Director: Rafael Portillo
Year: 1957
Country: Mexico
Alternate Titles: La momia azteca contra el robot humano; The Aztec Mummy Against the Humanoid Robot
Genre: Mummy
Plot:
No longer able to keep a secret, a doctor and his friends learn their efforts of safeguarding a valuable treasure is thwarted by a gangster trying to steal the belongings of an Aztec tomb guarding by a living mummy using his hand-made robot and race to stop him.
Review:
This was certainly an interesting and enjoyable Mexican drive-in fare. What really works for this one is the Gothic atmosphere is quite creepy at times, giving this one some chilling moments along the way. That it leads off with the Aztec ceremony flashback, a complete elaborate Aztec layout which has a great detail and feel that when it gets to the action of the rituals, from the chanting and the lineup of the maidens to the actual banishment ritual shown being completed, is a fine start and leads into the big series of underground sequences in the caves. The first sequence, where they break into the tomb and see the mummy laying there in the room with the skeleton and bringing it back to life chasing them throughout the eerie caves when they return again the second time, and the third encounter interrupting the creature' sacrifice attempt leading to the brawl around the tomb makes this an incredibly enjoyable, creepy sequence. Likewise, the sprawl through the cemetery where she passes the elaborate monuments and tombstones is a chilling Gothic set-piece, the return trip leading the robot through is quite fun and there are even more good points from the juxtaposition of the Gothic and cheesy here by featuring scenes like that of the cheesy-looking robot crossing through a Gothic cemetery or the creature's attack on a hideout dispatching a series of gangsters.
That also extends to the overall look of the two titular creatures which is quite readily apparent of its' low-budget nature throughout, which also brings up the first of the flaws here with this one. The biggest thing against this is that so little of what happens here can be taken seriously because the cheapness is much too distracting here, from the utterly pathetic robot design as it's one of the worst-looking ones in the history of robots on film and the general feel of the sets here give off a pretty obvious low-budget. It becomes all the more obvious in this version where this one decides to focus on the flashbacks of the others as there are three different times this one stops to bring those flashbacks up again which shows a pretty obvious quality-shift between this one and the others, and then partially ruins the effect by talking over the whole scene with a narration that takes away from the scene by describing what's happening during the sequence. The last problematic effort is the length at barely an hour long and keeping so many of the big scenes, from the hide-out assault and the finale fight between the two titular creatures hidden away till the back-end while there are other issues to deal with in such a short effort. Otherwise, this one wasn't all that bad.
Overview: **.5/5
A generally fun and enjoyable cheesy creature feature so long as you're aware of the flaws present in this one, there's not much else to this one which leaves it quite obvious in terms of how to approach it. Those that appreciate the style and can overlook the flaws will have a fun time here, while those who aren't into this approach will have a hard time with this one.
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