The Mexican Mummy Spectacularr!!
From Mexico! It's Mummies!!!
ARRIBA!
AZTEC MUMMY COLLECTION
BCI DVD
LA MOMIA AZTECA (ATTACK OF THE AZTEC MUMMY) 1957 LA MALDICION DE LA
MOMIA AZTECA(CURSE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY)1957 LA MOMIA AZTECA CONTRA EL
ROBOT HUMANO(THE ROBOT VS THE AZTEC MUMMY) 1958
BCI has done fans a great service by releasing this classic Mexi-Horror triple bill of mummy pictures which were nearly impossible to see in subtitled versions. They also provide the K. Gordon Murray dubbed versions on all but LA MOMIA AZTECA if you're not in a reading mood.
The saga begins with Dr. Almada, a scientist who wants to prove his theory of past life regression through hypnosis before a group of distinguished scientists who somehow have time to listen to this kind of bullshit.I guess the past life craze of the late fifties went all the way to Mexico. According to the prologue, this film is based on an experiment carried out by Dr. Hughes and Tony at the Institute of Hypnosis in Los Angeles. Gorillanaut was able to speak with Tony and he said "yeah,I guess so. Do you have five dollars?" But anyway, the other scientists aren't buying it and a despondent Dr.Almada eventually hypnotizes his fiance, Flor. As luck would have it she was a Aztec princess in a past life and now knows where a special Aztec breastplate and armband are buried, a fact that would allow Dr. Almada to prove his theories, as there would be no other way for her to no such a thing. As all this is going on, a masked criminal known as "The Bat" is pulling masked villain type capers. He is also known to be a mad scientist who grafts animals and humans together in unholy, monstrous ways. Unfortunately for Dr.Almada, the Bat had sneaked into his house and watched Flor's hypnosis and now is after the breastplate. During the regression we get to see some actual pyramids as Flor relates the sad story of Xochi, her past life self, and the warrior Popoca. Just as in Egyptian mummy stories there is the forbidden love that requires a curse and some getting buried alive stuff. If for some reason you miss this part of the film, don't worry because you see it again in the next two sequels. That Aztec Flute playing is brutal. I really need to mention Dr. Almada's sidekick Pinacate, as he is more important in the next film. In this one he plays the scaredy cat comic relief role. After Alamada and company have removed the breastplate and arm band, the Bat continues to plot to steal them and then learn where the bulk of the treasure is hidden. As much as these films are influenced by Universal's mummy series they also borrow from Republic serials. The Bat, his henchman and the whole secret villain identity are exactly like THE CRIMSON GHOST and many other serials. It takes awhile but the mummy does finally show up for his breastplate and the reincarnated Xochi, now Flor. The mummy has a nice design, unique to this series. He's a crusty, long haired, shambling guy with a growl. The Bat turns out not to be some super genius criminal like Fu Manchu, but one Dr. Krupp, a portly member of the Scientific Congress that didn't believe Almada's theories. Of course it ends happily with the mummy buried in the temple with his all important breastplate and The Bat in jail. Well, it's not happy for Flor's father as he gets buried with the mummy.
LA MALADICION LA MOMIA AZTECA picks up pretty much right after the first film. Our arch-criminal friend The Bat/Dr.Krupp escapes from jail but this time a masked superhero known as The Angel tries to help the police stop him. The Angel wears all white, a mask, drives a convertible and he means well but he just ain't no Captain Marvel if you know what I mean. During his first fight with Krupps' goons he gets knocked out and nearly has his head run over. Who is the Angel? No one knows. But he does give Dr.Alamada's little brother Bobby a two way wrist radio to call for help if needed. The Bat manages to capture Flor, hoping she can lead him to the treasure. The Angel goes to help but is promptly captured and put in the "Death Chamber", a Republic Serial collapsing wall room with a snake pit below. Being the ass kicking superhero that he is, The Angel calls Bobby the kid for help. Then the Angel is beat up again and re-captured. He just sucks at this. I suppose everybody is tired of the Angel so Krupp finally takes off his mask revealing him as Pinacate, the bumbling sidekick. The guy you would least likely suspect! I forget where but at some point we get the flashback to the Xochi/Popoca story from the first film. Krupp forces Almada to translate the breastplate although I'm not sure why he would be able to do it. Crusty old Popoca the mummy eventually shows up pissed off that nobody will leave the god damned breastplate alone. He knocks acid into Krupp's lead henchman's face and then throws old Krupp into the death chamber before taking off.
LA MOMIA AZTECA CONTRA EL ROBOT HUMANO spends the first twenty five minutes showing us through flashbacks from the first two films the story so far. The Bat escaped the snake pit and once again, because it's worked out so fucking well up to this point, tries to get the breastplate. With the help of his acid scared goon, Tender, he somehow hypnotizes Flor from his car and gets her to lead him to where the mummy is resting with the breastplate. Dr.Almada is telling us this flashback account even though he wasn't here, but whatever. Five years pass and no Bat and no mummy. But wait, a report of a stolen corpse catches the doctor's eye. It could only be The Bat. And it is. He's manages to build a super cool robot out of the corpse. He's a big, clunky, low budget robot. You can see the human head inside and he has lights and walks very stiff. It's a great fucking robot. After once again catching Almada and Pinacate snooping, Krupp ties them up and reveals his plan to steal the breastplate by using the remote controlled robot. This plan took five years to come up with. Just fucking genius. You gotta hand it to Krupp. But the mummy kicks the shit out of the robot and is talked into just forgetting the whole mess by Flor but first he kills Krupp and his scarred goon. Director Rafael Portillo kept things short and moving despite the amount of re-used flashback footage. While not really a mummy movie in the Univeral Kharis series kind of way, if you like your El Santo or similar masked hero movies, you'll probably find something to like about these three. Also fans of the Republic serials would likely be entertained by the complete non-pretentious fun of it all. The first film doesn't look as good as the second two but it is completely watchable. The set also comes with seven page color booklet about the series.
WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY 1964 (LAS LUCHADORAS CONTRA LA
MOMIA)
SOMETHING WEIRD DVD
WRESTLING WOMEN brings us a a new mummy but with the same problem, namely that god damned breastplate. On the plus side in this one we get two hot wrestling babes, Golden Rubi and Loreta Venus, which is a good thing. Rene Cardona directed this one , following up his DOCTOR OF DOOM from 1964. The villain this time is the very Fu Manchu like Black Dragon, who along with his judo chopin' sisters, is kidnapping and murdering scientists in an attempt to get an Aztec "codex". I'm not sure what that is exactly but I believe it holds the key to finding the breastplate and the Aztec treasure. Our wrestling heroines get involved because one of their boyfriends has an uncle who may be next on the Black Dragon's list. Also tagging along is Charlotte, the daughter of one of the recently murdered scientist. She's pretty and mostly is good at getting kidnapped and brainwashed or getting kidnapped and nearly sacrificed by the mummy. In true Republic serial villain style, the Black Dragon uses hypnotism and hidden spy cameras to achieve his evil goals. The hidden camera is really amazing because it manages to do a hell of a lot of panning and is able to broadcast from rooms it isn't in. The girl's boyfriends, Tommy and Mike, seem to be in the movie mostly for comedy relief. The Black Dragon aka Prince Fujiyata is played by a Mexican just as Fu Manchu was always played by a white dude. Both the Luchadoras chicks are pretty hot and have really cool big hair. After a while of trying to gather the pieces of the codex, the Black Dragon agrees on a winner take all wrestling vs. judo match pitting Rubi and Venus against his very much less attractive sisters. In a tag team bout that seems to go on for a long time, with all the flipping and the hair pulling, our girls win. It's not the erotic wank fest you were hoping for. But the Black Dragon pulls a double cross after refusing to surrender for arrest. The good guys translate the codex and surprise, it reveals the location of the all important breatplate which reveals the location of the treasure. They head down to the pyramid but this time awaken the mummy who may be called Tezamoc or something that sounds like that. He's got creepy bug eyes and hair like Gallagher. But this guy has the bonus powers of turning into a bat or a spider because he's some sort of witch doctor. He's yet another guy who in the distant past got it on with the wrong girl and had to be buried alive and cursed as punishment. We get to see the flashback footage of all this narrated by the scientist, complete with flute playing and sacrifice. The footage actually is pretty good with cool costumes and sets. The Black Dragon watches on his hidden camera as the scientist narrates the saga but I don't think his camera was good enough to get the flashback footage itself. As these things go, the mummy is pissed off and wants his breastplate back. After he kills the Black Dragon gang , he does his turning into a bat bit but it thwarted by the coming sunrise. After more goofiness, the cute but useless Charlotte is caught and about to be sacrificed by the mummy until the good guys show up to save what's left of the day. The Something Weird disc is a double feature with DOCTOR OF DOOM and is the usually excellent package of extras. Lots of trailers, an epidode of a cool kid show called "Ghoul A-Go-Go" and some tv spots.
THE LIVING HEAD-1963
(LA CABEZA VIVIENTE)
Beverly Wilshire DVD
With THE LIVING HEAD we can finally move from breastplates and get into plain ol' profaning of a sacred sepulcher. Chano Urueta who directed Gorillanaut fave BRAINIAC, continues here with both Abel Salazar and German Robles as well as the same musical score from that film. It begins way back in 1525 with the mighty Acatl's head being entombed along with high priest Xiu and hottie Xochiquetzl. I guess nobody goes into the great beyond alone. Also buried is the ring of death or some such thing that warns of enemies. We get the cool, swirly passage of time montage similar to the one in BRAINIAC where a series of dates appear til we get to the present. For some reason they go from 1525 to 1661, 1761,1861 and stop in 1963. Archeologists led by Professor Muller (German Robles)find the tomb containing Acatl's head, Xui and Xochiquetzl, but she disintegrates instantly. Xui, the big mummy, doesn't look mummified at all. He stands upright and clutches his sacrificial dagger while the head is a skull in a head dress. They get back home and one member of the expedition has his heart cut out with a dagger and placed near the skull. Xui is in his coffin with footprints leading away and holding a bloody dagger. Well case closed right? Big mummy came back to life and is killing Mexicans. But Detective Abel Salazar doesn't believe in that kind of shit. You gotta wonder why the professor would keep the head and mummy in his house but whatever. They also repeat the curse that was inscribed in the tomb so we know more death is coming. The professor says there are men going to Mars but know such thing as goblins. I'm not sure those two things are mutually exclusive. The professor gave his daughter the ring from the tomb to wear and she bears a striking resemblance to Xochiquetzl, mainly because they are played by the same actress. She has dreams of ritual sacrifice which are actually due to sleepwalking while being controlled by the head. She must watch the "sacred magic eye" of the ring to see the next victim. Xui is actually doing all the heavy lifting in this picture and is really committed with his profaner of the sacred sepulchre, your time to die speech. There's a pretty cool, oddly poetic scene of the hypnotized Marta ( the professor's daughter) carrying the head on a tray through the house with Xiu walking behind her. Poor Xiu eventually figures out that Acatl has been reincarnated as Marta's fiance and Marta is Xochiquetzl and this causes him to disintegrate along with the head, although I don't have any idea why. While never as perverse as BRAINIAC, THE LIVING HEAD is still an enjoyable Mexican horror flick. The disc I watched is pretty good but I believe Casa Negra is set to release the original Spanish language version. The K. Gordon Murray version, dubbed in beautiful Coral Gables Florida is a lot of fun in itself. I'm pretty sure there may be two or three people who dubbed all these Mexican imports but I like their voices and it's these versions that creeped me out as a kid.
