NOTES: after a long wait, I finally got to see this entry in the Luchadoras series, and while it is a decent picture, my pleasure was dulled by the realization that Alfredo Salazar had done it again. The plot is a variation on El mundo de los vampiros (which Salazar adapted from a story by others), and large portions of the script were subsequently re-used for Santo y Blue Demon contra Drácula y el Hombre Lobo, right down to some of the dialogue. Consequently, a film I had never seen before was all too familiar.

Add to this a rather abrupt, anti-climactic conclusion, a miscast Ariadne Welter (replacing Lorena Velázquez), and a disappointing performance by "Loco" Valdés in the comic relief slot, and Las mujeres panteras has a couple of strikes against it. But there are a number of positive aspects as well, not the least of which is the presence of Elizabeth Campbell in her last Luchadoras outing. Campbell looks great (as usual), and her character is significantly more active and assertive than Welter. In addition to the titular panther women (all two of them)--who look a little silly in their furry beanies with ears, but one can't expect too much, can one?--there is a big zombie-like monster (Angel Di Stefani, a former Aztec Mummy) who looks appropriately gruesome but doesn't have much to do and dies far too easily. One odd aspect is the inclusion of a masked hero, El Angel, who is a professional wrestler (like Santo) and a crime-fighter (like Santo), and even has a secret lab (like Santo) and drives a convertible sports car (like Santo). His dialogue is dubbed, like Santo. However, I've seen El Santo, and El Angel is not El Santo. He isn't bad, but the script really uses him as just one part of the heroic ensemble--which includes the Luchadoras and Eric del Castillo and Loco Valdés as police agents--and he doesn't have much of a personality. On balance, however, Las mujeres panteras is an entertaining picture, well-paced and with a good amount of action.

The film opens in a secret cave, where high priestess Satanasa gives a quick introduction to the plot (in the guise of an invocation to other members of the cult): 200 years before, their leader Eloím was killed by a member of the Pietra Santa family, wielding the "Druid sword." Over the years, the cult has had its revenge, so that now only 4 members of the Pietra Santa family are left--and soon there will be zero.

The scene shifts to the arena, where Gloria Venus and The Golden Rubí are involved in a tag team match. [Both Welter and Campbell do a fair amount of their own wrestling in the two arena matches shown in the picture. In the second match, Welter's double is rather obvious, since her hair is longer and darker, but Campbell seems to have done most of her own stunts, although several falls are done in extreme long shot so it's hard to tell for sure. However, Campbell's body type is fairly distinctive, and it would have been hard to find a real female wrestler that tall and--relatively--slim.] After the match, the Luchadoras are greeted in their dressing room by Gloria's uncle Professor Pietra Santa and his son Ramón. They go out to a nightclub and watch Tongo perform an exotic dance; afterwards, Ramón introduces her as his fiancee (he's a widower with a young daughter). [Tongolele still looks good as a dancer, but she is obviously considerably older than Genaro Moreno and has a rather hard face; in this scene, she also has about a pound of sequins on each eyelid.]

Later, in the Pietra Santa home, the Professor displays a death threat he received from "Las panteras de Eloím." He reads them the story of Eloím from an old book (the scenes are displayed in flashback, but the Professor can be heard in voiceover): Eloím was the head of an evil cult who was killed by good magician Héctor Pietra Santa with the Druid sword. Before he dies, Eloím cursed the Pietra Santa and their descendants. The Professor shows them the Druid sword, and says Paquita (Ramón's daughter) is the last of the family. He adds that members of the cult can change into panthers to achieve their sinister aims.

Satanasa enters a crypt in a graveyard and opens the coffin of Eloím. She tells him the first Pietra Santa will die that night. [Satanasa wears a cloak with a panther head on the back, somewhat resembling the "Puma" mascot of UNAM; when he shows up later, El Angel has a cloak with a big "A" on it, so that the characters begin to resemble rival sports teams.] This victim is the Professor; after Ramón leaves to take the Luchadoras home, the older man leaves the Druid sword on the bed of his sleeping granddaughter. But when the Professor opens the closet of his bedroom, he's attacked by a panther woman (shown very briefly).

The next day, police detective Díaz tells Gloria and Rubí that the Professor is dead. At the morgue, they meet up with Ramón and Tongo. The Professor was clawed to death, as if by a tiger or...a panther. Díaz decides to call a friend for help--

Which is a cue for a cut to the arena, as El Angel defeats Cavernario Galindo. In the locker room, El Angel gets a call from Díaz on his wrist-radio. They meet at El Angel's lab. El Angel: "Once more we'll fight together for goodness and justice" (this line was reused almost verbatim in Santo y Blue Demon vs. Drácula y el Hombre Lobo). El Angel shows Díaz his new bullet-proof and fire-proof cape, a sure tip-off that we'll be seeing this cape in action, later. They split up the work, and Díaz gets the good assignment, guarding Las Luchadoras, while El Angel will watch over Ramón.

Ramón takes Tongo home to meet Paquita. While he's out of the room, Tongo plays with a caged bird; when Ramón returns, the bird is dead (does anybody remember Simone Simon in The Cat People?) and Tongo is hiding in the closet ("a joke," she lamely says). Paquita doesn't like the looks of her prospective step-mother, and runs out. Later, Tongo tells Satanasa that she didn't kill Ramón because Paquita was with him. El Angel has been spying on this meeting (in Tongo's apartment), and radios Díaz, his goofy assistant Leocadio, and the Luchadoras to help shadow Satanasa when she leaves.

But Satanasa is no fool; she radios to her cult members to set up a trap, but to avoid using their guns, since it is not time to kill Gloria (yet). A fight breaks out in a warehouse. [This is filmed nicely, with a lot of quick cuts and closeups; Rubí doles out a lot of punishment, while Leocadio is beaten up by a midget. Ha ha.] El Angel arrives and the villains flee. Rubí is attracted to the muscular wrestler, who says he wears a mask because "I fight for justice and justice has no face."

Later, through a wiretap on Tongo's phone, El Angel hears her make a date with Ramón. He tries to follow them, but is pursued by a carload of cult members (a nice, surprisingly long car chase on the Mexico City freeways at night). El Angel takes shelter in an old house, then, to escape, leaps into a big pile of bales of hay. The cult members set the hay on fire and then riddle the bales with bullets. That does it for El Angel, right? Well, no, because (remember) he has that bullet-and-fire-proof cape, and (some time later, after the gunmen are gone), he emerges from the ashes, no worse for wear.

The same can't be said for Ramón. He and Tongo go for a walk in the woods, she changes into a panther woman (again, seen only briefly), and puts the bite on him. Cut to Gloria telling Paquita that her father went on a "long trip" (good thinking, Gloria). El Angel, Díaz, Leocadio, Gloria, and Rubí have a conference: "Who or what is the cause of these deaths?" Cut to Eloím's crypt, where a panther statue spouts flames. Satanasa pours a vial of Ramón's blood on Eloím's corpse, which comes to life (in a manner of speaking): he's tall, wears a dusty robe, and has a decomposed skull-face with a couple of strands of hair (the basic design is similar to the mummy in Las luchadoras contra la momia, but this is definitely a different--or at least considerably reworked--mask). Eloím goes to kidnap Paquita, but the sight of the Druid sword--which she still sleeps with (fortunately it's in a scabbard)--repulses him.

The cult concocts a brilliant plan to get Paquita. Tongo and Eda pose as two black-masked wrestlers (Las Sombras) and challenge Las Luchadoras to a match. Satanasa says: "You're more agile, stronger, and you have claws!" Although they are suspicious (El Angel says he recognized Tongo's eyes), Gloria and Rubí agree. The night of the match, they leave the sleeping Paquita in their dressing room, with two cops guarding the door.

The match begins. Meanwhile, El Angel eavesdrops on the cult members who--in their hideout--are watching the match on TV. He hears them say that the Sombras will become panther women at 10pm and that will end the match. He heads for the arena. Sure enough, the Luchadoras watch as their opponents' hands turn into furry claws. Díaz and El Angel (who has just arrived) leap into the ring to help subdue the panther women; Díaz and Gloria are clawed on their arms, while Rubí suffers a wound on her thigh (there is an oddly realistic closeup of Rubí grimacing in pain). The panther women flee outside: one (Eda) is shot to death. Satanasa is there, and swears vengeance even as she is taken into custody. However, panther-Tongo has kidnaped Paquita!

Rubí comes up with the idea to threaten Satanasa with the Druid sword; the cult priestess tells them where Paquita is being held (in Eloím's crypt), then commits suicide by leaping out of a window. El Angel, Díaz, Leocadio, Gloria, and Rubí go to the crypt, spotting the dead body of Tongo who (finally )succumbed to her wounds just outside, but inside they can't locate Paquita, until Rubí hears a sound from inside Eloím's stone coffin.

They free Paquita but Eloím also emerges, only to be stabbed to death with the Druid sword (Rubí falters at the last second, so El Angel does it). Eloím tumbles back into his coffin and bursts into flame.

El Angel, his job done, vanishes. Díaz says "the Angel is a hero, a true hero...who fights for justice." The film ends with a closeup of El Angel's mask and cape.

A couple of final comments. It is curious to note that Las lobas del ring (the only Luchadoras film I have yet to see and the only one without any fantasy elements) was shot in July 1964 and Las mujeres panteras was made in February 1966, yet some of the supporting players appear in similar roles (example: Manuel Alvarado is a radio announcer in both films and Armando Gutiérrez is a wrestling promoter in both films). Yet it doesn't appear that footage was re-used, so perhaps this was just a coincidence.

Elizabeth Campbell, although second-billed to Ariadne Welter, is certainly the dominant member of the duo in this picture, whereas in the earlier films she had been subsidiary to Lorena Velázquez as "Gloria Venus." While the two women always appear together, Campbell has more footage within the scenes, including closeups, and she is certainly more proactive that Welter's character. The humorous/romantic relationship which Campbell was saddled with in every Luchadora film (her partners were, in order, Chucho Salinas (twice), Pompín Iglesias, and "Loco" Valdés, all less than physically imposing comedians) is still kind of annoying, although she generally regards Valdés with a sort of amused contempt (Valdés is terrible in this picture, as if some one told him to tone down his usual wackiness and suggested he alternate not doing anything and acting infantile, instead). Campbell is really a striking specimen and delivers her own dialogue, with a slight but acceptable gringa accent.

Las mujeres panteras isn't a rediscovered classic, but it's a fun picture and worth watching.

Many thanks to Freddy Peralta for loaning me a copy of this tape!

Back to the Elizabeth Campbell Filmography. This review posted 16 March 2000 by D.Wilt (dwilt@umd.edu).