The Aztec Mummy

This is the find of the year (2006), a film that was on EVERYBODY'S lost list. One story even had Jerry Warren hacking up the original negative for one of his edit bay epics. Now you can buy it for bargain prices. THE AZTEC MUMMY looks really great on the new three disc set THE AZTEC MUMMY COLLECTION (BCI),and the remastering is nearly perfect. The exterior parts with the mummy are done on real Mexican ruins and look sensational. You get a feel for the SIZE of the buildings, their age. The flashbacks star a native dance troupe, and the way that THEY recreated their heritage as of the 50's. Some of them are so proud to be in a REAL MOVIE that they grin right into the camera. I like that.

Tastes have moved on since then, and what they regarded as totally authentic seem dated now, but don't be too fast to throw it over. The group worked long and hard to get the routines down, and are on par with a lot of the dance troupes that you see on Ed Sullivan reruns. This is also how Mexicans saw their own culture, and as such should not be taken too lightly. And the background instrumental grows on you in a world music sort of way. The plot has something to do with returning a beautiful lady (Rosita Arenas) by hypnosis to her past to locate an Aztec breastplate proving the existence of previous lives. There's a masked super villain who wants the breastplate for his own nefarious ends, a cowardly second banana, car chases, gun battles, you know: something for the whole family. You also get the essential plot of Apocalypto stripped down to less then one reel and without the blood and guts that would give the kiddies nightmares..and APOCALYPTO doesn't have an evil masked doctor in it, or policemen with machine guns. When the Aztec Mummy finally decides to get up and get moving, the scenes are on par with anything Universal came up with in later Mummy movies. Very effective. A lost movie saved from the ashes