El Poder Negro [Black Power] (1975)

Starring:

• Sergio Oliva
• Héctor Suárez
• Lila Morillo

CG
Rare wrestling movie, a crossover between the lucha and blaxploitation genres. The story involves black dockworker Pedro getting mixed up with a gang of arms smugglers and falsely imprisoned on a charge of murder. He is finally released and Mil Máscaras convinces him to become a luchador, wrestling under the name of “Black Power”.

This movie was made as a showcase for former Mr. Olympia Sergio Oliva (who boasted a physique El Santo and Blue Demon could only dream of) and is actually a pretty legitimate drama compared to some of the off-the-wall lucha pictures being made at that time. Still, it reeks of the 1970’s with its loud fashions, garish color schemes and campy nightclub acts. Like many wrestling films of this era it was shot outside Mexico as a cost-cutting measure, in this case Venezuela.

Never released on home video and in Spanish only.