Jo Brand (Sergio Testori/Steve Lester) is a wrestler. After a match with another wrestler (Emilio Messina) Jo is kidnapped. There have been a lot of kidnappings happening for the last couple years. All of the victims were athletes of some kind, and no ransoms were ever demanded. The Secret Service’s agent, J.G. Stafford (Aldo Bufi Landi/William O’Connor) visits Davies (Tomas Blanco/Thomas Blank) of the police department to seek the help of Superargo (Giovanni Cianfriglia/Ken Wood) in finding Jo.
Superargo is a former wrestler who now fights crime. He wears a mask and a red leotard in his work, the same costume he wore as a wrestler. Superargo is currently working with an Eastern mystic, Kamir (Aldo Sambrell/Harold Sambrel) to improve his mental acuity and further develop his psychic energy.
According to reports, Jo, as well as the previous kidnapped people, were taken by a group of “faceless giants”. The same faceless giants then rob a bank. Superargo finds out that a kidnapping attempt had previously been made on Jo’s sister, Claire (Luisa Baratto/Liz Barrett). With the help of Kamir, Superargo hatches a plan to use Claire as bait, but the plan fails, and Claire is kidnapped.
Superargo manages to capture one of the faceless giants. He learns that the giants are actually the kidnapped athletes that have been turned into a form of robot. He also finds out that the process to change people into robots was developed by Dr. Arthur Presinski (Valerio Tordi/Alex Brooks). He also learns that Presinski’s daughter, Gloria Devon (Diana Lorys/Diana Loris) stole her father’s journals and with her cohort, Professor Wendland Wond (Guy Madison), is building an army of robots.
“Superargo and the Faceless Giants” AKA “Superargo - L'invincibile Superman” AKA “Superargo, el gigante” AKA “Superargo, The King of Criminals” AKA “Superargo the Giant” was released in 1968 and was directed by Paolo Bianchini (credited as Paul Maxwell). It is an Italian and Spanish science fiction Superhero film and is a sequel to “Superargo vs Diabolicus” 1966.
Superargo is Spain’s and Italy’s answer to Mexico’s Santos. Santos is also a crime fighting ex-wrestler. Italy did another film with the character Argoman in 1967 called “Argoman the Fantastic Superman”, but it is not part of the Giovanni Cianfriglia series. There were quite a few European Superhero movies. Many of them were based on a low-key version of Superman or Batman and many also had plots that involved James Bond style themes.
There are no giants, and no one is faceless. The giants are people dressed up like Dr. Who Cybermen but with stockings over their heads. They were actually interesting robots in a 60’s sort of way but they were average size. The story is not as interesting as “Superargo vs Diabolicus” and it doesn’t have near as many spy toys as in the first movie. The first film was fun, and I can understand why the filmmakers did a sequel, but they fell down a little bit when it came to making the movie interesting. It’s not horrible, but it doesn’t have that fun little campy vibe like the first film.