Search - Samson in the Wax Museum on DVD

Santo in ENGLISH! A breath of fresh air!

Pistols Fan | Nevada | 02/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The specifications listed by Amazon state that "Samson in the Wax Museum" is in Spanish. In fact, it's actually (dubbed) in ENGLISH. This was one of the few mexican "Santos" films to be dubbed for English speaking audiences, and they did a great job, too! You can sometimes forget this film is a dub-job as it's so well done. I have been enjoying buying and watching subtitled Santos films for quite some time, and it was nice to just kick back and enjoy the film without having to follow the subtitles. It's a shame they didn't dub more of these films for the American audiences, as it was a great series.
The film itself, while not the best Santo film I've seen, is pretty good nonetheless. Santo (Samson) is a professional wrestler - who never removes his silver mask or his cape - who moonlights as a crimefighter. He is called in to help solve the strange disappearances of patrons of the local "Wax Museum". Nobody, not even the police even think it's the slightest bit odd that Samson walks around with his mask and cape (in later films, he drops the cape, even wearing suits, but always still wears his silver mask covering his head). As usual, Santo gets to the bottom of the strange goings-on in the Wax museum.
The quality of the picture is above average. It's a black and white film taken from the Television release print. Looks like it was mastered from the 35mm film source, I saw no evidence whatsoever of it being mastered from a video tape. If you are an English speaking fan of SANTO, this DVD is a must have, well worth your 13 bucks. It's a three and a half star film, but it gets five stars for good picture, great dubbing, price and overall presentation!"

Something's Fishy in the Basement of the Wax Museum!

Fred Ingman | Eugene, OR | 02/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Another in the long line of Mexican films featuring the wrestling superhero, Santo. This one is from 1963 and, of course, dubbed into English. For some reason a need was felt to change Santo's name to Samson in the dubbing process (perhaps due to the success of the Italian strongman sword and sandal quickies being cranked out in the late '50s and early '60s). The name change seems to hold up in most cases, but during the wrestling scenes the crowd is clearly chanting, "Santo, Santo, Santo!" The film is in black and white, not restored, and does not feature surround sound (contrary to Amazon's descriptors).

Many of the earlier Santo films were shown on late night American TV during the '60s and '70s. They have a campy quality that endears them to low-budget horror film fans. There are parallels to be drawn between Santo and Batman. Santo darts around Mexico City in a small white convertible (Batmobile?), he has his own lab (Batcave?) with futuristic gadgets to aid his detective work, he has a television communication system, and, like Batman, he wears a mask and cape.

If you can put up with the wrestling matches sprinkled throughout the story line, you might find some entertainment and a few laughs along the way. Viva Santo!"