Martian Women (Santo vs The Martian Invasion)

Martian Women are secondary antagonists in the 1967 Mexican action fantasy film “Santo vs The Martian Invasion”, which was originally entitled “Santo el enmascardo de plata vs la invasion de los marcianos”.

The four Martian Women consist of Aphrodite (Maura Monti), Selena (Eva Norvind), Diana (Belinda Corel), and Artemis (Gilda Miros). They wear silver one-piece swimsuits, and wear silver capes. They have control belts around their waists, and wear flat-topped helmets that have an ‘astral eye’ embedded in the center. This astral eye is a weapon that vaporizes people.

The Martian’s are led by Argos (Wolf Ruvinskis). Before landing, the Martians announce their intentions by interrupting television broadcasts around the world. Initially everybody thinks their television is on the fritz, but slowly, the Martians come into view. The leader announces that they are from Mars. He states: ‘Instead of using your scientific advancements to better humanity, you Earthlings use them for your own destruction. When you wage war with conventional weapons you are the only victims of your ambition and selfishness. But with the discovery of nuclear energy and your mad experiments with the atomic bomb, you are on the verge of destroying the entire planetary system.’

The Martians want all the governments on the planet to accept total disarmament; eliminate all borders and adopt a unified language. Next, they want a global government established, which does not discriminate based on race or creed, and finally and most importantly, Earth has to give up war forever. If these terms are not agreed to, the Martian will annihilate everybody on the planet.

When the Earthlings dismiss the transmission as a comedy skit. This doesn’t please the Martians and they decide that a demonstration of their power is in order to convince the populace that they mean what they say. A Martian minion is sent down to a soccer match and kill a bunch of fans.

It just so happens that Santo (Santo el Emnascarda de Plata) is also running a training program at the sports field, and under his tutelage are a group of youngsters who want to become wrestlers. The Martian Hercules (Beny Galan) arrives and using his astral eye he begins to vaporize whole sections of the crowd from the grandstands. Santo sees this and immediately springs into action, spear-tackling the Martian before he can do any more harm. Then they begin to wrestle. Once the Martian realizes that Santo is a strong and worthy opponent, by turning a dial on his control belt, he is beamed back to the mother ship.

Meanwhile on the ship, Argos has been watching Santo on a monitor. He is impressed with the great masked one’s strength and now wants to capture him and take him back to Mars as a specimen. The Martians no longer seem intent on destroying the world. They now appear to want to collect a menagerie of human specimens. Now the Martian minions, both male and female, have a new mission. Firstly, capture Santo, and secondly kidnap all the scientists and prominent people in Mexico.

One of the scientists that the Martians intend to kidnap happens to be Professor Ordorica (Manuel Zozaya) who is a good friend of Santo. The Professor, before his capture had invented a nifty little device that detects Martian brain waves and gave it to Santo. Naturally Santo uses this device to track down some Martians and wrestle with them.

They decide that their appearance needs to be altered in order to meet with the humans. They step into a sort of closet and are transformed into a more human form. This includes losing their helmets, and all of the Martians blonde hair is replaced with random colors. In addition, they name themselves after Greek gods.

Aphrodite (Afrodita) – goddess of love – Maura Monti

Selena (Selene) – goddess of the moon – Eva Norvind

Diana – goddess of nature and fertility – Belinda Corel

Artemis (Artemisa) – goddess of nature and fertility – Gilda Miros

Artemis and Diana teleport into the gym, still wearing their futuristic clothing. However, they more closely resemble Earth women. The two women approach Santo’s sparring partners and seductively hypnotize them. The wrestlers then turn on Santo when he attempts to leave the gym.

Aphrodite and Selena arrive at a nightclub in low-cut dinner gowns. They hypnotize and capture two of the scientists, much to the shock of their spouses, who are helpless in preventing their husbands from being lured away by younger, more attractive women.

Finally, Artemis shows up at a restaurant and hypnotizes a young writer who leaves with her.

Hercules then attacks Santo’s opponent, the Black Eagle in his dressing room, in order to replace him in the ring for the impending match. In the match, Hercules strips Santo of his iconic mask. Fortunately, Santo is wearing an additional mask underneath, so his identity is safe.

Later, Aphrodite attempts to seduce him with her beauty. She arrives wearing her Martian attire. As smoke fills the room, she begins kissing him. Selena appears in the room as well, and also kisses him on the lips. For a moment Santo believes he has been unmasked during this encounter. With the failed seduction thwarted, the duo teleports back to the spaceship.

With their supply of “atmosphere pills” dwindling, the Martians intensify their efforts to complete their mission by capturing pillars of Mexican society, Father Fuentes (religion) and Professor Ordorica (science). Father Fuentes reluctantly agrees to accompany the Martians. In contrast, Ordorica’s abduction is executed through female seduction at a banquet being held at a nightclub.

The Martian ladies show up at a nightclub and teleport into the dressing room of the lovely showgirls who have yet to dress into their skimpy outfits. The dancers are frozen while attempting to get away. The next we see the Martian ladies have replaced the showgirls on stage engaging in a hypnotizing dance. It is unsure what the fate of the lovely dancers are, whether they were killed or tied up. Lastly, the Martian ladies encircle Ordorica and teleport him to the spaceship.

Santo convinces a promoter to stage a wrestling match in order to set a trap for the Martians. With the Mexican people now terrified, no one shows up for the event, and Santo and his opponent wrestle in an empty arena. A brawl ensues between Santo and the remaining Martian men. Santo emerges victorious and acquires one of the Martian teleportation belts. He uses this to locate the Martian spaceship. After opening the hatch, it allows the poisonous Earth air into the vessel.

Santo rescues the hostages and subdues the Martians, who die upon succumbing to the effects of the Earth’s atmosphere. Santo decides to return to the Martian ship and blow it up. However, Professor Odorica protests, explaining to Santo that the technology the Martian ship offers could advance science 500 years. Santo points out that the people of Earth are not ready for further scientific advancements.

Trivia[]

Maura Monti appeared as Eritrea in the 1965 Mexican sci-fi film "El Planeta de las Mujeres Invasoras", which is translated in English as "Planet of the Female Invaders".
Maura Monti appeared as Female Spy in the 1966 Mexican action adventure film "El tesoro de Moctezuma", which translates as "The Treasure of Montezuma".
Maura Monti appeared as Lucrecia in the 1967 Mexican action adventure film "SOS Conspiracion Bikini".
Maura Monti appeared as Mireyra in the 1968 Mexican action comedy film "Las sicodelicas", which translates to "The Psychedelic Girls".
Maura Monti appeared as Sylvana in the 1969 action film "Cazadores de espias", which is also known as "Spy Hunters". In the film, she is eaten by a carnivorous plant.