The Curse of the Aztec Mummy (1957)

What a beautiful movie!

A Major Disappointment

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This movie picks up where the previous film "The Aztec Mummy" left off with "Dr. Krupp" (Luis Aceves Castaneda) being interrogated by the police for his role as the criminal mastermind known as "The Bat". His latest caper was attempting to steal an Aztec breastplate and bracelet in order to locate an ancient Aztec treasure. To do this he needed the services of "Dr. Almada" (Ramon Gay) and his pretty fiancé "Flor Sepulveda" (Rosa Arenas) and he had no concern about kidnapping or murdering them if that becomes necessary. Now, although he was arrested he still desperately wants this treasure and this movie essentially begins with him getting another chance when his men rescue him during a bloody shootout on the way to prison. Attempting to help the police is a masked man known as "The Angel" whose identity is best left secret so as not to spoil the film for those who haven't seen it. Be that as it may, for a sequel to a rather average movie this film wasn't too bad all things considered. While it features the same cast and manages to keep things rolling along one specific complaint I had was that it didn't show as much of the Aztec mummy as I would have liked. Additionally, while it isn't necessary to see the first movie it certainly wouldn't hurt--if for no other reason than to have a bit more insight into what is going on. In any case, it wasn't quite as good as "The Aztec Mummy" and for that reason I have rated it one notch below it. Slightly below average.

Curse Of The Aztec Mummy is the second of a three-film series filmed back-to-back by cheapskate production company Calderon in 1957. Exploiting the Aztec Mummy angle is a cost-effective attempt at creating a homegrown monster, and it's certainly a unique re-imagining of the classic Egyptian model – tatty coat, Keith Richards hair, and the oddest dubbing job by K. Gordon Murray that makes it sound like a hungry wino. Or, for that matter, Keith Richards on a North American tour.Curse… begins where the first Aztec Mummy finishes: the eeeeevil Dr Krupp (also known as "The Bat") is busted out of police custody by his evil henchmen, and plans to kidnap the good Dr Almada and his fiancée Flora. In a lengthy flashback, Krupp relates the first film's integral plot point in which a hypnotized Flora, an Aztec princess in a previous life, relates the whereabouts of the Aztec treasure. She was put to death, while her treacherous lover, an Aztec warrior named Popoca, was cursed to eternal life while being buried alive. Almada wants Flora to prove his theories on reincarnation; Krupp, with his eeeeevil beer-gut and Van Dyke beard, just wants the cash.Enter The Angel, a masked wresting champion of justice, who comes to Almada's aid, but ends up hanging by a light bulb over a pit of rattle snakes. Meanwhile "The Bat" and the bound Flora are chased around an Aztec pyramid by the resurrected Mummy of Popoca, who after countless centuries is still protective of his ex-girlfriend… …But of course it's not the final word from the eeeeevil Dr Krupp. Virtually the entire cast and crew return to do it all again in the third film Robot vs The Aztec Mummy, released in mid-1958. All three black and white movies clock in at just over an hour, and with their episodic, heavy padding, quasi-cliffhanger structure and stagy melodrama filled with cardboard cutout gangsters and mad scientists, are reminiscent of the old American serials of the 30s and 40s. What you didn't see north of the border is a masked wrestler driving up to a crime scene in a sports car. And therein lies their charm.

This is an inferior first sequel to THE AZTEC MUMMY (1957), eschewing much of the atmosphere and metaphysics of the original for comic-strip antics and cliffhanger situations involving a masked avenger (whose identity is even more incredible than the revelation of the villain at the end of THE AZTEC MUMMY) and a private snake pit! Despite the title, the appearance of the mummy itself is almost an afterthought – since it's relegated only to the climax. Though barely over an hour in length, the film features extensive flashback footage from its predecessor and, similar to it, the scenes involving the mummy are extremely dark – the lighting during the finale changes drastically from one shot to the other – perhaps so as to conceal the rather poor make-up job! The comedy relief isn't very pronounced this time around (as it turns out, for plot purposes) – while the villain (incidentally, the scene depicting his escape from the clutches of the police at the beginning of the film utilizes footage from a gun battle featured in the first entry in the series!) here completely forsakes his "Bat" persona on his way to becoming the mad scientist in the next instalment...

Giving this film a 9 is an internal rating. We are talking Mexican mummy/ masked super hero/ science fiction/supernatural movies. And this one is nearly perfect. First of all, it's a fast 65 minutes. Second, you have that nasty ol' turkey, Dr. Krupp from THE AZTEC MUMMY coming back, and STILL after that doggone breastplate. Ramon Gay, Rosita Arenas and lots of stock footage from AZTEC MUMMY have also returned, with a great edit job of the 'Past Lives Dance Sequence' from the first film. But this film ALSO features the FIRST Mexican masked superhero, complete with mandatory Masked Superhero Mini-mobile/Shriner Car. Santo was three years away. Neutron four. Blue Demon eight. THE ANGEL was there first in 1957, jumping and leaping and getting beat up, complete with the standard equipment deep resonant voice and a wrist radio to get him out of trouble. THIS is history. Don't look for logic or even continuity with the first film. The thing is on such a headlong rush, some people thought it HAD to be edited down from a 12 part serial, like the NOSTRADAMUS films were. It wasn't, by the way, just filmed in the same year, back to back with the first. Now available in THE AZTEC MUMMY COLLECTION from BCI and cleaned up, with the original Spanish soundtrack on one side, the K Gordon Murray re dub on the other...HAVEN'T you always wondered what they were REALLY saying?? Answer: in most cases, it's just as surreal.