Week 46: Santo en Oro negro (Santo in Black Gold, 1975)

        Robots! Santo fights some robots! It's somewhat remarkable to think that its taken 46 movies for Santo to get around to fisticuffs with robots. He's fought so many other nonsensical adversaries in the 45 previous movies, that you'd think robots would've happened sooner. Alas, they have not.

Santo, sporting another incredible shirt.

      Saying Santo fights robots is a bit of hyperbole on my part. It makes it sound like he combats Transformers, or Terminators, or even Robby the Robot, but he does not. These are more of the Westworld variety Automatons. They're pretty fragile as robots go as well. One punch from one of Santo's mighty luchador fists is enough, in certain scenes, to cave one of these robot's head in like a rotten pumpkin. Shit, C-3PO can take a hit better than most of the robotic hombres in this movie!

Robot brains! Ewwwww...

     Santo is once again a charitable mercenary for children, as he's hired to put a stop to these automatons who are trying to blackmail their way into the crude oil business. A couple of "Big Oil" types offer to pay 5 cents from every barrel they sell to a children's charity of Santo's choosing, in return for his protection services, and thus, Santo's hat is thrown into the ring, so to speak, and he starts smashing robotic doubles to pieces.

Santo is a master of disguise.

      A lot of the film takes place in Puerto Rico, and it looks like there was a great deal of location shooting there. In particular, there is some funny night time beach, sexy stuff for Santo and one of his female co-stars, Gilda Haddock. He also has a fairly entertaining tag team match, alongside Puerto Rican wrestler Carlitos "Rocky" Colón, that is staged in a Puerto Rican baseball park. The bad guys also manufacture all their robots inside a prison in Puerto Rico, which Santo infiltrates of course, disguised as a priest. 

Santo and his Mid-life crisis mobile.

     My biggest complaint with this one is that the villains are lame. These criminal masterminds can create near perfect robot doubles of people and instead of replacing leaders of industry and heads of state with robotic doppelgangers, they decide to hassle a few Caribbean oil companies? Talk about some weak shit. Still, Santo's female co-stars, Gilda Haddock and Rosy Mendoza are easy on the eyes. 

Enjoyment.

Two and a Half Silver Masks out of a possible Five.

Fun Fact: This film is also known as La Noche de San Juan, or A Night in San Juan.