We’ve been on a run of movies lately, you may have noticed, and we’re going to keep running today. This promo was made for a Mexican gem titled La momia azteca, which in the U.S. was called The Aztec Mummy. The piece has less of the art deco feel that we’ve noted was prevalent among Mexican poster artists during the ’50s and ’60s, but to our inexpert eyes it’s still there a little. We could be wrong, but in any case check out what mean by clicking here then following the subsequent links. You’ll end up seeing six beautiful, frameable works of art. It’s worth the side trip, trust us. Mummy will wait.
Okay, you’re back. In this fascinating film a criminal known as El Murcielago, or the Bat, conducts illegal research in body part transplantation. Let’s set him aside for a few seconds. Elsewhere, another doctor, played by Ramón Gay, is performing research into past life regression, but rank and file scientists doubt his conclusions, and he can’t prove them unless he has a willing subject to undergo hypnosis. As luck would have it, his girlfriend Rosita Arenas wants to lend a psyche. Seriously, a girlfriend who puts her mind completely in her man’s hands? Marry her.
Arenas is hypnotized and projects back to the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan and a past life as a twenty year old woman named Xochitl who, unfortunately, is due to be sacrificed to the god Tezkatlipoka. As a chosen one, she’s a virgin. There’s a party interested in changing that, but when the two are caught nuzzling they’re punished by being buried alive and cursed to forever guard two artifacts: a golden breastplate and an arm band. Gay, getting this story direct from Xochitl via his girlfriend, decides that locating the breastplate will prove his past life regression hypothesis even to his skeptical colleagues.
He right, of course. But all this time, Gay doesn’t know his experiements are being spied upon by a shadowy masked figure. Yeah, it’s that bat dude. Let that be a lesson to all you scientists out there to lock the back door of your creepy basement laboratory. El Murcielago decides to beat Gay to the artifacts, but neither know that stealing these may bring back to life Popoca—the Aztec mummy!
We called this a gem earlier, but we were just being cute. It’s not good. But to be fair, it’s no worse than most Hollywood mid-1950s sci-fi movies. For example, have you ever seen The Astounding She-Monster? Ouch! This particular flick at least has in its favor a specific quality that makes it tolerable: it’s exotic. The exteriors lensed in the majestic ruins of Tenayuca probably achieve that all by themselves. Are you in the market for bad but exotic sci-fi? This could be just the ticket. Watch it with tequila shots. La momia azteca premiered in Mexico today in 1957.
