There is a strangler loose at the Teatro Variedades (Variety Theater). The strangler has been targeting beautiful singers. He then leaves a gardenia at the scene of each strangling. In the rafters a stagehand, Marcos (Eric del Castillo) is seen by another stagehand, (Tito Novaro), trying to shoot one of the singers, Laura (Maria Duval). Later another singer, Odette (Mayte Carol), is found strangled. Police Inspector Villegas (Carlos Lopez Moctezuma) is called into action. Marcos is questioned but since there is no gun and no one was actually shot, Villegas has nothing to charge him with. He also has no evidence that Marcos has anything to do with the stranglings.
As for the actual identity of the strangler, Villegas has no clues other than some gardenias. He asks his friend and fellow crime fighter, Santo (Santo), for help. Santo agrees.
Javier (Alberto Vazquez) and his girlfriend Irene (Begona Palacios) decide to investigate the murders on their own. The strangler tries to kill Javier but is interrupted by Santo. The killer hires some thugs to get rid of Santo but two of them are killed by police and the one they capture has no idea who hired them.
Marcos had indeed planned on killing Laura at the request of another singer in the show, Lillianne (Ofelis Montesco). Lillianne drops Marcos since he was unable to complete his task. Marcos is a wrestler and has a match with Santo (Santo). While in the ring Marcos ends up shot by the strangler, who seems to have been aiming for Santo.
An orphan named Milton (Milton Ray) attaches himself to Santo and wants the wrestler to be his father. As Santo tries to deal with fatherhood the strangler continues killing. It will take some investigating to figure out who the killer is and why.
“Santo vs The Strangler” AKA “Santo vs el estrangulador” was released in 1965 and was directed by Rene Cardona. It is a Mexican murder mystery musical and a luchador film with a couple horror elements tossed in. The movie is a combination of “The Phantom of the Opera” and “The House of Wax” with singing and dancing. A sequel called “Santo vs The Ghost of the Strangler” AKA “Espectro del estrangulador” was done in 1966.
The first 20 minutes or so is basically all song and dance numbers and wrestling. Once that is done there is more song and dance and a little more wrestling scattered throughout the film. I believe there are at least nine songs performed. Even the orphan, Milton, sings a song. The version I have is fan subtitled. It appears that they find Milton, the boy that Santo adopts, annoying. I did too but I wasn’t expecting his song to be quite that prophetic. Their translation of "Blame it on the Bosa Nova" was interesting and more enjoyable than I thought it would be.
Santo himself doesn’t appear until almost a half hour into the film. Even then the story is interrupted quite often by various songs. It is a hodge podge of ideas and styles. The story would have been a little more interesting if it hadn’t been chopped up by all the songs. I lost track, and a little interest, when the story elements were interrupted by someone singing a song. Some of the songs were a little different than you’d expect, but not interesting enough to overtake my annoyance at their interruption. It is two movies in one. Fast forward through the songs and it’s a mystery. Fast forward through the mystery and it’s a musical.
The secret identity of the killer is not a total surprise, but the killer’s background came out of left field. I’m not sure how Santo and the Inspector came to suspect the killer’s origin story.