Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

The Batwoman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 11, 2021

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Batwoman / The Panther Women.

Years (decades, actually) before North American wrestling stars like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena started to forge rather successful film careers for themselves, Mexican cinema was awash in so-called luchador outings, patently gonzo films which featured members of Lucha libre, an aggregation of professional wrestlers who wore masks (and often capes). Lucha libre as a term has matriculated to English in a number of variants, with one of them being the title of the Jack Black feature ostensibly about a luchador star, Nacho Libre, and another being the older animated series ¡Mucha Lucha!. A Mexican actor and wrestler named Rodolfo Guzman Huerta adopted the stage (ring?) name El Santo and appeared in a staggering array of luchador films, including 1968’s Santo in The Treasure of Dracula, evidently due soon on Blu-ray from VCI. VCI has been releasing a number of Mexican films on Blu-ray (the first screeners the label sent wouldn’t play in any of my players for some reason, hence no reviews), and has now combined two kinda sorta luchador (or at the very least luchador adjacent) outings into one totally bizarre double feature.

Was the Mexican film industry considered so irrelevant that DC Comics just ignored the patent ripoff that The Batwoman obviously was in 1967-68? It was, after all, the era of the almost staggering success of television's Batman: The Complete Series, and in fact it's almost ironically humorous that this lo-fi effort would kind of predict where the television series would "go" to find a new audience, namely by introducing Batgirl (the strategy failed, as pop culture historians will no doubt know). The Batwoman features gorgeous Maura Monti as the titular superhero(ine), who in this version does have a name (Gloria), but who really isn't "closeted" (so to speak) in the same way Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were.

Batwoman is called in to help befuddled police who are trying to solve a series of murders where athletes' pineal glands have been surgically removed from their (dead) bodies (in yet another inexplicable synchronicity in my queue, the pineal gland was just a major plot point in the recently reviewed Synchronic). Of course it turns out there's a mad scientist (Roberto Cañedo) involved who is attempting to create a human-fish hybrid, which turns out to be a kind of hilarious bright red version of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. It's all completely off the wall, and the fact that Batwoman does all her sleuthing in a mask, bikini and cape only adds to the surreal quality of it all. There actually is a wrestling component to the story, though as a kind of sidebar to Batwoman's crime fighting activities.

The Batwoman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Batwoman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Kind of incredibly, the press sheet accompanying this release touts a "4K restoration" without providing information on whatever source element was utilized. Both of the films in this set seem to have rejiggered credits sequences done by VCI, I'm assuming so that things would be in English. The presentation here has the same kind of processed look that has often accompanied other VCI Blu-ray releases. While there is something approaching grain on display, it never really resolves naturally and it's often largely missing in action. The palette is decently suffused, but often skews toward blues, which at least helps it match Batwoman's outfit. There are several moments that seem sourced from an element that is inferior to the bulk of the presentation, where things are decidedly fuzzier and more brown looking (see screenshot 9).

The Batwoman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Batwoman features an LPCM 2.0 mono track in English which, if I'm understanding some of the credits added to this release, was done for this version. Voice work is often kind of campily hyperbolic, but the film does have a rather engaging jazz inflected score that sounds fine. Optional English subtitles are available (actual voiceover on the track "translates" Spanish text at various times).

The Batwoman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both films included with this release are offered on one BD-50, with a brief assortment of (newly done?) trailers included as supplements.

• The Panther Women (720p; 1:55)


• Santo and Dracula's Treasure (1080p; 1:58)


• Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter (1080i; 1:58)

The Batwoman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is one of those films that is simply so ridiculous you just have to surrender to its weird charms and enjoy it for what it is. Video encounters some obstacles, but audio is fine, for those who are considering a purchase.