La Mujer Murciélago

aka The Batwoman

1968
Written by Alfredo Salazar
Directed by René Cardona

Even the corpse is checking her out!

Someone took a luchador film and a Eurospy film, blended them together, dressed it in a Batman costume, and flicked the gender bender switch. Thus was born La Mujer Murciélago (The Batwoman)! Gloria/Batwoman is a heroine who is heroic just because she wants to be, like most of the lucha movie family. Thankfully, there is a healthy love of monster movie magic and a case for her to solve and a monster to punch. But we suffer from some feminism that isn’t really feminism, Batwoman’s girl power is lacking. Although Batwoman is better than everyone at everything, she still faints and needs to be rescued by men from time to time. Girls, am I right?

Pisces got sick of taking crap from those Fry Guys and next thing you know he was on the run and the McDonaldLand Coroner was getting woken at 3am!

Like so many of the cool wrestling flicks, there is a mad scientist doing diabolical things, namely he’s trying to create fish people! He’s doing so by killing wrestlers and using their gland juices to power fish into becoming a gillman. So, yes, we do get a bargain basement Creature from the Black Lagoon, who is named Pisces and sort of takes orders from the evil doctor. This is the second Mexican flick I’ve seen with a fish man creature, the prior one is The Swamp of the Lost Monster (though there is a twist on that one…)

I give up! I won’t compete with you any more, Walter White!

As is obvious, La Mujer Murciélago lifts imagery from the Adam West Batman tv series, namely the costume. Batwoman wears a batmask for most of the film, and when she’s wrestling, she does it in a copy of the Batman costume. Otherwise, she’s running around in a blue bikini and a cape. How much the news of Batgirl’s introduction to the tv series during the third season influenced this film I do not know, but her costume does not indicate any of the stylings of Barbara Gordon’s. Batwoman even drives around in a black convertable that is similar in look to the Batmobile.

Hey, keep those hands at 10 and 2, Batwoman! And where is your seat belt???

Don’t be expecting this to be some sort of girl power flick. The entire thing an excuse to get women in skimpy clothes. Batwoman parades around most of the film in her bikini action outfit, including scenes of her diving and swimming around, and sneaking around in enemy hideouts. There are plenty of other women in bikinis for a few scenes on the beach. When Gloria isn’t Batwoman, she still wears stylish outfits including négligée that shows off her body. Oddly enough, the wrestling matches are least female exploiting of any of the sequences. Batwoman is in control, except for the several key scenes (and mean final joke) where she is not. Her biography given is one of a woman of great wealth trying to help against injustice, but her actual on screen showing is of a woman who runs around wearing little, attracting attention to herself. It’s an odd translation of the Eurospy stuff, her character is one of those secret agents, except a female version, but the transformation isn’t complete. They make her just tough enough to get the job done. And even then, fishman lust is the true hero.

Maura Monti specialized in these roles that were revealing but not entirely revealing. The Italian born actress spent much of her life growing up overseas and eventually settled in Mexico. Her better known genre roles before The Batwoman include La muerte en bikini (1967) and Santo contra la invasión de los marcianos (1967), and later she also appeared in genre pics El tesoro de Moctezuma (1968), Blue Demon, destructor de espías (1968), Las vampiras (1969), and Cazadores de espías (1969). She retired around 1971 for a decade or so, then returned first in theater and then to television.

I would be a millionaire if I sold women handles to movie monsters!

Gloria (Maura Monti) – Millionaire socialite who used her money to train herself to become the ultimate crime fighter and also the ultimate wrestler. Thus, she became… La Mujer Murciélago / Batwoman (Maura Monti) – Internationally famous crime fighting lady who also headlines local wrestling matches all while wearing almost nothing at all, except a bit of trademark infringement. Mario Robles (Héctor Godoy) – A special agent sent from the FBI to help out the mass murder case, and immediately calls in Batwoman. Dr. Eric Williams (Roberto Cañedo) – A retired surgeon who collects fish. Oh, and he’s murdering wrestlers in order to create man fish hybrid creatures because he’s mas loco. His face is burned by Batwoman halfway through the film. Pisces (???) – the Gillman created by Dr. Williams who will soon be kidnapping women at an ocean near you! No. 1 / José (David Silva) – Henchman of Dr. Williams who pretends to be blind. He finds new victims for the doctor.

Do I…or don’t I??? I don’t even know anymore!

Batwoman was a gold medalist at the 68 Mexico Olympics!

Someone is offing wrestlers in Acapulco! El Rayo is the latest to be found dead in the ocean. The police are stumped, and special agent Mario Robles is sent by the FBI to help, as similar murders have happened overseas. The FBI has a “Why not help Mexico?” policy. And another policy, as the first thing Agent Mario Robles does is to bring Batwoman onto the case! He helpfully explains about her:

Batwoman is a rich lady who uses her powers of being rich and affording training to fight crime with said training. A montage of her using increasingly huge weapons while dressed in increasingly sexy costumes is shown. She’s also a wrestler, thus she can infiltrate the wrestling community. As we know from the Santo flicks, the wrestling community is the backbone of Mexico.

The coroner determines that someone is taking pineal gland juice from the dead wreslters. The doctor has no idea why, as they know little of the human body and less about the pineal gland. Uh, what??? This movie isn’t that old!

VH1’s Behind the Mask: Batwoman

Just the normal way millions of Mexican women get to work every day!

The best part of this film is there is a boat named Reptilicus!!

And that’s where the evil Dr. Eric Williams and his assistant Igor (Jorge Mondragón) are attempting to create a fishman via a doll, a big fish, and pineal gland fluid. And bubbles. But it doesn’t work, so MORE PINEAL GLAND!!!

Dr. Williams is gonna leave town, as they’re running out of wrestlers to murder, so Batwoman sneaks on the boat. In full batwoman bikini gear, of course. Don’t leave home without it! She finds some evidence, but is caught! Then throws chemicals in Dr. Williams’ face and makes a run for it, punching dudes all the while.

Batwoman doesn’t have the whole “lying low” thing down, so they easily track her down and carjack her! But they’re morons and she manages to stick all of them up with a hidden gun/compact mirror. The cops arrive as she’s beating them up for good measure.

I’ll be La Mujer Murciélago and La Mujer Zorro as well if I feel like it!

When B-Movie worlds collide!

Dr. Williams has created a doll-sized amphibian man that is ready to be dropped in the ocean for the next phase of trying to bring it to life, which means irradiating it underwater. It works, and now we got a man-sized gillman running around! Rubber suit! Rubber suit!

The gillman (who is named Pisces) is angry, but Igor built a remote control into it that consists of a high-pitched whine hurting its ears so it can be captured.

Now for step 2 – making a fish woman! And guess who the woman will be…

No, seriously, guess.

Okay, fine, it’s Batwoman! And he sends Pisces to go get her when they spot her on underwater cameras. An underwater flare helps get her away from Pisces, and Agent Mario Robles on the boat dumps gas on Pisces and lights it on fire. That actually does little to hurt Pisces, and the baddies then come up with a transmitter to put in Pisces’ ear so he can hear commands by radio.

A wrestling match! The perfect distraction for Henchman No. 1 to put a tracker on her. The bad guys then wait too long to act and she discovers it, but only after she’s changed into revealing lingerie nightgown. She also does nothing about it and goes to sleep (Agent Mario is also there, but as this is a G-rated fantasy despite the skimpy outfits, he’s surfing the couch. The FBI won’t pay for a hotel? Are they even sure he’s a real FBI guy?

This is how you make a Gillman. A fish, a Ken doll, and a bubble machine. It works 33% of the time!

Just checking my texts on my iBatPhone here in 1968!

Pisces comes… The monster grabs her and gets all the way back to the beach before she wakes up from fainting and the big fighting begins. Eventually Pisces swims away sans his potential bride.

The baddies are ticked off, so they kidnap the local policemen Captain Robles and Inspector. Batwoman trades her life for their own, and Dr. Williams prepares to operate on her. But she put the transmitter on Dr. Williams, so Pisces busts down the door to attack! Pisces is easily confused. The heroes escape and the Repitlicus blows up killing all the villains.

Batwoman saved the day, but don’t worry, she’s still afraid of a mouse!!! Silly girls, thinking they’re all modern and stuff!

They’re called Bat-Suspenders!

The plot of the film!

Despite the fact this was written just to get scantily clad women running around and the other instances of sexism, La Mujer Murciélago is a pretty fun watch. It holds up as not being too boring, action is moving most of the time, even if we know there is no real danger to Batwoman early in the film. The lucha libre roots allows the B-movie plot to fully develop, mad scientists and monsters are a common sight in these flicks. Director René Cardona is an expert in these flicks, he directed many Santo films, Blue Demon, Zovek, Capulina, Wrestling Women, Neutron, and the 1959 classic, Santa Claus. Clearly, René Cardona was one of the greatest men to ever live. And while the lucha genre has no shortage of stinkers and borefests, La Mujer Murciélago is not one of them. As you journey around the world to experience different takes on the caped crusader, make sure you take the time to check out this entry.

Or my Bat-mom will shoot!

Look, I’m totally Zorro here! Not evil, please don’t shoot me!

La Mujer Murciélago is part of our Batmania series.

The original vision for Two-Face and Riddler from Batman Forever!

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No one sexually harasses a Gillman. No one!

If I’m a fish man, why do I have fly eyes???

It seems this case can only be solved if I slip into this little number…

Pisces is one of those creepy dudes from Reddit, I knew it!

That horn is there to blow whenever Batwoman walks around in a sexy outfit. It’s never stopped making noise in 45 years!

The movie’s theme in a nutshell!

The flying mouse is afraid of a real mouse. It would be ironic if it wasn’t so sexist!