Producer K. Gordon Murray brought over two of these Santo movies in the 60's and re-dubbed our Mexican masked wrestler's name as Samson(there's also SAMSON VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMEN). I imagine this may have been done because the Italian Samson and Hercules peplum movies were a big deal at the time. Our Samson here ain't no Greek god though, he's more like a Batman type of hero who helps the police solve some murders happening around a wax museum. One of the odd things about this dubbed version is that it's never explained why every once in a while Samson stops the investigation to go have a wrestling match. It's just something he enjoys doing I suppose. It's also weird that they didn't bother to dub over all the wrasslin' fans loudly shouting SANTO! SANTO!.
As a fan of mexi-lucha cinema I found this flick fun and amusing if in the right state of mind. Getting to this state may require a bit of alcohol and/or at least a sense of humor which obviously is lacking in most "serious" movie-viewing jackoffs. But for those looking for a good example of Santo's 1960's exploits this movie works as well as any. I'll take this over most Hollywood "action" shitfests anyday. As for the plot it's about Santo's quest to rid Mexico of an anti-social Hitleresque type(who was ironically a survivor of a concentration camp during World War II) that wants to spread murder and chaos throughout the world and also set up a sweet wax museum(of course a bit of HOUSE OF WAX is ripped off here). There's monsters(real & wax), wacky henchmen(one that looks like Vincent Price strangely enough and the other that looks like "Batboy"), a caveman/wrestler and many scenes of old-school pro-wrassling. If you dig this movie look for Santo's 70's adventures for a more colorful example of monster-bashing goodness.
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