ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Konterr
Brilliant and touching
Rio Hayward
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
mark.waltz
However you slice it, this alleged T.V. movie is basically a rip-off of the original Boris Karloff "The Mummy", set in South America as opposed to Egypt. It is all basically the same with a character strangely named Ann Taylor being revealed to apparently be the descendant of a Mayan princess. On a visit to Mayan pyramids, they find her skeleton, and the mummy guard instantly comes to life, chasing them through the catacombs of the pyramid and literally crushing one of the victims to death. (It appears in this scene, however, that with the other pyramid visitors pulling on one side and the mummy pulling on the other side that they would actually have pulled the poor victim in two). The film is set up as one of the survivor's attempts to tell this story to a reporter, and most of the first 20 minutes is a discussion of basically what happened with little action. That is until a flashback sequence from some 2000 years before where the princess becomes a seemingly willing sacrifice to the Mayan gods and the mummy-to-be is given a hot liquid potion which turns him into some sort of undead monster. The dancing girls do not look remotely like they'd be close to of Mayan decent, and the men playing the drums look like Broadway chorus boys. Even the Mayan set up to be the mummy doesn't look convincingly strong, but I guess when you've been wrapped up in a giant one gauze piece for 2000 years (trying to squeeze your way out of it), you must gain some strength. Basically, it's pretty boring with only a few interesting moments and those come from the bad acting and outrageous action going on. Truly the epitome of the dummy mummy, and no threat to either Karloff, Christopher Lee or the modern day series which didn't outwear its welcome as fast as this one did.
Randall Phillip
This miasma of poor film-making is captivating in that it so tactlessly lays bare the paltry mechanisms it employs. It is essentially a Mexican film that "director" Jerry Warren bought and interjected American "actors" into it. The movie opens with a lengthy rambling conversation, whose only purpose seems to be to kill time. Then we get the Mexican movie with an English voice-over, ala The Creeping Terrot), which is allegedly describing some events pertinent to the story. It is astounding. Throw into the mix some bizarre teenage dancing (by adults), baaaaad acting, and the genuinely creepy-looking, yet slow moving, mummy of the title. One can easily imagine people leaving the theater after ten minutes when this was first shown, leaving perhaps an old man snoring as he falls asleep in his seat. Part of the attraction I have to Jerry Warren's movies is trying to figure out what the hell he was thinking. He could've just dubbed the entire Mexican movie in English, so why hire bad actors to be inter-cut into it? Some questions will never be answered.
reptilicus
I am risking professional ridicule for saying this but there was one of Jerry Warren's movies that I actually liked, MAN BEAST (1957) which certainly no classic did have certain moments. Now this Mexican import is another story. In it's original form it was probably a good movie (I don't speak Spanish so I can only guess) but Jerry took it and actually made this an overly complicated hodgepodge that is breathtakingly boring. One scene after another of people sitting and talking endlessly, a few precious minutes of the original Mexican footage, and then more scenes of people sitting and talking. FINALLY we get into the main plot but Jerry has reshuffled the scenes so much the Mexican plot has been totally supressed. Scenes of American actors reacting to the South-Of-The-Border footage would be funny if the overall tone of this re-edited mess was not so yawn inducing. The mummy is pretty authentic looking but we lost the subplot of the evil Dr. Krupp and his attempts to steal the sacred Aztec breastplate showing the location of the lost treasure. And thanks to Jerry's re-editing 2 of the main characters appear to get killed when in the original film they survive! Yow! if you like Mexican scary movies do yourself a favour and see the ones imported by K. Gordon Murray. He had sense enough to just dub them and release them intact. Jerry Warren, shame on you!
evilskip
In 1957 a neat little movie called The Aztec Mummy was made in Mexico.It was the forerunner of 3 more movies in the Aztec Mummy series.While these weren't classics they were fun to watch.In 1964 Jerry Warren bought the US rights to the film Aztec Mummy. He cut out 45 minutes of the original movie.Why he did this is anybody's guess. He replaced the footage with 45 minutes of scientists & newspaper men TALKING!!These "characters" were inserted because they were cheap and were only used as exposition!Remember ol' skip's rule of thumb:Using the first five minutes having actors doing exposition and you have a bad movie on your hands. Try sitting through the first 30 minutes of this agonizing film of truly mind numbing, boring "conversation". Truly cinematic Hell.I would love to see the original movie again but alas it is probably lost to us now.This "cut" is the WORST movie in memory. Rhino just released it. Stay away from this. You've been warned.
