Genre: Horror / Sci-Fi
Plot Summary: A mad scientist terrorizes a city by kidnapping young women with his ape-man Gomar and then using them as subjects in sadistic brain transplant experiments. A female wrestler whose sister was one of the victims swears vengeance against the Mad Doctor.
Now let me say that I went into this movie expecting a bad 1960s flick with a weird Mexican wrestling flavor. I've never seen any of the weird-ass movies with El Santo or others of that genre, so I didn't really know what to expect. I fully expected the only enjoyment I'd get out of this flick would be laughing at how bad it was.
Users of IMDB rate it as a 4 on a 1-10 scale.
NetFlix users give it 1.5 stars out of 5.
Also Known As:
Doctor of Doom (1962) (USA)
Sex Monster (1962) (USA)
Rock N' Roll Wrestling Women Vs. the Aztec Ape (1986) (USA: video title (recut version))
I stand by my life-long opinion that there are no good movies (cartoons excepted) that came out before 1965. The best pre-1965 movie I've seen is The Seven Year Itch (1955) which I gave a .565 (6/10).
First thought on Doctor of Doom: eeew... it's in black and white. That sucks.
"For a moment, he fought to go on living." --Doctor, talking about a female patient with huge gazongas on the table in front of him. Guess the dub into English was done in a hurry. Or is Spanish one of those languages where "dead body" (no matter the gender) is masculine?
"Quiet down, Gomar!" --Doctor, after Gomar made no sound whatsoever.
The doctor transplanted a gorilla brain into a human, and he guesses (correctly, as it turns out) that the human will eventually grow hair and turn completely into a gorilla. Okaaaaay...
The doctor's assistant guesses that the problem with their latest experiment is that they're trying to transplant brains of stupid women into new bodies. He thinks they should go for someone with a higher IQ--so they look at the crop of female wrestlers. Boy, is *that* a change from today's public perception of the intelligence of the average pro-wrestler! Oh wait. they got the sister of the pro-wrestler (who is a scientist). Never mind.
I suppose they figure no one will stop to think that it makes no sense what the intelligence of the person whose brain you're going to discard was. What they should have done was put the smart chick's brain in someone else's body, not put some random brain in the smart chick's body.
Ha ha! The head of the Secret Service looks like Bob Ryder!
Um... the scientist told the guy next to her to buy her a newspaper (from the guy yelling "Extra extra" outside the door. She gave him money, and he left. He never came back with the newspaper. Yeah, I know this is a "B movie" and you're not supposed to go looking for continuity errors, but don't they even watch their own movies after they're done filming (or translating, if it was only a problem in the English dubbed version)?
It was cute how Gloria immediately asked Rubi to move in with her (with very suggestive overtones). I guess lesbianism was alive and well in 1962 Mexico.
"I hope my men didn't harm you. Take them to the death chamber!" --Doctor
They did the old campy Batman "wall full of spikes slowly moving toward the heroes" routine.
Two women keep a crowbar in the back seat of their convertible? Weird.
At the end, the Evil Scientist kidnaps another female wrestler, transplants the gorilla brain from Gomar into her, puts a mask on her, and uses telepathy to have her try to kill Gloria in the ring.
The wrestling was okay, but I guess I expected more high flying. Other than a few head scissors, there wasn't much aerial stuff. Is it only the men who have that style in Mexico, or didn't the high-flying matches start until later in the 20th century?
All in all, it was light on the plot (pretty much stolen directly from Frankenstein), didn't have much wrestling action, and is only enjoyable if you're a fan of bad B movies from the 1960s.
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Movie Ratings
Doctor of Doom (1962) aka Las Luchadoras Contra el Médico