What is entertaining and absorbing to some is silly and ponderous to others; one man's querida is another man's queso. By today's standards, lucha libre movies are repetitive and deliberate. For those not expecting music-video editing and special effects they can be enthralling. Here's a sampler.

``Samson vs. the Vampire Women" (``El Santo contras las mujeres vampira," 1962): This early black-and-white Santo entry combined genres and for the next 20 years set the tone for Santo films that followed. Initially, Santo's name was changed to Samson when dubbed into English for American release.

``The Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy" (``Las Luchadoras contra la momia," 1964): Probably the most infamous title in lucha libre cinema. Las Luchadoras were starlets pressed into service to capitalize on the popularity of the wrestling-horror mix. Since an ``innocent but seductive" (as commentary on one DVD has it) version of 1960s female sexuality was a staple of these films, the idea was a natural; the Luchadoras starred in a series of films.

``Santo vs. the Martian Invasion" (``La Invasión de los marcianos," 1967): A riot of subtext as luchador Martians invade Earth with a message of enforced cooperation. The Martians seem to represent both sides of the Cold War. When the movie's narration asks ``Is our planet the only one inhabited by rational beings like us?" we hear Mexico ask the same question of the rest of the world, a world understocked with masked wrestlers willing to grapple with mankind's biggest challenges.

``Operation 67" (``Operación 67," 1967): According to his son, El Hijo del Santo, this monsterless secret-agent story and travelogue of bikini-filled Mexican resorts was Santo's personal favorite of his oeuvre.

``The Mummies of Guanajuato" (``Las Momias de Guanajuato," 1972): A notoriously overstuffed movie starring wrestlers Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras, who proved not up to the task of taking on the famous mummies of this historic region. Enter Santo with flame thrower.

``Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolfman" (``Santo y Blue Demon contra Drácula y el Hombre Lobo," 1973) and ``Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein" (``Santo y Blue Demon contra el doctor Frankenstein," 1974): In the color 1970s Santo movies, Santo and Blue Demon usually wore blazers and slacks, and spent idle moments playing cards and chess, like the Luchadoras did in ``Aztec Mummy." Double-date conversations in restaurants somehow seem more engrossing when the men show up to dinner in wrestling masks and ascots.

A.S. HAMRAH