MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
SILVER MASK MAN, despite its name, was not the first Santo film. A handful of online references assert that producer Rene Cardona (Sr) wanted to begin a series of Santo films, starting with this 12-part serial. Santo had already started turning his wrestling persona into a franchise, starting with a Mexican comic book, but for whatever reason he didn't want to work on this project. My guess is that Cardona's lawyers told him he could get away with using the generic name of the hero as a title, as long as Cardona didn't claim that the hero was Santo.
In the States cinematic serials had almost died out thanks to the competition of television, but it seems that the format lasted longer in Mexico, where individuals didn't as much access to TVs. Yet it seems that at some point the Mexican government forbade the release of chapterplays, and this forced some producers to rework their serial projects into three or more standalone movies, as happened with the three strongly-interrelated "Aztec Mummy" movies.
However, despite Cardona having both directed and co-written the chapterplay, MASK is a really boring serial. Every opening chapter begins with the hero (whose name is not "Silver Mask Man," but "El Medico Assassin," more euphoniously rendered as "The Killer Doctor.") The Doctor, with barely any information, appears on the scene when the villainous El Lobo begins trying to take over the world with a weather-control machine. However, as soon as The Doctor starts wading into Lobo's small army-- and the script just forgets about the super-weapon. All twelve episodes look pretty much the same. Lobo's goons lay a new criminal plan, the Doctor interferes, he's almost killed by some contrivance. The only exciting moment appears at the beginning of each credit-roll: as The Doctor is seen riding heroically toward the audience. I couldn't place the music, but it sounded very familiar, and I wouldn't be surprised if Cardona didn't swipe the opening from a Republic serial, since every part of MASK seems a dead-on emulation of the Republic style.
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