SUPERARGO VS. DIABOLICUS

SUPERARGO VS. DIABOLICUS stars Ken Wood as our titled hero and Gerard Tichy as our titled villain respectively. As you can tell by the title, these two don't get along very well, like Godzilla and Megalon. The film is a cash-in on all those wrestling movies made in Mexico starring Santo and his buddies. But, it did come out around the same time the Batman TV series aired. So it's more interested in ripping off Santo and James Bond than the caped crusader.

The film begins in a bar, with a bunch of drunks about to watch a wrestling match on TV. They start arguing about why Superago wears a mask. whether or not the fight is fixed, and if this Superargo has super powers. Now the fight begins and we meet Superargo's opponent, El Tigre. He is kind of a generic wrestler with a Mohawk, and they begin to fight in the filthiest wrestling ring in the history of man. I think a homeless guy lives there on weekdays. Things seem to go pretty well for the super one until he throws Tigerman out of the ring. It seems the tiger guy broke his fall by using his head, literally. OK, I guess that joke is pretty old, but the point is tiger dude is dead and Superargo feels responsible. Then the titles start, showing the inner turmoil in his messed-up psyche. Getting back to the story, we find the masked hero drinking with his girlfriend at his apartment. Which would be a normal scene, except that he is in full costume. He starts confessing his guilt for using his super strength in the ring. Then he complains that he always has to wears his mask. It's never explained why he always has to wear a mask. The guy doesn't have secret identity? I think he should get one. He could make friends, take his girlfriend out to dinner, and smell better. Also, his girlfriend might find it more comfortable drinking with him at home alone. The girlfriend suggests he retire and ask his old war buddy for a job. It's fortunate that his buddy is head of the secret service; he could have been an assistant manager at Denny's.

Luckily there is a job opening, and a guy who runs around in red spandex is perfect for it. Seems there is wacko, named Diabolicus, who likes to go on killing sprees to steal uranium and mercury. His buddy says to go find his secret base and kill everybody. So Superargo goes off on a boat with a bunch of spy gadgets and finds an island with a secret base on it. He sneaks around awhile before getting caught. He then gets tortured a bit, but luckily the villain gives great exposition. It seems Diabolicus just wants to manufacture gold and flood the economy with his B.S. gold. Superargo doesn't like this idea, so he does a bunch of things to thwart the guy's plans: Like escaping, punching a bunch of people, and mowing down the hired help with machine guns. It work out pretty well for him.

SUPERARGO VS. DIABOLICUS is a pretty wild movie. One of the most amazing things about it is how seriously it takes itself. There is almost no humor in it. But, the director keeps things at a fast pace, with really tight editing. The movie feels like it has the budget it needs to tell the story. Not a very high budget mind you, but just enough to get the job done. Plus I like his jazzy theme song.

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