\n<\/p>\n
Trouble is afoot in sunny Acapulco. Someone is snatching the town\u2019s mighty wrestlers, the beloved luchadores. They turn up dead, with a rare gland removed. Nobody knows how, or why, this is happening. But the police trust only one person with a case this serious: the Batwoman.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the premise of, you guessed it, \u201cThe Batwoman<\/a>,\u201d a Mexican caper from 1968 starring Maura Monti as the masked (and swimsuited) heroine. Popular cinema of this sort in Mexico hasn\u2019t typically received the same respect as classics of the industry\u2019s Golden Age in the 1940s and 1950s. But recent critical attention and new restorations have shone a new spotlight on these movies. \u201cThe Batwoman\u201d (now in the collection of the Academy Film Archive) stands out as a delightful, warmhearted entertainment with a handmade quality, featuring a star with effortless charm (and a story of her own).<\/p>\n Luchador films, like those featuring the wrestling star El Santo, were a staple of Mexican cinemas, with wrestlers leading double lives as superheroes vanquishing monsters and mad scientists. But \u201cThe Batwoman\u201d adds a few twists to the genre. Monti\u2019s character, Gloria, has several pursuits: She fights crime as the Batwoman, she wrestles in the ring and gives classes at a gym, but ordinarily, she seems to be a wealthy woman with worldly hobbies. She does exactly what she wants, which in this case means fighting a mad scientist obsessed with creating a fish-man hybrid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIn Mexican cinema you see women playing sumisa\u201d \u2014 submissive \u2014 \u201clike they don\u2019t deserve anything,\u201d said Viviana Garc\u00eda Besn\u00e9, who spearheaded the restoration of \u201cThe Batwoman\u201d and other Mexican titles through her company Permanencia Voluntaria<\/a>. \u201cI love the fact that this is a woman who is a hero!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Garc\u00eda Besn\u00e9 hails from a family of (male) producers; her grandfather helped pioneer the luchador movies. But she credits her grandmother for suggesting that they try luchadoras (women wrestlers) as characters. That led to a run of films culminating with the hybrid comic-book hero of \u201cThe Batwoman.\u201d<\/p>\n Monti cuts a breezy figure as la Mujer Murci\u00e9lago, arriving to meet police by parachuting onto a beach, then nonchalantly clambering into their car. That\u2019s a huge part of the film\u2019s charm: the stylish but matter-of-fact way she goes about her business, and the sweet rapport she has with her investigator pals, Mario and Tony. Though the popular American TV series \u201cBatman\u201d<\/a> of the 1960s was a likely inspiration, there isn\u2019t a hint of camp here. The action \u2014 underwater fights, kung fu chops and a groaning, floppy-handed fish-man named Pisces \u2014 has a likable, casual groove (as does the snazzy score).<\/p>\n