THE CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE (1971)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

Director Federico Curiel bored me with his work on the first three NEUTRON films, but by 1971 he was definitely in the right groove with this luchadores film, which appears to be the first one to team up five celebrity wrestlers as a superhero team. There's no tedious exposition here-- and for that matter, not even an origin for the team-- just a mad scientist unleashing his monsters on the world, and the noble heroes coming together to defeat him.

The high energy of the proceedings is furthered by the sheer absurdity of the menace, for mad scientist Doctor Zarkoff (hmm, sounds familiar) uses his mad science to make a bunch of midgets into fighting furies. If there was any particular reason for his choice in super soldiers, I must have missed it. But yes, it's grand fun seeing a bunch of super-strong midgets toss around the five champions. This time at least, the super-popular Santo is absent, though he'd just made two teamup flicks with Blue Demon. This time around, the champions consist of Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras, El Sombra Vengador, Tinieblas, and El Medico Asenino. And in case any lucha-fans felt the need for at least one full-sized opponent, Zarkoff just happens to have a rogue wrestler, Black Shadow, in his employ.

The spectacle of tiny men vs. big men could be said to embody a minimal psychological myth, but as it happens the writers included an even more unusual one. There had been various masked wrestler films in which the hero, even masked, seemed a little too old for his leading lady. This time, all five heroes are paralleled by very young women, though supposedly all the wrestlers function as godfathers to the ladies. All five girls participate in a beauty contest, where they are cheered on by their respective "uncles." I know that this was presented as an innocent situation, albeit also a transparent way of getting some pulchritude into the story, but somehow the parallelism still seems a bit on the creepy side.