The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy

Plot summary

The evil Dr. Krupp (Luis Aceves Castañeda), also known as "The Bat", continues his efforts to steal a valuable Aztec treasure from the tomb of a centuries-old living mummy, Popoca (Angel di Stefani). Krupp builds a robot to defeat the mummy, which has so far thwarted his efforts. Krupp's former colleague and original finder of the mummy, Dr. Eduardo Almada (Ramón Gay), and associates Rosa and Pincate, work to stop the mad scientist from completing his plans, successfully destroying the robot as Popoca returns to the shadows of the night.

Cast

Production and Distribution

The film was shot in 1957 in tandem with its series predecessors, La Momia Azteca and La Maldicion de la Momia Azteca. Much of its execution consists of flashback footage taken from the first two.

The film was released in the USA in 1958 by Azteca Films Inc. in its original Spanish language for Spanish-speaking American community audiences. English-language dubbing rights were subsequently acquired by entrepreneur K. Gordon Murray, who distributed the film nationally in 1964, on a programmed double bill with The Vampire's Coffin (El Ataud del Vampiro), as Young America Productions Inc. Subsequently, he syndicated it to TV, as one in a package of dubbed Mexican horror films which eventually gained a following in the US by their appearance on the USA Cable Network.

The film made its debut on DVD on Jul 30, 2002 where it was released by Alpha Video. It was re-released again on Mar 12, 2003 by Beverly Wilshire. It was later released in The Aztec Mummy Collection, a 3-disc set which included the rest of the films in the series. It was last released in 2013 and 2014 by Willette Acquisition Corp. and VCI Video, respectively.

Critical Reception

Contemporary reviews of the film, or other articles concerning it, have not been located

In post-modern times, the TV program Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed the film in the second episode of the first season, which aired for the first time in 1989. The Canadian comedy series This Movie Sucks! featured an edited version of the film in its second season.

Cultural Inaccuracies

The movie shows a notable lack of awareness of Mesoamerican civilizations, as it suggests the Aztecs practiced mummification and used hieroglyphics. In reality, they used pictographs and practiced cremation and simple burial. It was the Inca civilization that practiced mummification, and the Maya who had a system of hieroglyphics. Also, the mummy is depicted in the Egyptian style (upright or lying on its back) rather than in the Inca style (hunched into a ball with its feet pulled to the body and its knees close to the face).

Other films in The Aztec Mummy series