photography – Rosalio Solano, Music – Gustavo C. Carrion, Art Direction – Salvador Lozano M.. Production Company – Cinematografica Calderon s.a..
Cast
Santo (Himself), Blue Demon (Himself), Aldo Monti (Count Dracula), Agustin Martinez Solares (Rufus Rex), Nubia Marti (Lina Cristaldi), María Eugenia San Martín (Laura Cristaldi), Wally Barron (Eric), Jorge Mondragon (Professor Luis Cristaldi), Lissy Fields (Rosita Cristaldi), Antonio Raxel (Police Comandante), Lourdes Batista (Josefina)
Plot
The wrestler Santo is brought in by Professor Luis Cristaldi who is concerned after receiving a threatening letter. The professor’s ancestor was responsible for killing Count Dracula and the letter promises vengeance for this. The hunchback Eric abducts the professor and sheds his blood over a coffin to revive Dracula and his werewolf acolyte Rufus Rex. Dracula sets out to exact vengeance against Cristaldi’s daughter Laura and niece Lina. To this end, Rufus is sent to seduce Laura. To defend the girls against Dracula’s plans, Santo seeks help from his friend, the fellow wrestler Blue Demon.
Mexico has a tradition of lucha libre wrestling in which the wrestlers appear in the ring with their face hidden behind masks. The most famous of these was El Santo (The Saint in English), more commonly just Santo – or to give him his birth name Rodolfo Guzman Huerta (1917-82). After great success in the ring, Santo developed a cinematic career in the late 1950s and was soon transformed into a screen superhero, playing himself and placing his masked brawn up against various criminals and fantastical nemeses. He appeared in 52 films between 1958 and 1982 (see below for a listing of these) all without ever revealing his face. Both his son and grandson went on to make their own films, not to mention spawned an industry of copycat wrestling superheroes such as Neutron, Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras and Superzan.
Santo had encountered Count Dracula before in Santo and the Treasure of Dracula (1968) and both Dracula and the wolfman in Santo and Blue Demon vs the Monsters (1970), as well as various other vampires in Santo vs the Vampire Women/Samson vs. the Vampire Women (1962) and Santo and the Vengeance of the Vampire Women (1970). However, all of these are standalone adventures and there is no continuity connecting any of the Santo films, meaning that the various Draculas in these all appear to be unrelated.
Santo and Blue Demon vs Dracula and the Wolfman is typical Santo fare but also manages to be a cut above average. There is the B budget banality there always was to these films – while on protection duty at the Cristaldi house, Santo and Blue Demon sit around with the girls playing cards. Later we have to watch the rather dull struggle of Blue Demon to climb a tree in order to eavesdrop. There are only a couple of fight scenes, nothing to write home about, one of which takes place in a cramped warehouse. Blue Demon even comes out with lines (said of Santo): “When you speak more than ten words together, I can tell that you are getting worried.”
On the plus side, this moves beyond the crude, fairly rudimentary dramas of the other Santo films. An effort is made at atmosphere. Aldo Monti has a reasonable presence as Dracula – he was never going to give Christopher Lee sleepless nights but directorially Miguel M. Delgado gives his appearances a certain sinister supernatural air. The scenes towards the end where Santo and Blue Demon venture into the vampire’s house and encounter the girls and professor having been transformed into vampires comes with quite good atmosphere and eeriness. This is also helped considerably by the move to Eastmancolor where the widescreen restoration makes the film look a whole lot better than the average Santo film.
Santo and Blue Demon vs Dracula and the Wolfman is the first of the Santo films I have come across where it isn’t subtitled but has been dubbed in a release from VCI Entertainment and Peter Hamilton Films. This has been actually done far better than I expected it would be – there is even a sports announcer describing the matches at the start (and throughout) that clearly knows their wrestling terminology. Effort has also been made to replicate the Spanish names – Blue Demon comes out pronounced as Blue Day-mon as opposed to the way an English speaker would deliver it as Blue Dee-mon.
Director Miguel M. Delgado (1904-1994) directed 140 films between the 1940s and 1990s. These include a number of films for the Mexican comic Cantinflas, including One Day With the Devil (1945) that takes Cantinflas into the afterlife; The Super Scientist (1948) where he invents a fuel substitute; and The Magician (1949) where he plays a magician. Delgado joined the Santo series for Santo vs Frankenstein’s Daughter (1972), Santo and Blue Demon vs Dr Frankenstein (1974) and Vengeance of the Crying Woman (1974). Delgado’s other works of genre note include the ghost story The Phantom in the Red House (1956); the occult film Mysteries of Black Magic (1958); El Super-Flaco (1959), a comedy where a weakling gains super-strength; the clairvoyance comedy It’s Not the Indian’s Fault (1978); and the end of the world comedy Enjoy, Enoy, The World is Coming to an End (1990).
The other Santo films (all being genre films unless stated) are:- The Evil Brain/Santo vs the Evil Brain (1958), The Infernal Men (1958), Santo vs the Zombies/Invasion of the Zombies (1961), Santo vs the King of Crime (non-genre, 1961), Santo in the Hotel of Death (1961), Santo vs the Diabolical Brain (1962), Santo vs the Vampire Women/Samson vs. the Vampire Women (1962), Santo in the Wax Museum (1963), Santo vs the Strangler (1963), Santo vs the Ghost of the Strangler (1963), a cameo appearance in Blue Demon vs Satanic Power (1964), Santo in the Attack of the Witches/The Witches Attack (1964), The Diabolical Axe (1964), Santo in Grave Robbers (1965), Baron Brakola (1965), Santo and the Villains of the Ring (non-genre, 1966), Operation 67 (1966), Santo in the Treasure of Moctezuma (1967), Santo vs the Martians (1967), Santo and the Treasure of Dracula (1968), Santo vs Capulina (1968), Santo vs the Headhunters (1969), Santo Faces Death/Santo vs the Mafia Killers (non-genre, 1969), The Mummies of Guanjuato (1970), Santo and Blue Demon vs the Monsters (1970), Santo and Blue Demon in the World of the Dead (1970), Santo and the Vengeance of the Vampire Women (1970), Santo vs Blue Demon in Atlantis (1970), Santo vs the Terror Riders (1970), Santo vs the Mafia of Vice (1970), Santo in the Vengeance of the Mummy (1970), The Royal Eagle (1971), Santo in “Killers from Other Worlds” (1971), Santo in the Mystery of the Black Pearl (1971), Suicide Mission (non-genre, 1971), Santo vs Frankenstein’s Daughter (1972), Santo vs the Kidnappers (1972), Santo vs Black Magic (1972), The Beasts of Terror (1972), Santo vs the She-Wolves (1972), Anonymous Death Threat (non-genre, 1972), Santo and Blue Demon vs Dr Frankenstein (1973), Santo vs Dr Death (1973), Santo in the Mystery of the Black Pearl (1974), Santo in the Revenge of the Crying Woman (1974), Santo in Black Gold (1975), The Bermuda Mystery (1977), Santo at the Border of Terror (1979), Santo vs the TV Killer (1981), a cameo appearance in Chanoc and Son of Santo vs the Vampire Killers (1981), The Fist of Death (1982) and Fury of the Karate Killers (1982). Son of Santo has also appeared in five films. (An excellent article detailing each of the films can be found here at (Re)search My Trash).
Trailer here (no English subs)
Full film available here (no English subs)