El robo de las momias de Guanajuato

The evil Count Cagliostro (Tito Novaro), a 500 yr. Old Warlock, and monomaniacal professor Raymond conspire to resurrect the famous mummies of Guanajuato in order to extract Hernium, a preternatural, highly volatile element! Working from their secret, heavily guarded subterranean base they begin their sinister subterfuge, threatening the total destruction of the world if their despotic demands aren't met in full! With the entire civilisation held precariously in the balance, mankind's only hope of salvation is in the heroic triumvirate of muscular masked mancake, Mil máscaras, the no less hypertrophic, Blue Angel and sparky comrade, El Rayo de Jalisco! El Robo de las Momias de Guanajuato (1972) is an action-packed, wonderfully entertaining, divinely ludicrous Luche Libre romp that provides B-Movie fans with a garish generosity of crusty zombie mayhem! Headier highlights include the macabre-looking Mummies grisly make-up, Cagliostro's zesty Kung Fu Dwarves, Rafael Carrion's groovy score, the striking Guatemalan locations, and, of course, the lusty Luchador's triumphant battle over the eerie electro-brained zombies!

What a load of hokum. Not surprising, of course, Mexico 1972 with masked wrestlers the heroes. Just a glance at the wonderful lobby cards and poster, heavily featuring the muscle boys, including 'Blue Angel' and 'Thousand Masks' known affectionally in the film as 'Blue' and 'Thousand' respectively, is enough to assure this is not going to be an intellectual feast. Trouble is that colourful though this is and mildly amusing may it be to have a bunch of caped and masked wrestlers mixing it with mini skirted girls and a bunch or dwarfs, not to mention the mad scientist and Satan himself, all this does not a story make. Just realised I haven't even mentioned the titular 'mummies' but then it is easy to forget them. great first appearance in the catacombs but all down hill thereafter what with all their slow movement and zombie like automaton action. Hope I haven't put anyone off this! Seriously my best advise is consider watching and then buy the poster instead.

One of the strangest genres of films I have ever seen (and I've seen a lot of weird stuff) are the Mexican luchador movies. I'm not surprised that they made them, as wrestling has been hugely popular in Mexico for many decades. But what makes them so odd is that they are NOT all about wrestling but are more like superhero films where the guys just happen to be masked wrestlers. Even odder yet is that while the films usually show a bit of a match or two, most of the films are supposedly about the wrestlers' real life adventures battling aliens, Atlantians or even monsters! Yes....masked wrestlers take on the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein in many of the flms!

In "El Robo de las Momias de Guanajuato" ("Robbery of the Mummies of Guanajuato"), the evil Count Cagliastro has managed to revive a group of Mexican mummies by using a spell which invokes the Egyptian gods! To stop him in his infamy, Mil Máscaras (Thousand Masks), Blue Demon, Blue Angel and El Rayo de Jalisco (The Lightning Bolt of Jalisco) take on the mummies and their master. Of course, this involves lots of wrestling and fighting...all during which the quartet keep their masks on at all times. In fact, in some of these hundred or more wrestling films, you see the luchadores showering, sleeping and even going out on hot dates while wearing these masks! It's something Mexicans just loved and took for granted back during the classic period of wrestling in the 1960s and 70s.

So is this any good? No....it's terrible. But also, it's terribly entertaining despite everything. The production values aren't especially high and the mummies look as if the make-up and rubber masks cost the production company about $30 (and this is probably being generous). Despite all this, however, the films are fun...and this mummy film never bores!



By the way, I looked it up and Guanajuato is a state north/northwest of Mexico City and it IS known for its mummies. In fact, they even have a mummy museum! It sure sounds like an interesting place to visit. I read about the place and, surprisingly, these mummies are NOT ancient but are from a cholera outbreak in 1833! The museum was opened just a few years before this film was made and it reportedly houses over a hundred of these mummified bodies.