276-277 Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man

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MichaelB
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276-277 Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man

#1 Post by MichaelB » Thu Aug 18, 2022 1:34 pm

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SANTO VS. EVIL BRAIN (Joselito Rodríguez, 1961)
SANTO VS. INFERNAL MEN (Joselito Rodríguez, 1961)

Release date: 5 December 2022
Limited Edition Blu-ray (World Blu-ray premieres)

Immediately recognisable by his distinctive silver mask, the heroic wrestler known as El Santo (‘The Saint’) was Mexico’s most popular luchador, becoming a folk hero and the star of a hugely popular series of action films. Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man presents the two earliest cinematic excursions of this icon of Mexican popular culture.

In Santo vs. Evil Brain (Santo contra cerebro del mal), the dastardly Doctor Campos is kidnapping and brainwashing scientists. When undercover detective Santo falls prey to Campos’ scheme, Lieutenant Zambrano (Enrique Zambrano) and El Incognito (Fernando Osés) must come to his assistance to foil Campos’ plans. Meanwhile, in the same year’s Santo vs. Infernal Men (Santo contra hombres infernales), the trio of Santo, El Incognito, and Zambrano team up once again to fight a band of drug smugglers.

Shot in Cuba in the final days before Fidel Castro entered Havana, these two films represent the celluloid birth of a true screen legend, and spawned a further fifty Santo films. Beautifully restored in 4K from the original negatives, these thrilling films finally receive their world Blu-ray premieres in this individually numbered Limited Edition two-disc set, complete with new and archival extra features, including a feature-length documentary, a poster, and an 80-page book.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION 2 x BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

Brand new 4K restorations from the original camera negatives of Santo vs. Evil Brain and Santo vs. Infernal Men
Original mono audio
Perdida (2011), feature-length documentary by Viviana García-Besné, granddaughter of Jorge García-Besné, exploring her family’s massive contribution to Mexican cinema, including initiating the Santo series
Archival interview with actor Joaquín Cordero (2010)
Santo vs. Evil Brain restoration comparison
Santo vs. Infernal Men restoration comparison
Perdida image gallery: stills collection from the Calderón family
New and improved optional English translation subtitles
Limited Edition exclusive 80-page book
Limited Edition exclusive poster
World premieres on Blu-ray
Limited edition of 6,000 copies for the UK and US
All extras subject to change

#PHILTD276
BBFC cert: TBC
REGION FREE
EAN: 5060697922493

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MichaelB
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Re: 276-277 Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man

#2 Post by MichaelB » Fri Feb 03, 2023 5:14 am

Final specs for the Enter Santo double bill:

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Santo vs Evil Brain:

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Santo vs Infernal Men:

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Orlac
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am

Re: 276-277 Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man

#4 Post by Orlac » Sat Feb 04, 2023 7:38 am

Hopefully mine arrives today. I'm going to precede it by watching an excellent Something Weird Video Mexican horror trialer gallery.

Funnily enough, I've seen about half a dozen Mexican wrestling horror pictures...but none of them with Santo. Time to rectify that!

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GaryC
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Re: 276-277 Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man

#5 Post by GaryC » Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:02 pm

I presume the 18 certificate is due to the film Perdida? My copy arrived today and I haven't watched it yet, but the two main films are a 12 and a PG according to the BBFC and Perdida as of now doesn't appear on their website.

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MichaelB
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Re: 276-277 Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man

#6 Post by MichaelB » Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:05 pm

That is indeed the reason. As with the Arrow edition of Walerian Borowczyk's Blanche (also a PG), the accompanying documentary contained firmly 18-certificate clips (in both cases, full-frontal nudity and sexual violence) which pushed up the certificate of the overall package.

But, as with Blanche, I don't think this one was ever going to sell too many copies to under-18s.

Orlac
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Re: 276-277 Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man

#7 Post by Orlac » Sat Feb 04, 2023 8:37 pm

This is a superb set, that's for sure. Cuba looks amazing on film, and the first film in particular is full of serial-style hijinks - Santo suddenly gets a glass jaw at innapropiate moments ala the 1940s Batman. You can defiently tell time and money were running out on the second film though - I noticed some sequences appeared to be alternate takes of things we'd seen in the original film.

Will check out the documentary soon!

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Re: 276-277 Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man

#8 Post by cdnchris » Mon Feb 06, 2023 3:34 am

I'm sad to say I couldn't even enjoy these films on their level or even a so-bad-they're good level (painfully dull, and I swear half of the first film is made up of footage of characters driving around Havana) but it's a pretty great little set with excellent features, a case where they're way better than the film(s). The Perdida documentary is a fascinating one, just excellent.

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MichaelB
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Re: 276-277 Enter Santo: The First Adventures of the Silver-Masked Man

#9 Post by MichaelB » Tue Aug 01, 2023 5:31 am

The US edition of this has now sold out. The UK edition is still available, and is to all intents and purposes identical (the machine-readable side of the discs really is identical, but there are minor localised cosmetic differences on the packaging), but they're anticipating sales of that will pick up now.

There will of course be standard editions of the films when both the limited editions have sold out, but you'll miss out on the book.

Obviously, everyone at Indicator is delighted that this one sold out so quickly, following the equally rapid sellout success of La Llorona and The Phantom of the Monastery, and there will definitely be more Mexican genre films released in 2024. It's an incredibly rich seam to mine, and there's clearly lots of interest out there.

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