original production:
Cast: Santo, el Enmascacarado de Plata (Samson, the Silver Maskman), Claudio Brook (as "Claude Brook")(Dr. Karol), Ruben Rojo (as "Rouben Rojo") (Carlos/Charles, the reporter), Roxana Bellini (Gloria), Norma Mora (Susan Madison), Jose Luis Jimenez (Professor Halpin), Jorge Mondragon (Police Chief), Nathanael Leon, Concepcion Martinez, Fernando Oses (Henchman), Enrique Rambal, Victor Velazquez
SYNOPSIS:
A young man walks along a lonely city street. Suddenly, he is accosted from behind, and kidnapped...
The next day, a young couple visit the famous wax museum of Dr. Kurt Walter Karol. They enter the museum.
Dr. Karol is finishing up a guided tour, and speaks about the wax figures of important historical figures of the past, such as Ghandi, Stalin, Blubeard and... Gary Cooper?
Dr. Karol escorts the group to the basement. The young woman introduces herself as Susan Madison, girl reporter for New Arts Magazine.
Susan asks Dr. Karol's permission to take photographs and information for an article she has been assigned, about Dr. Karol and his most intriguing wax museum. Dr. Karol graciously accepts the offer.
Dr. Karol leads the group to a dungeon-like basement, where reside his more ghoulish creations. Dr. Karol shows the group some of the most famous monsters of film and literature, including Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein's monster, the Werewolf and Quasimodo.
Susan begins to take pictures of the gruesome exhibits. Dr. Karol inquires about Susan's background, and learns that another reporter from the same magazine is shortly going to marry her sister, Gloria.
Later that night, Susan is developing photographs at her apartment. She walks into the living room, and finds her sister Gloria kissing her boyfriend, Charles Humphries.
Meanwhile, Dr. Karol is playing poker with his good friend, Professor Halpin, at Halpin's office. Dr. Karol beats Halpin, and the two discuss the importance of strategy.
Dr. Karol invites Professor Halpin to his museum. Halpin finds it somewhat ironic that it is the monster figures which attract the most visitors, but Dr. Karol counters that men are always fascinated by their "dark side".
Suddenly, a radio antenna in Halpin's lab activates, and a giant TV screen on the wall comes to life. Appearing in the screen is Halpin's good friend, Samson, also known as "The Silver Mask Man," wrestler, crimefighter and all-around good guy!
Samson informs Halpin that a colleague, Professor Rutherford, who was found dead recently, was in fact murdered by members of an unnamed foreign concern! Halpin thanks Samson for his good investigative work. The TV screen goes blank.
Dr. Karol asks Halpin about this strange superhero, and Halpin tells him all about Samson. Halpin explains that Samson is a mystery man; no-one knows his real name.
Late that night, Susan arrives at the wax museum to continue her interview with Dr. Karol.
Susan walks through the empty museum and, not finding Dr. Karol, descends to the dingy downstairs dungeon.
The fiendish dummies give Susan the creeps. She starts to take pictures. Dr. Karol walks up silently behind her. Susan is startled.
Dr. Karol apologizes for his indiscretion, and leads her on a tour of the museum. Susan asks how Dr. Karol became interested in these darkest emblems of humanity, and Karol starts on the first of many tirades against the human race. Susan becomes spooked by Dr. Karol's misanthropy.
Dr. Karol tries to persuade Susan to take a look inside his laboratory, but Susan gets creeped out by this weird miscreant, and runs out of the building.
As Susan starts to walk home down a dark, lonely street, a scar-faced man, one of Dr. Karol's flunkies, stalks her. He grabs Susan and carries her off.
Two old women are walking nearby, and happen upon Susan's discarded camera case, which contains her address.
Still later that evening, Charles and Gloria are worried; Susan hasn't returned home. Charles calls Dr. Karol at the museum. Dr. Karol says that Susan left awhile ago.
The doorbell rings. Gloria answers it. It is one of the old women, with Susan's camera case.
Now Charles and Gloria are really worried. They think something may have happened to her. They decide to contact the police.
Later, at the police station, Gloria tells the police chief the whole story. The police chief and a detective discuss two other disappearances near the museum recently, and feel there may be a connection. The detective is sent to question Dr. Karol.
The detective, along with Charles and Gloria, visit Dr. Karol later that evening, but he has no answers for them. He does, however, agree to visit the police station the next morning for further questioning.
The next day, Dr. Karol visits Professor Halpin, and asks for his assistance; he feels he is being falsely accused of these horrible kidnappings. Dr. Karol asks Halpin to contact Samson, which Halpin dutifully does.
By turning on his "electronic localizer", Halpin is able to track Samson down at a local wrestling match. The men agree to wait until Samson finishes his match before approaching him.
Meanwhile, at the wrestling match, Samson squares off against Caveman Joe Finnegan. The crowd goes wild as the two men do battle. Although the Caveman uses brute force and sneaky tricks, Samson wins the match easily.
After the match, Dr. Karol tells Samson the whole story, and Samson agrees to help. Suddenly, someone throws a knife at Dr. Karol, missing him by inches.
Samson chases the man and finally catches up with him. The two men struggle, while Dr. Karol watches. The assassin almost strangles Samson, but Samson overpowers him. The man gets away. Samson cannot catch him.
Samson returns to Dr. Karol's office. Samson warns the doctor to be very careful in future, and promises to contact him again soon.
Later that night, a dark figure sneaks into Susan's apartment. It is Samson. At the sound of footsteps, Gloria and Charles enter. Samson grabs Charles, and insists to know who they are. They introduce themselves. Samson apologizes for the intrusion.
Charles tells Samson that the police suspect Dr. Karol. He tells the mask man that there is information which incriminates toe good doctor. Dr. Karol was a prisoner in the German concentration camps, and in addition had a horrible laboratory accident several years ago. His face was purportedly disfigured. He disappeared for a long while, only to return with a new face and a new identity! Charles thinks that this "new" Dr. Karol is a fake. Samson disagrees; he thinks the man is sincere.
Charles informs Samson that he has sent away for a photograph of the "real" Dr. Karol, and when it arrives, he can verify his hunch.
Samson asks if he can borrow Susan's camera, to look for photographic clues to her kidnapping. Samson agrees to pass the developed photographs on to the police after he is through with them.
Later, Dr. Karol reads a letter he supposedly received from his enemy, vowing to continue the attacks, and close down the museum. Professor Halpin and Samson try to console a distraught Dr. Karol.
Samson leaves. Halpin asks Dr. Karol if he knows of anyone who might wish to destroy him. Dr. Karol confesses that while a prisoner in a concentration camp, at some point he denounced a group of compatriots. He feels he has paid for his sins, but concedes that there may be those who still want to punish him for his betrayal.
Dr. Karol then tells Halpin about the horrible lab experiment which occurred in 1949. Halpin thinks it was a miracle that Karol wasn't scarred in any way by the chemical explosion. Dr. Karol says that his face was spared, but his bandaged hands bear the scars of the acid burns. Then Dr. Karol opens his shirt, revealing a horribly burnt, scarred chest to a repulsed Professor Halpin.
Meanwhile, Samson carefully examines the death notice from Dr. Karol's enemy under a magnifying glass. He compares the paper to one of Professor Halpin's letterheads. They match. Samson now has reason to suspect Halpin!
Samson turns on his TV scope, and tries to contact Halpin, but the professor has gone, but has left a message for Samson via a reel-to-reel tape recorder: Halpin has gone to the museum to see Dr. Karol!
At the museum, Dr. Karol and his assistant, John, put the finishing touches on a new "Jack the Ripper" exhibit.
The door chimes ring. Dr. Karol goes to the gates. It is Samson, who asks Dr. Karol if he has seen Professor Halpin. Dr. Karol says he was expecting Halpin, but he never showed up. Dr. Karol asks Samson to wait for their friend, but Samson cannot; he has a wrestling match coming up!
Samson and his new opponent wrestle, to the crowd's delight. Samson wins, as usual.
Later, Dr. Karol goes into his dungeon to check on his menagerie of monsters. He pulls a switch which closes cages around his horrible creations.
Dr. Karol opens a cave wall, and enters a giant secret laboratory, full of weird high-tech machinery. He asks his flunky about Halpin. The flunky points. Halpin lies on the ground, semi-conscious.
Halpin asks Dr. Karol why he is doing this. Dr. Karol tells him that he is sorry, but he needs Halpin "to complete a plan." Halpin must disappear, in order to point the finger of guilt for the killings to him, and remove the pressure on Karol as suspect.
In addition, Dr. Karol informs Halpin that his great plan is to create an army of undead animal-men! Halpin calls Karol a madman, and then faints.
Dr. Karol instructs his flunky to get rid of the good doctor. The flunky carries Halpin to a vat of boiling wax, and throws him in, destroying him instantly!
Dr. Karol then orders the flunky to bring in Susan. While he waits, Dr. Karol looks over some sketches he has made of his proposed race of ghoulish creatures, half-man, half-animal, all monster!
Susan is brought in and strapped to a lab table. Dr. Karol tells the groggy woman that she is to be turned into a hideous she-beast!
Dr. Karol begins his experiments. He goes back to the dungeon, and checks on his monsters. He takes a syringe, and removes fluid from one of the hideous demons, while laughing maniacally.
It is 4:30 am. Samson calls the police from Halpin’s office. Samson is now certain that Halpin has been kidnapped, in an attempt to be framed by Dr. Karol. The police chief orders patrols to scout the area. Samson asks the men to search the museum.
At the museum, Dr. Karol tries to defend himself against the insinuation that he had something to do with Halpin’s disappearance. The police chief feels that if Dr. Karol is truly Halpin’s friend, then he won’t mind if they search the entire compound. Dr. Karol is angry, but reluctantly agrees to the search.
Back at Halpin’s office, Samson closes the drapes, and views more negatives from Susan’s camera.
The police finishes their search. The police chief informs Dr. Karol that he is ordering the museum closed for a few days, for Dr. Karol’s safety, as well as the safety of the citizens of this fair city. Dr. Karol is obviously agitated, but can do nothing against a court order.
Karol dismisses his assistant John, giving him some extra cash.
Later, Dr. Karol sneaks into Halpin’s office, and turns on his Super-Telescreen. With it, he spies on Samson in his laboratory, and watches as he scrutinizes the photographs.
Charles calls, and tells Samson that he finally has received the photograph he ordered of Dr. Karol. The picture, dated 1946, shows a Dr. Karol that has not aged one bit in almost twenty years!
Samson feels that this points the finger of suspicion squarely on Dr. Karol. Dr. Karol watches all this unfold from the safety of the tele-snooper.
Samson knows that Dr. Karol was watching monitoring the conversation, so they end the discussion.
Samson has another, particularly ridiculous wrestling match, this time against the notorious French wrestler, "pretty boy" Vinnie Salan! Samson wins, of course.
Meanwhile, Susan comes to in Dr. Karol’s lab, and asks for some water. When she realizes where she is, she begins to scream, and has to be subdued by Dr. Karol’s flunky.
Dr. Karol tells his flunkies to go get Samson, and kill him at all costs.
Susan begs Dr. Karol to kill her now; she can’t take any more of this terror! Dr. Karol counters that she will not die. He injects her with a newly-developed serum, which will begin to induce a cataleptic state. Dr. Karol reveals his ultimate goal to Susan: to turn her into a “panther girl”!
Meanwhile, back at the lab, Samson finishes developing Susan’s photographs. He examines the 8x10 glossies of Dr. Karol’s wax monsters, and wonders...
Dr. Karol’s flunkies break into Samson’s lab, and shoot at him. Samson engages the men, and a fight ensues. The two men attain the upper hand, and fly through a window. Samson runs in pursuit, and tackles the men outside.
The fight continues outside. Finally, one of the men stabs Samson in the back with a knife. Samson keels over, apparently dead. Soon, a cop car arrives, and the men take Samson away.
His flunkies inform Dr. Karol that Samson was killed. Dr. Karol is pleased; all that remains now is to kill Charles and Gloria.
Dr. Karol picks up the phone and, covering the receiver with a cloth to disguise his voice, calls Charles, pretending to be Samson. He tells Charles that “he” has definite evidence against Dr. Karol, and would he come to Halpin’s office right away?
Charles thinks the call from “Samson” sounded odd. He calls Gloria, and tells her of his plan; he will visit Halpin’s office, as instructed. But if Gloria hasn’t heard from him by midnight, send in the police!
Charles arrives at Halpin's office. Dr. Karol watches on a Telescreen, as police pronounce Samson dead! Karol is pleased.
Samson soon comes back to life, and thanks the police for helping him plan this trick on Dr. Karol.
Meanwhile, Charles approaches Dr. Karol at gunpoint, and demands to know the whereabouts of Susan. Dr. Karol bluffs that Charles has no proof of any wrongdoing on his part. He distracts Charles as flunkies overpower him, and take away his gun.
Meanwhile, Gloria waits until midnight, and then calls the police as instructed by Charles. But before she can make the call, Dr. Karol’s flunky breaks into the place, and kidnaps her.
Back at Dr. Karol’s lab, Charles and Susan look at each other with frustration. They are both chained, and can do nothing. Then, Dr. Karol’s flunky brings in Gloria.
Dr. Karol informs his horrified prisoners of his master plan; to create a race of wax-like dummies, which are actually human beings, trapped inside horrible shells of hot wax! Dr. Karol plans on turning our three heroes into these undead wax monstrosities!
Dr. Karol begins the heating process, as Samson races towards the lab in his sports car.
Dr. Karol explains to his prisoners the process whereby the hot wax will cover Susan’s body, and turn her into a living zombie!
Dr. Karol positions a chute over Susan’s body, and explains that the hot searing wax will shower her body, causing her great torment! But, as she has been drugged, she will not die!
Dr. Karol tells his prisoners about his horrible experiences in the concentration camp at Dachau. Those events have not only made him bitter, but have also driven him completely mad! His only pleasure now is the torturing and murder of other human beings!
Samson arrives at Dr. Karol’s lab. Dr. Karol begins the wax-monster process. The bubbling liquid wax begins its terrible journey, through a series of tubes, right towards Susan’s restrained body! Charles and Gloria look on helplessly.
Samson scales a wall in order to enter Dr. Karol's compound. Samson enters the dungeon, agitating the monsters. Samson breaks through a window, and enters Dr. Karol's lab.
Samson first moves Susan away from the wax chute, then engages Dr. Karol and his flunkies. In the fight, some of Dr. Karol's lab equipment is knocked over, causing several explosions.
Samson comes dangerously close to the hot wax, but throws one of the flunkies in instead.
Dr. Karol runs out of the lab, while Samson fights the other flunky, eventually electrocuting him.
Dr. Karol ungates his monsters, and orders them to attack Samson. Samson easily evades the lumbering undead ones. Dr. Karol whips the monsters incessantly, and they soon turn on him, attacking and killing their mad creator.
Charles frees Gloria and Susan. Samson enters the lab, the monsters following. Samson battles the monsters, and eventually pours the cauldron of molten wax over them, destroying them instantly.
Only then do the police arrive. They shoot the lock off the front gate and enter Dr. Karol's compound of death.
Samson carries Susan out of the dungeon. Charles and Gloria follow. They meet the police in the museum lobby.
Samson informs the police of the hidden basement laboratory of Dr. Karol.
Everyone thanks Samson for his help, but he insists it is only his duty as a good man.
Samson hops into his sports car, waves goodbye to his friends, and drives off into the Mexican night.
THE END
REVIEW:
SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM is a most exciting and unique artifact of 60's pop culture, and certainly one of the strongest of the "Santo" films. Indeed, warts and all, we here at www.kgordonmurray.com like it better than SAMSON VS THE VAMPIRE WOMEN, while acknowledging that film's considerable seductive charms.
While S/VAMPIRE is terrific, with much to recommend it, it is essentially a straight-forward gothic horror tale (albeit with some incredulous science-age touches).
In contrast, S/WAX is a dark, even bleak cautionary fable, absurd and melodramatic in spades, and in the end a most fetching, if primitive, attempt at a psychological horror film. It obsesses on the dark side of humanity, and is equal parts nasty and insightful. Thanks to super-villain Dr. Karol, it drips with a most grim, snarling, and well-articulated philosophy of hate and evil.
From the first scene, in which a gang of tourists visit Dr. Karol's creepy wax museum, we are treated to an illustration of society-as-monstermaker. Karol introduces us to a parade of life-like dummies, with an odd emphasis on history's infamous (real and imagined) villains: Stalin, Guillotine, Mr. Hyde, Pancho Villa, Landru/Bluebeard, Frankenstein's monster, the Werewolf and Quasimodo. But then we see Ghandi and... Gary Cooper as Will Kane from HIGH NOON (!). Huh? Only two good men, and one of them fictitious? Is there a message here?
Dr. Karol is a classic Grand Guignol archetype (at least as dubbed by velvet-throated Paul Nagel), the quintessential "gentleman-madman". His frequent, memorable tirades against society are as endearing as they are loony.
Karol's pal/victim, Professor Halpin (played well by Jose Luis Jimenez, also fine in SPIRITISM), has this great sci-fi TV set, with which he calls his colleague, the super strongman Samson. It has a wonderful tin-foil revolving antenna, a primitive 60's sci-fi staple. Halpin's TV set gets these great close-ups of Samson driving in his little white sports car. How? Who cares!
Titular hero Samson, in his glitter cape and shiny, bulging chest, can't help but make one think, "If Liberace had married Charles Atlas..." In fact, Santo/Samson is one of pop culture's crowning gay icons (along with the aforementioned stalwarts).
And in this film, Samson is dubbed like a bonafide cartoon macho man; his voice is much more subdued in S/VAMPIRE.
When Dr. Karol at one point exposes his acid-scarred chest, we realize its the closest thing to "gore" we've ever encountered in a Murray movie.
Dr. Karol's icky-cool plaster cave-dungeon, and his menagerie of Dr. Moureau-ish test-tube man-imals, are lovingly cheesy, reminiscent of everything from FLASH GORDON to ISLAND OF LOST SOULS to SHE-DEMONS.
The plot stands still for some obligatory wrestling matches, but they are surely entertaining in their own way; it's like getting sports and thriller in one giant wacko package! And we get to hear the (undubbed) Mexico City crowd clearly shouting for "Santo! Santo!"
Dr. Karol's secret lab is ultra-cool, with some groovy, surrealistic electronic devices, as well as, oddly, a built-up model of the Renwal "Visible Man" plastic model kit, a 60's hobby-boy staple, standing on a nearby lab table. Perhaps the mad doc forgets his elementary human anatomy from time to time... ?
Directly preceding all hell breaking loose, we hear two very strong, bitter and misanthropic speeches from Karol, both containing creepy references to men torturing men, references which seem perhaps a bit strong for naive, unwary 60's TV-tots.
We finish with an exciting, if predictable, cliffhanger finale (fistfights, labs blowing up, damsels in distress, and the all-important unleashing of the dungeon-monsters, who attack their creator).
In a superb coda, super Samson hops in his little white sports car and waves at us, before driving off into the cryptic Mexican night. His gesture seems an assurance of safety, a comforting emblem of brotherhood.
In these dark times of hatred and terror, a movie like SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM, with its clearly defined right and wrong, can be a source of nostalgic consolation, a journey to a simpler ethical time, where the heroes are mighty but human, and the villains are never "pure, unvarnished evil"...
COMMENTS:
* (updated 02-14-06) 
Thanks to a terrific new book we just received, "Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold" by Kevin Heffernan, (2004, Duke University Press), we have been able to update the U.S. television release date for this Murray horror title to 1965. The appendices to this study of the horror film in America, circa 1955-1968, include complete listings of syndication feature film packages from many distributors, including American International Television, who subleased the K. Gordon Murray film catalog under the title THRILLERS FROM ANOTHER WORLD. It seems that 1965 was the watershed year for genre film sold to television, with a veritable flood of titles released by both domestic and foreign distribs.
* (effective 05-01-03) After a very brief window of availability, this long-sought K. Gordon Murray title is once again out of print, due to international copyright issues. Used video tapes of this title may be found on online video dealers and auction sites. Stay tuned for further developments!
* Santo, aka the "Silver Mask Man", was of course a beloved and prolific Mexican wrestler, who also became a bonafide movie star, thanks to a dizzying array of fantastic genre movies he starred in for many years. For the real skinny on Santo, (and some super-rare Santo comic books!), visit Brian Moran's Santo Street.
* Samson's colleague, dubbed as "Professor Halpin", is revealed to be "Professor Armando Galivan", according to the letterhead Samson peruses.
* (06-28-04) an anonymous fan writes in:
"One thing missing from your review of this marvelous movie I'd like to note: this was surely one of the "leggiest" of the Mexican monster films. Skirts were starting to inch up in 1963, and the film's director (or photographer) took full advantage of this. The camera kept finding ways to get pointed toward to the shapely legs of the actresses. This is especially evident in the sequence where Susan in walking down the museum stairs at night. This whole scene appears designed for no reason except for the camera to dwell on her gorgeous gams."
Here! Here!
* For an excellent and informative online review of SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM, visit David Wilt's Mexican Film Pages.
NOTABLE DIALOGUE:
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"Undoubtedly, there's a monster like that hiding in all human souls!"
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"A strange man, and a good one!"
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"Any man who's against crime, can count on Samson to back him!"
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"Fantasy is often the daughter of reality, Miss Madison!"
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"You see, man is vainglorious! He says he's the only creature that reasons! Created by god in his image to rule the earth! This gallery illustrates a truth that in the human species, a certain kind of man is more abominable and savage than the cruelest animal in the world! Monstrous things! I don't only mean they are physically so! I also mean they are so mentally!"
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"I know it's absurd, Samson, but I want your aid against an enemy that's invisible, anonymous!"
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"He's not at all normal!"
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"Anyone who dares tamper with God's creation ensures his own destruction as well, that's unavoidable!"
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"Your smile is beautiful! I shall transform it into a constant, hideous grimace!"
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"I have a wrassling match now; I'll call you later!"
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"I think I explained it quite well; I'm going to turn you into a panther girl!"
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"I detest loveliness, and I'm about to make yours disappear, Susan!"
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"Not all the figures in my museum are made of wax. I can create ugliness in humans too! Monsters alive as you are! Asleep during the day, and awake when I wish it!"
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"You sadistic dog!"
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"I think you should learn how to suffer, my dear! You know nothing about it! You never experienced those long sessions of interrogation in the concentration camp that the Nazis called Dachau! You don't know how far sadistic men can go when they're torturing humans! They invent all sorts of sadistic devices! Oh, yes, I went through it all! I was partially destroyed, and I learned what war can do! Such ruthlessness! A complete study in inhumanity! You're quite young, and you just hear others talk about it, but you didn't go through it and you don't know what it felt like! And I suffered such horrible things! One night, I thought my veins had totally disintegrated! The only peace I know is watching other people suffer and writhe in agony! That's the only reason you three are still living! Oh, how I enjoy it when I torment others, and see their terror and hear their desperation!"
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"I want fear penetrating your souls to the last minute! All other humans should go through this! All humans are monsters, you know! I found that to be true the nights I was tortured! Since it is true, why not show what your soul and your conscience really are using your face! Well now, I intend to create a world in which all humans are deformed! I'll go on, and sooner or later I'll turn humanity into a planet of monsters! Like plagues and war and hunger and mass killing!"
experiences in SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM.
from SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM.
(from the Gary Banks collection.)