Batwoman, The
Entry updated 12 May 2025. Tagged: Film.
Mexican film (1968; original title La Mujer Murciélago). Cinematográfica Calderón S.A. Directed by René Cardona. Written by Alfredo Salazar. Cast includes Roberto Cañedo, Héctor Godoy and Maura Monti. 80 minutes. Colour.
The murders of five Acapulco wrestlers whose "pineal gland juice has been removed surgically" resemble crimes committed some time ago in Macao and Hong Kong. Local police are baffled, despite the assistance of FBI agent Mario Robles (Godoy): but he brings good news – Batwoman (Monti) has agreed to help them. A "lady who lives in the capital city ... [and] uses her vast fortune to fight against the forces of evil", she is "distinguished in all sports" – shown by a montage of her pistol shooting, on a horse firing a pistol and, in a perhaps overlong scene, scuba diving. Furthermore, "behind the mask, she's become a great wrestler" – and we see her in the ring, dressed like Batman but without the cape; out of the ring she keeps the mask, adds the cape but ditches the rest of the costume for a bikini (see Fan Service).
Aboard the ship Reptilicus, Mad Scientist Dr Williams (Cañedo) reflects on a recent failure, telling his assistant Igor, "We have to do a new experiment to create our fish-man." More pineal gland juice is needed. As that from athletes is the best, another wrestler is killed; we then return to the doctor's laboratory and see a largish goldfish with a cable connecting it to a device that enables Igor to control its movements; the aquarium's water starts to bubble. Dr Williams declares: "400 million years ago in the sea, the Evolution of the human being began, when the first vertebrate appeared: the fish. According to this law, we'll regress back to the dawn of creation. And we'll create the image and likeness of our ancestors, an amphibious, human creature." (See Devolution; Scientific Errors.) This is followed by a maniacal laugh. Meanwhile, a phone call made at the gym where the latest victim trained is traced to the Reptilicus and, as Dr Williams is a neurosurgeon, Batwoman and her colleagues are suspicious. She boards the ship, finding a book on the pineal gland; she is captured, but after a fight escapes – when the doctor attacks her with a scalpel she throws a chemical on his face, causing scarring – and is convinced she saw a small fish-man in one of the lab's aquariums.
This is confirmed later when we see the goldfish has become a humanoid fish; it is then irradiated, growing to human size and resembling the Monster in The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), though red and named Pisces by Dr Williams, who announces they can now move to phase 2: the creation of a fish-woman. "And I don't need to tell you who that will be!" He plans to create hundreds of fish-people and control the oceans with them. Attempts are made to have the monster abduct The Batwoman, one involving a tracking device pinned to her cloak whose transmissions are picked up by Pisces through the control device grafted into his brain; both attempts fail. Instead the doctor decides to kidnap Mario and a police inspector, and capture her when she comes to rescue them. The plan works, but The Batwoman has retained the tracker and surreptitiously attaches it to Dr Williams; as he prepares to transform her, the monster comes in and kills him. In the ensuing fight the laboratory is set alight and The Batwoman realizes the ship will shortly explode, which it does; she and her friends escape in time.
The Batwoman is intelligent (within the confines of idiot plotting that requires everyone to make foolish choices on occasion), competent and a skilled fighter (see Feminism) – the end joke revealing her to be afraid of mice is a little cringe-inducing. Given her wealthy background and – save for the bikini – costume choices, she can be considered a gender-swapped Batman. Her wrestling career makes this a Luchador (which see) film; but while these usually feature masked wrestlers who fight crime, The Batwoman is more a Superhero who wrestles on the side. (Also masked wrestlers tend to be from poorer backgrounds.)
The monster looks good underwater, though less so on dry land. Universal studio's Horror films of the 1930s and 1940s had been a big influence on the earlier Lucha films; The Batwoman's plot reflects how, by the late 1960s, James Bond (see Ian Fleming) was being added into the mix, usually to the genre's detriment. Certainly The Batwoman drags on several occasions, though the deliberate absurd Humour of the Batman elements and the horror scenes make it, overall, a pleasantly watchable movie. [SP]
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