PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
As the above lobby card shows, the movie possesses a longer alternative title, but the short form works well enough for describing what happens in it: the peripatetic Silver Mask makes his way into a "ranchera movie," where he meets a character played by popular Mexican singer Irma "The Tigress" Serrano.
There's not much else to the film. Santo is summoned to the ranch of La Tigresa to find out who's plotting to kill her. In between mostly mundane murder attempts, Santo has a minor romantic dalliance with the ranch-woman and there are a lot of songs, as ranchera films tended to display. Santo has a few fights with hired henchmen, and with one fellow who almost seems like one of the monsters of the wrestler's more mind-bending flicks: a hulking fellow with a deformed face.
There's also a more mundane "monster" in the story, but at first he seems to be a down-to-earth specimen, for he's hunchbacked ranch-servant Alejandro. Since there aren't a lot of candidates for the murder-mastermind, it's no big surprise to learn that Alejandro is the culprit. In fact, he's been raising the big deformed brute in hiding for twenty years in order to await just the right opportunity, for the brute is actually La Tigresa's half-brother. Alejandro brings the hulk along to strangle his half-sister, but the big guy can't do it, turns on his master, and is shot to death. Santo shows up for the finale but has little to do.
TIGRESS is distinguished only by being the dullest Santo film I've ever seen. I certainly hope there's nothing worse.
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