Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Michael_Elliott Doctor of Doom (1963) ** (out of 4) Very silly but entertaining Mexican horror film about a mad scientist who is putting the hearts of apes into the bodies of females. When all of the females keep dying the doctor decides to use a stronger body, that of a female wrestler, and by doing so he plans on using her to kill a couple other female wrestlers who blew up his laboratory. If you're wanting some sort of art picture then I'd recommend several films by Luis Bunuel because that's not what you're going to be getting out of this picture. DOCTOR OF DOOM makes very little sense, the special effects aren't that special and the performances rank just above a middle-school production but all of this just adds to the charm. I think what makes the film work so well is that the pacing is pretty fast and there's always something crazy going on. It's funny hearing dialogue early on talking about how women are "too weak" to be experimented on and yet the doctor just keeps using them. He blames women for not being strong enough to live through his operations but then he sends his men out to get another woman. We also have an accident of the doctors, which is a half man, half ape creation who does the majority of the dirty work. You can tell that didn't have too much money to fix him us as he's just got a few patches of hair scattered around his body. In the English dubbed version we get some hilarious heavy breathing from the creature, which makes him more charming than scary. Then, of course, you have the downright silly wrestling scenes that add nothing and I'm still trying to figure out why they were so important in the first place. Naturally these must have been very popular in the day but today it just comes off rather silly and childish. While there's no tension or drama, the director at least keeps the pace rather fast and it's funny seeing the various ways that the story changes for no reason or watching things happen, which couldn't have possibly happened. Just check out the highlight when a couple cops are about to be smashed to death in a secret room (think THE RAVEN torture trap) and the wall is just a foot or so away from them. They use their watches to call out for help and the female wrestlers, in a different location, have time to drive to them, walk around the house slowly and then finally track them down. Seeing this scene play out is a non-stop laugh and one of the reasons the film remains entertaining.

rixrex While not a film of any real significance or importance in the overall history of horror film, this is still an enjoyable treat, presenting the cinematic debut of the two lovely amazon wrestling women, Gloria Venus and Golden Rubi, who would then be re-united in the 1964 film, Wrestling Women vs Aztec Mummy.These two girls are good examples of the kind of girlfriend a guy ought to have - buxom, beautiful, tough yet feminine, and they have jobs too.The best thing about these Mexican horror films is not that they are frightening, for they aren't, but that they are fast-paced and adventurous fantasy, if silly at times, with good character humor. Always enjoyable and never too gruesome for the kids.

Andrew Leavold I'm not sure about you, but I find there's something mildly fetishistic about masked wrestlers. But women without masks throwing grown men around the ring… Wrestling Women vs The Aztec Ape was the first in a series of six Wrestling Women or "Las Luchadoras" films, an attempt to feminize the almost entirely masculine world of masked wrestling movies. The first three team Mexican genre icon Lorena Velasquez with American cupcake Elizabeth Campbell, and two were successful enough to get the K. Gordon Murray treatment. Thus Las Luchadoras Contra el Medico Asesino becomes "Doctor Of Doom", and later in the 80s gets a bogus surf soundtrack and is re-dubbed "Rock And Roll Wrestling Women vs The Aztec Ape".Lorena Velasquez is Gloria Venus, a gorgeous almond-eyed wrestling dynamo who gets thrown around the ring then leaves it without a hair from her Elizabeth Taylor do out of place. She's teamed up with new partner The Golden Rubi, a red-haired firebrand from North of the Border, and from the moment they meet they become the best of friends. But not that good, if you know what I mean.Wrestling Women… opens with a series of murders attributed to a killer branded the Mad Doctor, who leaves his female victims completely brainless. The Doctor, who spends most of the film with his head in a pillowcase with eye-holes, is intent on perfecting brain transplants, and has even grafted a gorilla's brain into a man's body. The resulting monobrowed monster known as Gomar, a goofy-looking creature with arms covered in carpet fluff, is sent out to grab more women, and one happens to be wrestler Gloria Venus' sister Alice Fontaine (or Alicia Flores). As she dies on the table, the Mad Doctor decides he needs a more resilient female subject - physically strong, as well as intelligent, and with a profession. It's no stretch of the imagination who he picks – Lorena Velasquez, I'm looking at you! Aided by the Golden Rubi, the inspector and his diminutive assistant as well Alice's kindly boss Professor Wright (who's dubbed to sound like James Mason), Gloria sets out to seek revenge. After a few false endings the Doctor manages to escape the gauntlet, and successfully transplants the Ape's killer brain into the body of a female wrestler (complete with cries of "She's alive! She's alive!"). Adding a mask, she becomes "Vendetta", and the Mad Doctor, also in a ghoulish mask posing as her masked manager, challenges Gloria to a death match. The plan is to legally murder her in the ring, and so Gloria now needs to fight for her life! Aztec Ape is directed by masked wrestling specialist Rene Cardona Sr, who masterminded all six Wrestling Women films, and also directed Lorena Velasquez in Santo vs The Zombies and Santo vs The Vampire Women. Lorena was one of the few wrestling movie icons to NOT be a professional wrestler, and subsequently needed a body double for many of her ring sequences. And you can tell she's not a real wrestler - she's certainly more "leggy" than the other girls at the Wrestling Academy.Prepare yourself to be thrown kicking and screaming into the ring with Las Luchadoras in Wrestling Women vs The Aztec Ape.

Gomar A mad doctor is running amok on the backlot of Azteca Studios. He has successfully transplanted the brain of a gorilla into the body a male human, who has developed an un-gorilla-like taste for raw meat and is sporting thick hunks of glued-on fur on his back and arms. Now the Mad Doctor seeks---for reasons naturally unexplained--to transplant a female human brain into the body of another female human. Along the way, the Mad Doc--accompanied by his evil henchmen and the ape-man--botches several transplant attempts, and earns the wrath of babe-a-licious luchadora champeen Gloria Venus (after he offs her chemist sister in a brain-swap-gone-bad) and her police detective boyfriend.So why's the Doc goin' to all this trouble? Perhaps he wants a companion for Gorilla Boy? Heck, we don't know, but it's the setup for the rest of the picture, which is one of the most humorous and high-spirited of the Mexican Wrestling genre. As with most K. Gordon Murray Mexi-horror fare, the dubbing is always awkward, and often hilarious, though the actors seem to be enjoying themselves (especially Mad Doc, who gets to chew major scenery for the last half hour), and the direction by Rene Cardona the Elder gets progressively tighter as the film progresses--this is one of the few Mexi-Horror flicks that actually gets better the longer you watch it. There are at least two "trick" endings, a wild plot twist in the last 15 minutes (an evil lady wrestler with a gorilla's brain? Nah), and a predictably ludicrous ending. The only caveat to offer is the tampering with the soundtrack, presumably by Johnny Legend. For a couple of fight scenes---maybe 10 minutes in all--the delightfully cheesy original score is dubbed out in favor of some tepid late-'80s Rockabilly Twang music. It's not too distracting, but you have to wonder the anyone even bothered in the first place. But if you're an aficionado of Mexi-Horror or Wrestling Pictures, you will want to check out this film. It was the first of the "Wrestling Women" series, and one of the most successful. Forty years later, it's easy to see why