Doctor of Doom (1963)

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This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Another K. Gordon Murray masterpiece, this is one of those south-of-the-border wrestlin'-movies-mixed-in-with-a-bit-of-a-sci-fi-plot, and plenty of action both in and out of the ring to get those Mexicans whooping in the aisles. DOCTOR OF DOOM is a cheap, brainless, poorly-made movie with an inadequate budget and a plot that defies description. How can it be anything other than a Z-grade classic? Forget the sweaty muscles of Santo and Neutron, this is a film that introduced a whole new prolific sub-genre: the Wrestling Woman; namely Lorena Velazquez, who would carve a niche for herself as a badly-dressed female freedom fighter and purveyor of all things right and honourable. Other than the novelty of the heroine's gender, it follows the straightforward formula set by all other Mexican wrestling classics: a top wrestler becomes involved in the schemes of a mad scientist and has to fight him, with the aid of the police, at every turn.It goes without saying that many Mexican movies from this period are hit-and-miss affairs. DOCTOR OF DOOM isn't always successful, but at least it hits the mark more often than not. The worst aspect of the film are the long, drawn-out wrestling matches thrown in to satisfy the rabid wrestling fans in the audience, but thankfully these don't linger too much. Instead the film is happy to focus on all the enjoyable old clichéd genre elements: the cackling mad scientist; the heroic policeman; the old acid-in-the-face gag; the hulking monster with a human body and gorilla's brain (!); the caped wrestling monster; the old who-is-the-bad-guy sub-plot with a very unsurprising unmasking; bad guys dressed like the Ku-Klux-Klan; even the (very) old serial staple, where the good guys get locked in a room and a spiked wall moves in to crush them to death.The acting is pretty horrendous with the actors giving new meaning to the word "wooden". Apart from the mad scientist that is – he overacts instead, helped by an insane dubbing job that just adds to the fun of the thing. Genre regular Armando Silvestre is at hand but has a boring role as a straight-arrow cop. Other characters include Gomad, a hairy brute of a man who is supposed to have a gorilla's brain, and who wears a hilarious suit of armour to protect him from bullets! It has to be seen to be believed. Keep your eyes out for short cop Tommy, the butt of many a joke, whose blossoming relationship with hulking wrestler Golden Rubi adds an extra level of sentimentality and meaning to the plot. Yeah right.DOCTOR OF DOOM succeeds by offering up tons of action to be enjoyed. The scientist has loads of ugly Mexican guys to do his bidding and there are some tremendously fun abductions and battles to behold before the finale. The sets are cheap and tend to be burnt down and there are brain experiments galore for the horror fan. In some of the night-time stalking sequences the film actually manages to be pretty atmospheric and spooky too, which has to be a good thing. Check out the ending, which seems to have been ripped from HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM. Director Rene Cardona would return to his favourite subject – gorilla brain experimentation – with 1968's "video nasty", NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES.

Doctor of Doom (1963) ** (out of 4) Very silly but entertaining Mexican horror film about a mad scientist who is putting the hearts of apes into the bodies of females. When all of the females keep dying the doctor decides to use a stronger body, that of a female wrestler, and by doing so he plans on using her to kill a couple other female wrestlers who blew up his laboratory. If you're wanting some sort of art picture then I'd recommend several films by Luis Bunuel because that's not what you're going to be getting out of this picture. DOCTOR OF DOOM makes very little sense, the special effects aren't that special and the performances rank just above a middle-school production but all of this just adds to the charm. I think what makes the film work so well is that the pacing is pretty fast and there's always something crazy going on. It's funny hearing dialogue early on talking about how women are "too weak" to be experimented on and yet the doctor just keeps using them. He blames women for not being strong enough to live through his operations but then he sends his men out to get another woman. We also have an accident of the doctors, which is a half man, half ape creation who does the majority of the dirty work. You can tell that didn't have too much money to fix him us as he's just got a few patches of hair scattered around his body. In the English dubbed version we get some hilarious heavy breathing from the creature, which makes him more charming than scary. Then, of course, you have the downright silly wrestling scenes that add nothing and I'm still trying to figure out why they were so important in the first place. Naturally these must have been very popular in the day but today it just comes off rather silly and childish. While there's no tension or drama, the director at least keeps the pace rather fast and it's funny seeing the various ways that the story changes for no reason or watching things happen, which couldn't have possibly happened. Just check out the highlight when a couple cops are about to be smashed to death in a secret room (think THE RAVEN torture trap) and the wall is just a foot or so away from them. They use their watches to call out for help and the female wrestlers, in a different location, have time to drive to them, walk around the house slowly and then finally track them down. Seeing this scene play out is a non-stop laugh and one of the reasons the film remains entertaining.

"Doctor Of Doom" has something for everyone: whodunit (just WHO is the mysterious masked mad doctor? The answer surprises - and cheats!), comedy (an almost "Abbott & Costello"-like duo of cops), camp (through the dubbing, as well as the straightfaced handling of the most outrageous plot points), monster film (with a man-gorilla hybrid), and of course lots of female pro wrestling (which may appear a bit crude, but still remains far superior to most of women's wrestling even in today's WWE; this is a must-see for fans of the sport in a more pure form). Lorena Velázquez (who actually bears a resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor!) and Elizabeth Campbell are two beautiful, sweet, strong, and eye-poppingly curvy heroines who are more often doing the rescuing than being in need of it; in that respect, "Doctor Of Doom" was ahead of its time. Good schlocky fun. **1/2 out of 4.

Mexican horror movie about a mad doctor who's trying to transplant one womens brain into another womens head but with no success. The doctor did succeeded with having a gorilla's brain transplanted into his servants, Gomar, head turning him into a semi-human primate. But somehow when it came to women to women brain transplants in the four times that he tried it all the women died on the operating table.Coming up with the bright idea that the women that he's using in his experiment's are of low intelligence the doctor has his hoods together with a bullet-proof clad Gomar kidnap laboratory aid Alice, after taking out four Mexican cops. Alice also dies during the doctors transplant operation which convinces the mad doctor that what he needs is a woman of very strong body as well as mind, a woman wrestler. And who better to experiment on then the Woman's Wrestling Champion of Mexico herself, who just happens to be the dead Alice's sister, Gloria Venus.Lots of action with Gloria and her tag-team partner Golden Rubi taking on the mad doctor and his gang of thugs and having little trouble kicking their a**. In desperation the doctor, who after having his face burned with acid in a fight with the two girls, get the woman wrestler Vendatta and has Gomar's brain transplanted into her head! This hair brained idea on the doctors part gave Vendatta the strength of a bull-gorilla. Now the doctor will use her to get his revenge against both Gloria and Golden Rubi in the ring.Not at first knowing who she's fighting with Gloria get's the hell beat out of her by the zombie-like Vendatta with the mad doctor disguised as her manager giving her instructions, via his power of mental telepathy, at ringside. Golden Rubi spots one of the mad doctors henchmen in the stands watching the wrestling match and realizes, after almost twisting his arm off, that it's the mad doctor who's behind Vendatta and want's his super-woman to end Gloria's career in the ring.All hell breaks loose with both Golden Rubi and the ring referee joining in the fight with Vendatta as she and the disguised mad doctor make a run for it only to be trapped on a water tower where he and Vendatta have no where else to go but down and give themselves up to the awaiting police.The wrestling scenes which make up almost half of the movie "Doctor of Doom" are about the only thing that makes the film watchable. The suspense of who the mad doctor really is is almost non-existent. Since even someone brain dead, like most of those in the movie, could figure that one out almost as soon as they saw the mad doctor, minus his KKK-like hood, make his both grand and uneventful appearance in the movie.