Las luchadoras contra la momia

1964's "The Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy" was the second in a six film series featuring beautiful women wrestling in the ring like their male counterparts but without masks to hide their identity or their good looks. Lorena Velazquez and Elizabeth Russell return from "Doctor of Doom," and instead of a masked villain dubbed 'The Mad Doctor' we have an Oriental baddie ingeniously calling himself 'The Black Dragon,' his henchmen in search of several parts of a cut up map that will reveal the location of a hidden Aztec treasure. The big bout features Loreta Venus and the Golden Rubi against the Dragon's judo expert sisters (guess who wins?), and then at the 70 minute mark we finally get to the tomb where the valued treasure is guarded by the mummy Tezomoc (Gerardo Zepeda, who played Gomar in the previous entry), his origin resembling that of Boris Karloff in the 1932 original, here a sorcerer able to transform himself into other creatures, cursed to an eternal existence enslaved to the corpse of his virgin beloved wearing the bejeweled necklace. Once Tezomoc exits the tomb he makes quick work of the Dragon's feeble gang (the Dragon is never seen again) before turning into a bat and returning to his sarcophagus at sunrise like a vampire (he also becomes a tarantula in a later scene). For all his scary appearance he kills no one but the villain's henchmen, and earns another burial for his comeuppance, still an improvement over the one introduced in "The Aztec Mummy," "The Curse of the Aztec Mummy," and "The Robot vs the Aztec Mummy." Las Luchadoras will return in four more features by decade's end but only "Night of the Bloody Apes" would see wide distribution outside Mexico.

The Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy (1964) is a Mexican film 🇲🇽 that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a group of female wrestlers who take on would-be thieves and a transformational mummy threatening their village.

Directed by René Cardona (Santa Claus), the film stars Lorena Velázquez (The Rape of the Sabines), Armando Silvestre (Two Mules for Sister Sara), Ramón Bugarini (Hellish Spiders), and Nathanael León (Grave Robbers).

This is one of those films you watch for the ride, not for its quality as a "good movie." The cast is fun, though the women are far too glamorous to be wrestlers. The wrestling scenes are uneven-while the opening sequence is entertaining, the later one leans heavily into cheesiness. The horror elements are limited, but the corpses, skeletons, and the mummy itself are a highlight. Unfortunately, the mummy doesn't appear until the final 18 minutes of the film, which feels like a missed opportunity.

In conclusion, The Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy offers a fun, campy ride for horror enthusiasts seeking something unique. I'd score this a 4.5/10 and recommend it only with the appropriate expectations.

By 1962, the lucha libre genre -- chiefly made up of low budged actioners pitting masked wrestler heroes against spies, gangsters, monsters and other assorted lowlifes -- was beginning to attract a wide and loyal following. In the next decade, numerous films starring the likes of Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras would rake in considerable profits for enterprising producers.

Looking to capitalize on this new trend, the first pair of four films featuring Las Luchadoras were lensed (in 1962 and 1964). As were their male counterparts, the Luchadoras were depicted as successful wrestlers suddenly thrust into mysterious and dangerous circumstances. Unlike the more established lucha heroes, the girls did not wear distinctive masks. Equally significantly, the team was specifically created for the movies. In the first two films, Lorena and The Golden Rubi were played by actresses Lorena Valezquez and Elizabeth Campbell. Much of their in-ring footage was achieved through the use of stuntwomen (likely actual wrestlers).

The second of the early Luchadoras films, MOMIA is a fun if minor outing which benefits from generally gloomy photography and a sometimes frenetic pace. Initially released to American television by import auteur K. Gordon Murry, the title is currently available on prerecord, with a newly-added rock "score" added in the 1980s. In this form, it's an ideal "party tape," in spite of a notorious non-ending on this print.

Deep in the heart of Mexico, archaeologists are being abducted and killed by the wicked Black Dragon and his all-oriental gang. The missing men were all members of a scientific party which had earlier entered an ancient tomb, and the Dragon is after something they had found there.

Briefly evading his pursuers, one of the two remaining survivors of the party takes refuge in the Luchadoras' dressing room. When they discover him, he reveals he's looking for Mike, Lorena's secret service agent boyfriend (in the American dubs he's identified as being with the police). He explains the Dragon and his men are after the sections of an Aztec codex which offers a clue as to where their legendary treasure is concealed. One of the Dragon's men eliminates him before he can reveal more.

Charlotte, the daughter of one of the dead researchers, is staying with the lone surviving scientist. Kidnapped and brainwashed by the Dragon, she's placed back with the heroic group to act as his spy.

A key delivered in the lining of a sombrero puts the girls and their boyfriends (passably heroic Mike and comic relief Tommy) on the trail to a part of the codex. Escaping a trap at a nearby hotel, they locate the missing paper in a locker. The dragon's men, however, possess inside information. They arrive in time to start a second fight (which they again lose, when Mike threatens to burn the codex). The Dragon proposes a deal: the girls will compete against his two judo girls and the winners of the match will take all of the segments of the codex. The Luchadoras naturally win, but the Dragon doublecrosses them when Mike tries to arrest him.

The group manage to translate the codex and learn that the secret to the treasure is to be fond on a golden breastplate in a hidden tomb beneath one of the pyramids. Also buried in the chamber is Tezamoc, a warrior with supernatural powers who had been cursed to be the piece's eternal guardian.

Going after the breastplate, they break into the tomb. The Dragon gang is on hand, but wait outside, where they assume it's safe (later events prove them to be literally dead wrong in this assumption).

Tezamoc revives and the party barely escape with the breastplate. The next morning, a newspaper announces that the Dragon's thugs were found dead at the site. Charlotte and Tommy decide to end the curse by returning the breastplate. This only gets Charlotte captures by Tezamoc, who plans on sacrificing her.

Reluctantly guided by Tommy, the others return. The mummy transforms into a bat and a spider, trying to stop them, but they finally cover his eyes and manage to chain him to a stone pillar while they escape. Tezamoc brings down the roof.

He's not stopped, though. That night, the remaining gang members arrive to steal the relic. Tezamoc also arrives and kills them all.

He then flies into the professor's apartment in bat form. According to the clock in the apartment, this all happens at 10:15 at night, but a cock crows as Tezamoc approaches the sleeping Charlotte (it must have been a very long fight). Turning back into a bat he flies away (the footage of the arriving prop bat is reversed so it flies backwards out of the room).

This effectively ends his participation in the film -- at least the US print. The film abruptly ends with another wrestling match.

Cutting may have been somewhat confused in making the domestic print. In the scene before the gangster/mummy battle, we see the Dragon briefing everyone. They are all dirty, though there is not explanation offered. There's also that bewildering ending. Did Tezamoc go up in smoke en route back to his tomb, or did he just decide to let the breastplate go?

Give it a 5 out of 10.

I'd be exaggerating if I said I'd rather have my brain pulled out through my nostril than watch another mummy movie, but I'm sure you catch my drift: I find them so boring, doubly so if they happen to be Mexican and have been Americanised by Gordon K. Murray.

The Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy is just that: a crappy combination of crumbling monster madness and lovely luchadoras, repackaged for a US audience, that isn't anywhere near as much fun as it sounds. The main problem with the film is that the mummy, who is actually quite a lot of fun when he's on screen, doesn't appear for well over an hour. The first 69 minutes involve a villain called Black Dragon (Ramón Bugarini) who is attempting to get his hands on an ancient Aztec codex that will reveal the whereabouts of a vast treasure; trying to prevent him from doing so are an archaeologist, his daughter, her fiancé, and two female wrestlers, Loreta (Lorena Velázquez) and Golden Rubí (voluptuous beauty Elizabeth Campbell).

The action is dull and repetitive - even a wrestling match between the luchadoras and a pair of female judo experts is boring, going on for way too long - and René Cardona's direction is, for the most part, unremarkable. I had way more fun trying to work out how Black Dragon's hidden camera was able to track, pan, zoom and change position than I did with the story.

When the mummy finally appears, things do pick up a bit, as the creature tries to find the Aztec breastplate stolen from the remains of his beloved Xochitl: he chases our heroes, takes on the form of a rubber bat and a tarantula, and annihilates Black Dragon's gang, running back to the safety of his tomb when the sun rises. If only there had been more of this throughout the rest of the film...

(aka: WRESTLING WOMEN vs. THE AZTEC MUMMY)

Our two wrestling babes from DOCTOR OF DOOM are back, ready to kick some more ass.

This time it's a oriental villain called the Red Dragon who is having his gang kill off a group of archeologists who have stumbled on to code that will lead them to an Aztec treasure. The Red Dragon needs the last surviving member of the group, a Dr. Tracy, in order to get it. And of course our two wrestling babes are called in to help.

This one is so laughingly bad, it had my sides splitting. I love the scene where they encounter the Aztec mummy in the tomb and he looks like he's wearing a Halloween mask.

And then he changes into a bat, too!

(laughs)

The Something Weird video is doubled up with DOCTOR OF DOOM and has tons of extras including many trailers for other Mexican horror films they have in their library. Although the b/w print shows it's age, it's far better than the old grainy VHS tape.

6 out of 10 for giving it the old college try…

(more laughs)