La maldición de la momia azteca

THE CURSE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY picks up right where the first film left off. The demonic Dr. Krupp (Luis Aceves Castaneda) returns with a new plot to attain Popoca's (Angelo De Stefani) golden breastplate and bracelet set, and Popoca's not happy!

This time, Dr. Almeda and Flor (Ramon Gay and Rosita Arenas) are joined by a mysterious masked figure known as "The Angel", in their attempts to thwart Krupp.

This sequel is only a tad over an hour long, including several minutes of "flashback" footage from the first film. It is nice to see the entire cast return to their roles. The addition of a masked wrestler is novel, and boosts the cheeeze factor up a few notches...

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...

Released in the U.S. as CURSE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY in 1957, this movie seems to be made cheap and in a hurry. Hurry for it to be over is not a good compliment for a movie that only runs 65 minutes. When horror is done badly it becomes comedy. The evil Dr. Krupp(Luis A. Castaneda) also known as the desperate criminal The Bat continues his search for the breast plate and bracelet of an Ancient Aztec mummy. Dr. Almada (Ramon Gay) must protect his fiance Flor(Rosa Arenas)for she is a reincarnate of an ancient handmaiden that knows the location of the coveted treasure. Flor is kidnapped by the Bat's gang of hoodlums and coming to the rescue is a hooded, capped and haphazard fighter of crime The Angel(Crox Alvardo), who gets more ass whippings than a red headed step-child. So much for a hero. So much for horror that turns into laughable mystery. Stick to ice cold Mexican beer, a bowl of salsa and a dozen beef taquitos!

"The Curse of the Aztec Mummy" (the literal translation for "La Maldicion de la Momia Azteca") follows the story from "La Momia Azteca," second in a trilogy concluding with "The Robot vs the Aztec Mummy," all directed by Rafael Portillo and scripted by Alfredo Salazar. It's essentially a 1957 Mexican take on the then-current Bridey Murphy craze, which inspired Hollywood cheapies like Roger Corman's "The Undead," W. Lee Wilder's "Fright," Alex Gordon's "The She-Creature," Peggie Castle's "Back from the Dead," Michael Landon's "I Was a Teenage Werewolf," Ed Wood's "The Bride and the Beast," and Lon Chaney's "The Alligator People." Like the later incarnation of the Aztec Mummy in 1964's "The Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy," the monster's origin is virtually identical to Boris Karloff's in the 1932 version, a high priest who dared to love virgin handmaiden to the gods Xochitl, his name in this series Popoca, played in all three by Italian actor Angel Di Stefani. The main thrust of the initial narrative is Professor Almada (Ramon Gay) putting his young fiancée Flor (Rosina Arenas) into a hypnotic state to learn about her past life as an Aztec princess, put to death for loving Popoca, wearing a breastplate and bracelet, items that reveal more hidden treasures within the Great Pyramid of Yucatan. Of equal importance is the masked villain The Bat, who covets the Aztec riches for himself and is caught by police at the film's conclusion, unmasked as mad doctor Krupp (Luis Aceves Castaneda), in search of the treasure for some great experiment. The mummy doesn't actually come to life until an hour into its 80 minute running time, spending the last 12 minutes venturing out to recapture the stolen artifacts plus the reincarnation of his beloved princess to sacrifice her to the gods a second time just as Karloff's Imhotep sought to do (this mummy resembles photos of the real thing, and despite the brevity of its appearances is rather effective). The girl is rescued before an explosion buries the mummy and her father inside the tomb, not seen in the US until Jerry Warren's patchwork "Attack of the Mayan Mummy," which jettisoned most of the 1957 footage for lengthy talking head scenes featuring the usual suspects like Bruno Ve Sota. This first sequel kicked off with Dr. Krupp's henchmen aiding his escape to kidnap Flor and use his own hypnotic powers to make her lead him to the tomb and the breastplate left behind. Also present for this lone entry is the caped crusader The Angel, a non wrestler in need to rescue from a teen accomplice, who gets himself unmasked as Almada's supposedly cowardly assistant, along for the ride once the villains invade the tomb with 15 minutes left in an hour long feature. Krupp takes what he needs among the rubble, the mummy rising for a couple minutes of menace, reappearing in the final 180 seconds to put The Bat in his place by tossing him into his own death trap filled with poison snakes. Only one five minute sequence depicting the sacrifice of the Aztec princess is recycled from "La Azteca Momia," while the series finale would wind up using more stock footage to pad out its hour long running time.

So, The Curse of the Aztec Mummy (1957), is the second installment of the Aztec Mummy trilogy and the third installment, Robot VS the Aztec Mummy (1958), was the one, that got the most attention and exposure in the U. S. In the 60 years since these came out, most of us saw the third installment and are now back-tracking to see the other two, that are available now. The third film is more of an edited down version of the first two movies, told through flashback, with some extra footage added in, to round out this confusing, lost, badly scripted, badly dubbed, trilogy. I had no idea Angel, the wrestler-guy was part of this. He's nowhere to be seen in Robot VS the Aztec Mummy (1958), so that was somewhat interesting and somewhat disturbing to find out. Why was he cut? Who knows?

Anyway, The Curse of the Aztec Mummy (1957), explains a lot about why certain things were omitted from the third film. The scenes with Angel are atrocious, right down to the fake machine guns, so fake, that they don't even flash or have smoke coming out of them. They are totally shaken by the actors to show the machine gun effect. Badly done machine gun sound effects are used too. Very elementary school. It's understandable why the wrestler-guy was taken out for the third film. I will say this, the fight scenes and action scenes with Angel, will remind you of the classic cliff-hangers, that Hollywood put out in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. It had a nice feel for that. Probably the only thing that keeps this film from getting a 1 or a 2.

PMTM Grade: 2.8 (U) = 3 IMDB.