Las luchadoras contra la momia

By 1962, the lucha libre genre -- chiefly made up of low budged actioners pitting masked wrestler heroes against spies, gangsters, monsters and other assorted lowlifes -- was beginning to attract a wide and loyal following. In the next decade, numerous films starring the likes of Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras would rake in considerable profits for enterprising producers.

Looking to capitalize on this new trend, the first pair of four films featuring Las Luchadoras were lensed (in 1962 and 1964). As were their male counterparts, the Luchadoras were depicted as successful wrestlers suddenly thrust into mysterious and dangerous circumstances. Unlike the more established lucha heroes, the girls did not wear distinctive masks. Equally significantly, the team was specifically created for the movies. In the first two films, Lorena and The Golden Rubi were played by actresses Lorena Valezquez and Elizabeth Campbell. Much of their in-ring footage was achieved through the use of stuntwomen (likely actual wrestlers).

The second of the early Luchadoras films, MOMIA is a fun if minor outing which benefits from generally gloomy photography and a sometimes frenetic pace. Initially released to American television by import auteur K. Gordon Murry, the title is currently available on prerecord, with a newly-added rock "score" added in the 1980s. In this form, it's an ideal "party tape," in spite of a notorious non-ending on this print.

Deep in the heart of Mexico, archaeologists are being abducted and killed by the wicked Black Dragon and his all-oriental gang. The missing men were all members of a scientific party which had earlier entered an ancient tomb, and the Dragon is after something they had found there.

Briefly evading his pursuers, one of the two remaining survivors of the party takes refuge in the Luchadoras' dressing room. When they discover him, he reveals he's looking for Mike, Lorena's secret service agent boyfriend (in the American dubs he's identified as being with the police). He explains the Dragon and his men are after the sections of an Aztec codex which offers a clue as to where their legendary treasure is concealed. One of the Dragon's men eliminates him before he can reveal more.

Charlotte, the daughter of one of the dead researchers, is staying with the lone surviving scientist. Kidnapped and brainwashed by the Dragon, she's placed back with the heroic group to act as his spy.

A key delivered in the lining of a sombrero puts the girls and their boyfriends (passably heroic Mike and comic relief Tommy) on the trail to a part of the codex. Escaping a trap at a nearby hotel, they locate the missing paper in a locker. The dragon's men, however, possess inside information. They arrive in time to start a second fight (which they again lose, when Mike threatens to burn the codex). The Dragon proposes a deal: the girls will compete against his two judo girls and the winners of the match will take all of the segments of the codex. The Luchadoras naturally win, but the Dragon doublecrosses them when Mike tries to arrest him.

The group manage to translate the codex and learn that the secret to the treasure is to be fond on a golden breastplate in a hidden tomb beneath one of the pyramids. Also buried in the chamber is Tezamoc, a warrior with supernatural powers who had been cursed to be the piece's eternal guardian.

Going after the breastplate, they break into the tomb. The Dragon gang is on hand, but wait outside, where they assume it's safe (later events prove them to be literally dead wrong in this assumption).

Tezamoc revives and the party barely escape with the breastplate. The next morning, a newspaper announces that the Dragon's thugs were found dead at the site. Charlotte and Tommy decide to end the curse by returning the breastplate. This only gets Charlotte captures by Tezamoc, who plans on sacrificing her.

Reluctantly guided by Tommy, the others return. The mummy transforms into a bat and a spider, trying to stop them, but they finally cover his eyes and manage to chain him to a stone pillar while they escape. Tezamoc brings down the roof.

He's not stopped, though. That night, the remaining gang members arrive to steal the relic. Tezamoc also arrives and kills them all.

He then flies into the professor's apartment in bat form. According to the clock in the apartment, this all happens at 10:15 at night, but a cock crows as Tezamoc approaches the sleeping Charlotte (it must have been a very long fight). Turning back into a bat he flies away (the footage of the arriving prop bat is reversed so it flies backwards out of the room).

This effectively ends his participation in the film -- at least the US print. The film abruptly ends with another wrestling match.

Cutting may have been somewhat confused in making the domestic print. In the scene before the gangster/mummy battle, we see the Dragon briefing everyone. They are all dirty, though there is not explanation offered. There's also that bewildering ending. Did Tezamoc go up in smoke en route back to his tomb, or did he just decide to let the breastplate go?

Give it a 5 out of 10.

Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy, The (1964)

* (out of 4)

Notorious Mexican film has a gang of criminals known as The Black Dragons killing off archaeologists so that they can find some ancient Aztec secrets. Soon a group of wrestling women try to stop their evil deeds and it eventually leads to an Aztec mummy who has his own plans. Fans of bad movies have been eating this one up for decades now. There's no question that the performance are horrid, the direction even worse and the story itself makes no sense but thankfully the film is so bad that you can't help but get a few laughs out of it. While watching this movie I couldn't help but wonder who on Earth this thing was made for. I know these Mexican "wrestling" movies were popular in their day but it's really hard to see why. I mean, none of the wrestling matches are exciting and they're so poorly filmed that you can't help but laugh. Even worse is the incredibly stupid story that never really makes any sense. One minute you'll be thinking one thing is happening and then all of the sudden, and out of nowhere, the film will go into a different direction. The final twenty-minutes of the film finally has the mummy appearing and it almost seems as if it was thrown in for no reason and possibly just added after production as a way to get the film into more theaters. No matter the reason, the mummy stuff is pretty funny and especially in the English dubbed version. The heavy breathing and moaning will surely get you laughing but I must say that the actual look of the mummy is quite good. The final moments of the film aren't all that exciting but we at least get the mummy in some decent action including one sequence where he attacks all of the criminals. With that said, the appeal of this thing is only going to be for those who enjoy bad movies. There's really nothing else "good" going on here and it's so cheaply produced you still wonder what the entire point was. I do wonder if those involved realized that they were making something that people would still be watching fifty-years later.

1964's "The Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy" was the second in a six film series featuring beautiful women wrestling in the ring like their male counterparts but without masks to hide their identity or their good looks. Lorena Velazquez and Elizabeth Russell return from "Doctor of Doom," and instead of a masked villain dubbed 'The Mad Doctor' we have an Oriental baddie ingeniously calling himself 'The Black Dragon,' his henchmen in search of several parts of a cut up map that will reveal the location of a hidden Aztec treasure. The big bout features Loreta Venus and the Golden Rubi against the Dragon's judo expert sisters (guess who wins?), and then at the 70 minute mark we finally get to the tomb where the valued treasure is guarded by the mummy Tezomoc (Gerardo Zepeda, who played Gomar in the previous entry), his origin resembling that of Boris Karloff in the 1932 original, here a sorcerer able to transform himself into other creatures, cursed to an eternal existence enslaved to the corpse of his virgin beloved wearing the bejeweled necklace. Once Tezomoc exits the tomb he makes quick work of the Dragon's feeble gang (the Dragon is never seen again) before turning into a bat and returning to his sarcophagus at sunrise like a vampire (he also becomes a tarantula in a later scene). For all his scary appearance he kills no one but the villain's henchmen, and earns another burial for his comeuppance, still an improvement over the one introduced in "The Aztec Mummy," "The Curse of the Aztec Mummy," and "The Robot vs the Aztec Mummy." Las Luchadoras will return in four more features by decade's end but only "Night of the Bloody Apes" would see wide distribution outside Mexico.

The Rock and Roll score appended to the English language release does not mesh well with the cultural mystique. I suggest that Verdi might be better suited. Perhaps La Traviata.

There are 2 versions of this film.There is the Rhino release called "Rock And Roll Wrestling Women Vs The Aztec Mummy".The dialogue was removed and it was turned into a musical. It is also missing about 30 minutes of film. Skip that and watch this one.

To be short there is a gang of Oriental baddies led by the Black Dragon and his 2 Kung Fu sisters(long before the Kung Fu genre exploded).He wants the code of a map to an Aztec Pyramid that contains a golden breast plate.So using violence, hypnotism and a great closed circuit tv he attempts to gather all of the code.(If ol' skip had a closed circuit tv like that it would have been in the Wrestling Women's shower room hubba hubba).

The Wrestling Women are a couple of hot babes that can seriously kick your arse.They square off against the kung fu sisters in a duel to obtain the code.The kung fu sisters get their butts handed to them.Our intrepid band hustles to the pyramid to grab the treasure.

The Aztec Mummy is awakened when the golden breast plate is removed from his long dead sweetie. This boy is ugly,mean and sounds really scary.He moans and howls like he has a serious case of intestinal distress.He can also change into a bat and a spider.Everyone is in some serious trouble as the Mummy begins to slaughter seeking the breast plate.

As usual the comic relief in these movies really grates on you.He does have some cool lines but you would like to see the Mummy remove his pea sized brain forcibly. Some of the Wrestling scenes drag on but that is worshipped in Mexico and a main part of the plot.The Mummy doesn't show up until an hour into the film and that is too bad.He is pretty scary and vicious.

But this movie is better than average and deserves a look when you're in the mood for something not too taxing.