This is the last film of Santo (who died later in this same year, of a heart attack), the world famous mexican silver masked wrestler hero/idol of generations of fans of lucha libre; and sequel to "punhos de la muerte/fists of death", filmed in the same year and same place (Florida) with a lots of same cast members from the previous movie. A fair farewel to an era...
4 Reviews
Santo fights an evil woman and her karate killers
kikaidar11 June 2000
Granted that El Santo was pushing middle-age when he began his film work (sources generally state his birth year was 1917), by 1982 his film wrestling style was beginning to visibly suffer.
While some of the moves he displayed in earlier films were downright amazing to the viewer who was inexperienced in the lucha libre form of wrestling (and a few to those of us who knew of this version of the sport), by 1980, age was beginning to take its toll.
Not all that long after this film was completed, El Santo retired from the ring, realizing that his best days were behind him. He subsequently unmasked on television, and embarked on a brief career as an escape artist before passing away as the result of a heart attack, on 2/05/84.
Considering the impact that Santo had had in his earlier films, fans could have hoped for a better end to his career than his last two features.
FURY OF THE KARATE EXPERTS and its companion piece, FIST OF DEATH, were filmed in 1981-1982, with footage shot in Florida, of all places. Both share characters, primarily a dual performance by the amazingly endowed Grace Renat. Renat plays a good sister and an evil one, competing for a powerful crystal which can give the owner unstoppable power.
Added into the cast of FURY is Tinieblas (Darkness), a stuntman-turned-wrestler who had appeared in a number of previous genre films (esp. MUMMIES OF GUANAJUATO, generally playing monsters due to his strength, agility and superior height. In the ring, Tinieblas was startlingly quick on his feet, and became a popular entertainer.
Originally offered the role of SUPERZAN (a character created for use in feature films and not an actual wrestler), stuntman Manuel Leal opted for the Tinieblas persona and both wrestled professionally in this masked identity and made several films. Most notably, he was one of the members of the Champions of Justice -- a grouping of masked wrestlers who fought evil in a trio of entertaining films. In FURY, he is the evil sister's strongarm assistant.
This was also to be the last appearance of Carlos Suarez in a Santo feature, and it's fitting that he was along for the ride for the Man In The Silver Mask's last outing. Saurez was actually Santo's manager for some years, and frequently appeared in his films through the 1960s and 1970s. He was generally cast as a spy (SANTO CONTRA LA MAGIA NEGRA), a thug/henchman (SANTO CONTRA LA MAFIA DEL VICIO) or as a friend or assistant to the wrestler. In FURY, he returns as Cliff, Santo's pal from the previous film.
Set in some eastern country, the film is distressingly slow for a Santo feature. Martial artist Steve Chang and Tinieblas don't stir up much action, and Santo's visibly slow and uncertain in some of the fight sequences. Understandable, as he was 64 years old at the time, given the 1917 birth date. Still, even for die-hard Santo fans, his performance is a distressing swan song.
There is also a monster in both films which is a throwback to the cheesy make-up o some of the earliest Santo features. A bit of ugly makeup and some fun fur applied haphazardly fall a bit short of inspiring terror. After years of sci-fi glitz props and better beasts, this serves as another marked weakness in the final films.
In the end analysis, Grace Renat's form is the key reason to watch these last entries in the Santo series. While it's good to again see Santo carrying on against evil, he's just not up to it this late in the game.
A communal 4 out of 10.
While some of the moves he displayed in earlier films were downright amazing to the viewer who was inexperienced in the lucha libre form of wrestling (and a few to those of us who knew of this version of the sport), by 1980, age was beginning to take its toll.
Not all that long after this film was completed, El Santo retired from the ring, realizing that his best days were behind him. He subsequently unmasked on television, and embarked on a brief career as an escape artist before passing away as the result of a heart attack, on 2/05/84.
Considering the impact that Santo had had in his earlier films, fans could have hoped for a better end to his career than his last two features.
FURY OF THE KARATE EXPERTS and its companion piece, FIST OF DEATH, were filmed in 1981-1982, with footage shot in Florida, of all places. Both share characters, primarily a dual performance by the amazingly endowed Grace Renat. Renat plays a good sister and an evil one, competing for a powerful crystal which can give the owner unstoppable power.
Added into the cast of FURY is Tinieblas (Darkness), a stuntman-turned-wrestler who had appeared in a number of previous genre films (esp. MUMMIES OF GUANAJUATO, generally playing monsters due to his strength, agility and superior height. In the ring, Tinieblas was startlingly quick on his feet, and became a popular entertainer.
Originally offered the role of SUPERZAN (a character created for use in feature films and not an actual wrestler), stuntman Manuel Leal opted for the Tinieblas persona and both wrestled professionally in this masked identity and made several films. Most notably, he was one of the members of the Champions of Justice -- a grouping of masked wrestlers who fought evil in a trio of entertaining films. In FURY, he is the evil sister's strongarm assistant.
This was also to be the last appearance of Carlos Suarez in a Santo feature, and it's fitting that he was along for the ride for the Man In The Silver Mask's last outing. Saurez was actually Santo's manager for some years, and frequently appeared in his films through the 1960s and 1970s. He was generally cast as a spy (SANTO CONTRA LA MAGIA NEGRA), a thug/henchman (SANTO CONTRA LA MAFIA DEL VICIO) or as a friend or assistant to the wrestler. In FURY, he returns as Cliff, Santo's pal from the previous film.
Set in some eastern country, the film is distressingly slow for a Santo feature. Martial artist Steve Chang and Tinieblas don't stir up much action, and Santo's visibly slow and uncertain in some of the fight sequences. Understandable, as he was 64 years old at the time, given the 1917 birth date. Still, even for die-hard Santo fans, his performance is a distressing swan song.
There is also a monster in both films which is a throwback to the cheesy make-up o some of the earliest Santo features. A bit of ugly makeup and some fun fur applied haphazardly fall a bit short of inspiring terror. After years of sci-fi glitz props and better beasts, this serves as another marked weakness in the final films.
In the end analysis, Grace Renat's form is the key reason to watch these last entries in the Santo series. While it's good to again see Santo carrying on against evil, he's just not up to it this late in the game.
A communal 4 out of 10.
When really big boobs aren't enough.
BA_Harrison18 July 2022
Are karate experts deadlier when furious, or does their anger cloud their judgement when fighting, leading them to make potentially fatal mistakes? Don't expect any answers to that question in The Fury of the Karate Experts, which, being a Santo movie, features very little in the way of karate, the fighting mostly being of the crap Mexican wrestling variety (even more crap than usual, this being the ageing Santo's cinematic swan-song).
Legendary luchador Santo plays 'the faceless one', who, accompanied by his friend Cliff (Carlos Suárez), parachutes into the jungle home of buxom beauty Queria to attend the wedding of Prince Ching Ka (Steve Cheng) and the mysterious blonde woman known only as 'the jungle girl'. However, the ceremony doesn't go quite as planned when Kungyan (Grace Renat), the evil and equally stacked twin sister of Queria, puts into motion several dastardly plans with the help of her golden masked henchman (Tinieblas), her aim being to take the jungle girl's magical 'star power' for herself.
Absolute z-grade trash from start to finish, The Fury of the Karate Experts is, by my reckoning, 60% scantily clad Kungyan gyrating her ass and jiggling her boobs to jungle rhythms, 20% bandana-wearing natives playing bongos in the bushes, 15% badly choreographed fighting, and 5% assorted tosh involving an elderly scientist (played by Mexican B-movie director René Cardona) and his daughter, a man/monster with patchy fur, and several killer gorillas (men in cheap and unconvincing ape costumes). Even by Santo standards, this one is bad, but not bad in a good way -- even Renat shaking her impressive assets at the camera becomes boring after a while.
Legendary luchador Santo plays 'the faceless one', who, accompanied by his friend Cliff (Carlos Suárez), parachutes into the jungle home of buxom beauty Queria to attend the wedding of Prince Ching Ka (Steve Cheng) and the mysterious blonde woman known only as 'the jungle girl'. However, the ceremony doesn't go quite as planned when Kungyan (Grace Renat), the evil and equally stacked twin sister of Queria, puts into motion several dastardly plans with the help of her golden masked henchman (Tinieblas), her aim being to take the jungle girl's magical 'star power' for herself.
Absolute z-grade trash from start to finish, The Fury of the Karate Experts is, by my reckoning, 60% scantily clad Kungyan gyrating her ass and jiggling her boobs to jungle rhythms, 20% bandana-wearing natives playing bongos in the bushes, 15% badly choreographed fighting, and 5% assorted tosh involving an elderly scientist (played by Mexican B-movie director René Cardona) and his daughter, a man/monster with patchy fur, and several killer gorillas (men in cheap and unconvincing ape costumes). Even by Santo standards, this one is bad, but not bad in a good way -- even Renat shaking her impressive assets at the camera becomes boring after a while.
PERFECT!
BandSAboutMovies17 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Before we get into this movie - Santo's last film - let's discuss some lucha libre history.
His career was winding down, particularly after facing off with death itself.
In 1981, El Signo, Negro Navarro and El Texano began teaming as a young rudos trio named Los Misioneros de la Muerte (The Missionaries of Death) in the UWA promotion. During a main event at El Toreo de Quatro Caminos, they battled El Santo, Huracan Ramirez and Rayo de Jalisco.
At some point in the match, the man in the silver mask collapsed from a heart attack. His life was saved by Ramirez and the legend of Los Misioneroes del Muerte - that they tried to actually kill El Santo - was born. They became the biggest heels in Mexico, eventually losing in Santo's last match on September 12, 1982, as he teamed with Ramirez, Gory Guerrero and El Solitario against Los Misioneros and Perro Aguayo.
That same year, Santo would appear in his final film, a sequel to El Puno de la Muerte (The Fist of Death), which was shot concurrently. Both movies concern the sisterly war between twins Kungyan, who dressed in black and is evil, and Queria, who - you guessed it, muchacho - dresses in white and is good. They're both played by Grace Renat and fur and fabric can barely contain the pneumatic tendencies of her busoms. Russ Meyer must have been going insane halfway across the world and had no idea why.
Renat left home at 14 to become a showgirl in the company of her older lover. By 24, she was a single mother and dancing in Tijuana's most infamous nightclubs as an exotic dancer. She was then awarded the title of Diosa de la Noche (Goddess of the Night) by Mexico's Asociación Nacional de Actores. Now, she was a star, appearing in movies like Las Munecas del King Kong, Pink Zone and El Hombre sin Miedo.
The two women are battling over a star crystal that looks like it came from Wicks 'n Sticks. There's also a Jungle Goddess who has come from the sky to marry a prince, assassins, zombies, Satanic rituals and no small amount of dance numbers.
Imagine, if you will, Mortal Kombat made with no budget and an aging lucha libre star, as well as the younger star Tieneblas as the evil assistant. This would be that movie and it's perfect and wonderful and all things special.
There are some out there that will make light of this movie and scoff at it. It's made on a shoestring, the fights are incredibly fake and the special effects could be done by a small child. I could care less what they think. This is a movie that begins with El Santo parachuting into the jungle while still wearing a cape. If that doesn't make you start looking for this movie right now, there's no hope for you.
Let me tell you one more thing: Kungyan dances so hard at one point that she conjures a monster, then still decides to send killer apes after Santo and a karate expert on the day of his wedding.
Ah hell, let me tell you another: Rene Cardona, who directed Santa Claus vs. the Devil, Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy, Night of the Bloody Apes and several Santo films, shows up as our hero's pal Professor Williams.
Alright, alright. Last thing. This was shot at Vizcaya Museum, an Italian Renaissance home in Miami's Coconut Grove that also appears in Airport '77, and Coral Castle, an oolite limestone wonder created by Edward Leedskalnin via either magneticism, perptual motion or outright sorcery. It also shows up in the movies The Wild Women of Wongo and Nude on the Moon, as well as inspiring Billy Idol to write the song "Sweet Sixteen."
His career was winding down, particularly after facing off with death itself.
In 1981, El Signo, Negro Navarro and El Texano began teaming as a young rudos trio named Los Misioneros de la Muerte (The Missionaries of Death) in the UWA promotion. During a main event at El Toreo de Quatro Caminos, they battled El Santo, Huracan Ramirez and Rayo de Jalisco.
At some point in the match, the man in the silver mask collapsed from a heart attack. His life was saved by Ramirez and the legend of Los Misioneroes del Muerte - that they tried to actually kill El Santo - was born. They became the biggest heels in Mexico, eventually losing in Santo's last match on September 12, 1982, as he teamed with Ramirez, Gory Guerrero and El Solitario against Los Misioneros and Perro Aguayo.
That same year, Santo would appear in his final film, a sequel to El Puno de la Muerte (The Fist of Death), which was shot concurrently. Both movies concern the sisterly war between twins Kungyan, who dressed in black and is evil, and Queria, who - you guessed it, muchacho - dresses in white and is good. They're both played by Grace Renat and fur and fabric can barely contain the pneumatic tendencies of her busoms. Russ Meyer must have been going insane halfway across the world and had no idea why.
Renat left home at 14 to become a showgirl in the company of her older lover. By 24, she was a single mother and dancing in Tijuana's most infamous nightclubs as an exotic dancer. She was then awarded the title of Diosa de la Noche (Goddess of the Night) by Mexico's Asociación Nacional de Actores. Now, she was a star, appearing in movies like Las Munecas del King Kong, Pink Zone and El Hombre sin Miedo.
The two women are battling over a star crystal that looks like it came from Wicks 'n Sticks. There's also a Jungle Goddess who has come from the sky to marry a prince, assassins, zombies, Satanic rituals and no small amount of dance numbers.
Imagine, if you will, Mortal Kombat made with no budget and an aging lucha libre star, as well as the younger star Tieneblas as the evil assistant. This would be that movie and it's perfect and wonderful and all things special.
There are some out there that will make light of this movie and scoff at it. It's made on a shoestring, the fights are incredibly fake and the special effects could be done by a small child. I could care less what they think. This is a movie that begins with El Santo parachuting into the jungle while still wearing a cape. If that doesn't make you start looking for this movie right now, there's no hope for you.
Let me tell you one more thing: Kungyan dances so hard at one point that she conjures a monster, then still decides to send killer apes after Santo and a karate expert on the day of his wedding.
Ah hell, let me tell you another: Rene Cardona, who directed Santa Claus vs. the Devil, Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy, Night of the Bloody Apes and several Santo films, shows up as our hero's pal Professor Williams.
Alright, alright. Last thing. This was shot at Vizcaya Museum, an Italian Renaissance home in Miami's Coconut Grove that also appears in Airport '77, and Coral Castle, an oolite limestone wonder created by Edward Leedskalnin via either magneticism, perptual motion or outright sorcery. It also shows up in the movies The Wild Women of Wongo and Nude on the Moon, as well as inspiring Billy Idol to write the song "Sweet Sixteen."
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