The Batwoman (La Mujer Murciélago) may make little narrative sense, but its campy and purposefully clunky ride is vastly entertaining and pleasant.
Director: René Cardona
Genre: Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi
Run Time: 81′
Mexican Release: March 28, 1968
Film at Lincoln Center Screening: July 31, 2024
Where to watch The Batwoman (La Mujer Murciélago): on MUBI
Film at Lincoln Center and the Locarno Film Festival have teamed up to present a collection of Mexican films from the 40s, 50s, and 60s titled Spectacle Every Day: Mexican Popular Cinema. One of the films in the programming that immediately drew my attention was The Batwoman (La Mujer Murciélago), directed by René Cardona. This Mubi-sponsored retrospective covers the period in Mexican cinema in which there was a “spike” in ingenuity.
Some of the filmmakers leading the pack in terms of creativity in those three decades were Roberto Gavaldon, Emilio Fernandez, Chano Urueta, and the aforementioned Cardona.
Recently restored by Permanencia Voluntaria and the Academy Film Archive, The Batwoman is a spin on the Adam West Batman series from the 60s. It has its own caped crusader, played by Italian actress Maura Monti, who wears a similar cape and cowl, yet with a blue bikini suit covering her body. She is a special kind of hero, an ace in everything she sets her mind to, whether it is archery, modeling, or lucha libre. Like the classic DC character, only a selected few know about Batwoman’s true identity–the woman behind the mask, entrepreneur and model, Gloria. But she is more up and about than Bruce Wayne. Gloria is a caped crusader who fights during the day rather than doing all her heroic duties at night.
The Batwoman does not need the shadows, only enough room to sneak around and do her crime-fighting pursuits. The chapter of her heroic journey that Cardona presents to us has many strange swings that feel odd together yet are welcomed due to their entertaining and campy factors. It all begins with a string of kidnappings: a mad scientist, Dr. Eric Williams (Roberto Cañedo), is abducting several luchadors for a “scientific experiment”. Dr. Williams extracts the spinal fluid of these wrestlers to create a new breed of underwater creatures that look like they just came out of the set of The Creature of the Black Lagoon. So, when some of the wrestlers’ bodies wash ashore on the Acapulco coast, the police seek the help of the Batwoman.
Masked and ready to go, Batwoman descends into the weird rabbit hole of genre crossings and camp that director René Cardona has crafted. It all amounts to a purposefully clunky yet very entertaining picture. The Batwoman does a lot in too little time. Cardona crams everything in a neat, tight package. The film has a comic-book movie core, with many fun fight sequences and superhero quips. This provides some strong physical comedy near the slapstick of Adam West’s Batman show. At the same time, the film implements elements from other genres and topics. There are hints of sci-fi in its story of mutation, comedy through its intertwining of camp and self-seriousness, and even a couple of minutes of Batwoman doing some Lucha libre. These elements give The Batwoman a certain pleasantness; charm oozes from these messily tied sequences.
None of it makes sense or works in its narrative cohesion or formality. These aforementioned elements are introduced haphazardly and with little breathing room. Cardona just places them in the story at the most inconvenient time, sometimes in a committed manner, and they’re like a gimmick or comedic bit. It feels overripe and somewhat stagy. But I embraced everything with open arms. It may not be a project with a quarter of a modern superhero flick’s backing and production costs, yet The Batwoman runs them over.
What I like the most about these retrospectives is that they give these films their deserved time in the spotlight. These films might have been deemed lost if it hadn’t been for these programs. I believe most of these pictures would not have gotten this love and admiration independently. After seeing The Batwoman and a couple of other flicks from the Spectacle Ever Day: Mexican Popular Cinema retrospective, they deserve this reevaluation. This is a love letter to cinema, curated by people who care deeply about films and their history in the century-spanning art form. And René Cardona’s movie is now part of a program that will draw many eyes to his 1968 work, more so than in its release.
The Batwoman (La Mujer Murciélago) will be screened at Film at Lincoln Center (NY) on July 31, 2024, with an introduction by Carlos Gutiérrez, Executive Director of Cinema Tropical, as part of their “Spectacle Every Day: Mexican Popular Cinema” Retrospective.
