MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological* I know next to nothing about Rocambole, an adventurer who first saw life in French newspaper serials of the mid 19th-century. He's sometimes been cited as "the first superhero," but I don't find that he had either a costume or special powers, beyond maybe some stage-magic. I don't think the Mexican filmmakers behind this film, the second of two directed and co-written by one Emilio Muriel in 1967, knew anything about the original character either. I think it's pretty likely that they just seized upon a public-domain character who had a little cachet in Europe and molded him into a longjohn-wearing hero to profit off the popularity of '66 BATMAN. Unfortunately, ROCAMBOLE VS. THE SCORPION SECT-- which had a subtitled copy on YouTube-- is mostly so dull that it makes the '68 Mexican BATWOMAN look good. The opening isn't bad. Rocambole (Julio Aleman) is seen in his stage-identity of performing magician "The Hindu," but as soon as the act is done, he confers with his female assistant and changes into cape and cowl. Rocambole invades a private residence looking for evidence on an embezzler. However, a new villain anticipates the hero's move and ambushes him. The villain's thugs (including German Robles of NOSTRADAMUS fame) take the hero to a theater and sit him down as their master, The Scorpion, seeks to persuade Rocambole to join the sect. Seems the Scorpion-- who talks remotely through a dummy of himself-- has been knocking off various political figures to sow chaos. Rocambole nobly refuses the offer and leaps up to do battle-- fortunately, because the seat he was occupying suddenly surges with fatal electricity. The thugs and their master escape and then-- about an hour of dull talking-head scenes ensues. Rocambole confers with his lady-love henchgirl and a short male aide, the comedy relief of the movie. Rocambole tries to persuade two or three political figures of their peril, but they get killed anyway, one by a poisonous scorpion. Rocambole gets helped out of danger by a police confidante once, but it's a really dull scene. Only toward the end does the sluggish action pick up a bit. Rocambole in his secret ID has to be hospitalized for an injury, and the Scorpion sends a karate-chopping female nurse to assassinate the hero. Surprisingly, the battle lasts a good three minutes before Rocambole wins. But after that, there's just a few more routine confrontations before the Scorpion and his agents are defeated. SCORPION's got zero sting, except for completists of the period's superhero films.
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