Saturday, October 8, 2011

The Aztec Mummy (1957)




Director: Rafael Portillo

Starring: Ramon Gay, Rosa Arenas, Crox Alvarado, Luis Aceves Castaneda, Jorge Mondragon

More info: IMDb

Plot: Experimenting in hypnotic regression to past lives, Dr. Almada discovers that his fiancée, Flor, is the reincarnation of an Aztec maiden who was put to death for loving an Aztec warrior, her body placed at the entrance to a hidden chamber in the Great Pyramid of Yucatan where the treasures of the Aztecs were hidden, and her lover mummified but cursed to remain alive and guard the treasure. With her recovered memories, Flor is able to lead Almada, his wimpish assistant Pincate, and her father to the now-skeletal remains of the maiden. Attached to them is a golden breastplate with a map detailing the route to the treasure. But to their horror, the party is intercepted by the mummified warrior, Popoca, and flee with the breastplate back to Mexico city. Popoca follows. In the meantime, Prof. Krup, an unscrupulous colleague of Almada's, recruits a gang of thugs, whom he leads from behind a mask and known only as "The Bat". Both Krup and his gang, and the mummy, converge on Flor's house to retrieve the sacred breastplate, which is in her possession...



My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again? Noop.

Gee I thought for sure this would be special (can you feel the sarcasm?). I actually thought this could be fun but I was wrong. It could have been if it were only a half hour long instead of 80 minutes. The problem is that so many "action" scenes dragged on like when the mummy was going to the professor's house to get the breastplate back and he ends up taking the little girl. It felt like he did it in real time as in him walking miles to the house and back. There were too many scenes like that. When you add to that the print is very dark and hard to see (a lot of it was filmed at night), it's tough to get into it.

The Bat is pissed!

I digs me some mummy pictures but this one didn't have much mummy action. The one thing I did like, however, was the villain of the picture, "The Bat"! He was right out of a movie serial from the 1930s and 40s. This picture kind of felt like one of those serials except for the lack of action. As boring as it was it won't keep me from eventually seeing the two sequels, the last being THE AZTEC MUMMY AGAINST THE HUMANOID ROBOT (1958). Now THAT sounds like a good time if you ask me.

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