Rewatched this 1971 Mexican classic starring Puerto Rican star Braulio Castillo with Mexican babe Iran Eory, Carlos East, Susana Salvat and others. It tells the story of social activist Catholic Priest Padre Mauro who works with the young people of his province trying to lure them away from drugs and sinful lifestyles. One young guy he couldn't persuade, the son of a wealthy man, died of drug overdose. While the wealthy man was an atheist he respect what Father Mauro was trying to achieve and handed him a big chunk of cash to help the kids and ordered his house handyman to take the priest back to the airport. Instead the handyman takes Mauro to a deserted beach where he steals the priest's money and after beating him bad shoots him and leaves him for dead, all naked. Later a group of hippies find him and one of the girls who used to be a nurse attends his wounds. When Mauro recovers he doesn't remember what happened or who he is. Then goes the predictable plot of falling in love with the girl, enjoying sex and alcohol only to later recover his memory with a big "OMG I AM A FUCKING PRIEST!!!" The film is interesting, has nice visuals and period good hippie music. The three gals are hot as hell and had a memorable striptease scene. But to me the best part comes near the end when Father Mauro debates with the Archbishop about the theology of chastity for priests, the lack of biblical support for this dogma and questioning why he can't serve God and have a wife too. At that time that was a very polemic topic and the film addressed it head on.
60's Mexican bombshell Susana Salvat Iran Eory (of Iranian & Spaniard parents) was a better actress than what she did in this film. Her starring role in the film "Rubi" portraying an ambitious, unscrupulous beautiful man-eater sexy beast gold-digger was so memorable that the film was remade a few times, even made into two soap operas a few years ago. The newest version of Rubi portrays the character as a likable tragic character instead of the selfish monster that Eory played. BTW the story of 'Rubi' originated in a comicbook of the same name!
Camila Sodi is yummy too in this year's remake, but I agree that Uruguay's Barbara Mori was hotter. Camila Barbara