Robot Versus the Aztec Mummy (1958)

La momia azteca contra el robot humano
Aztec Mummy vs. the Human Robot
El robot humano

Cast:

Ramón Gay is Dr. Eduardo Almada
Rosa Arenas is Flor Almada / Xochi
Crox Alvarado is Pinacate
Luis Aceves Castañeda is Dr. Krupp
Jorge Mondragón is Dr. Sepúlveda

What the IMDB says:

A mad doctor builds a robot in order to steal a valuable Aztec treasure from a tomb guarded by a centuries old living mummy.

Plot:

Doctors Diaz and Ester are told by Dr. Eduardo Almada about his research about Aztec treasures and past life regression. Apparently, Almada's wife Flor was an Aztec in a previous life. At that time, she ran off with her boyfriend. However, they were caught; the warrior was buried alive to guard a powerful breastplate and bracelet which would lead to a hidden Aztec treasure.

The villainous Dr. Krupp snooped into the experiments.

Eduardo, Flor, and their group head off to search for the aforementioned Aztec pieces. Finding the hidden Aztec temple, they find the treasures and take the breastplate. Later going back for the bracelet, Eduardo finally spots the mummy.

Michael Meyers didn't first appear in Halloween

The mummy kidnaps Flor who still looks identical to her past life self. He plans sacrificing her. Eduardo and Flor's dad rush in to rescue her. Dad holds the mummy back for them to escape before blowing the temple.

Krupp kidnaps Flor to force Eduardo to translate the breastplate and bracelet. The goons are about to kill them when the mummy staggers in beating them and tossing Krupp into a snake pit. Mummy takes the pieces he must guard and leaves.

Eduardo reports the story to the police. However, Krupp's lab is cleaned out including Krupp is gone.

Krupp somehow uses the Jedi mind trick to summon Flor to him and wants to find the mummy. Apparently, the mummy is now in a cemetery. Krupp plans to experiment with his project and sends Flor back to her house and to FORGET...

In the morning, Eduardo is thinking that Krupp has hypnotized Flor. Using criminal investigative methods he discovers that Flor was in a cemetery. Checking around, he finds where the mummy is resting with the pieces.

5 years later, Eduardo is telling his friends at the beginning. Krupp has stolen radium, machines, and various cadavers. Eduardo and Pinacate, his butler, are going to investigate by themselves before warning the police.

Lab, Krupp is a SCIENCE… The goons catch our intrepid heroes and are taken to Krupp who will show them his great invention. He is going to re-animate the dead and put the human brain into a robot body to create a Human Robot, human body in a robot body, though the head can be seen through the visible face plate.

Somehow, Ro-Man doesn't quite look as embarrassing anymore... Krupp stars ranting how he'll control the world. The robot has a disintegrating ray. Krupp plans on using the robot to destroy the mummy and then use the Aztec pieces to locate the treasure to finance more robots to "Rule the World"...

Flor warns the cops. The police search for them.

Eduardo and Pinacate overpower the goons to escape.

Cemetery, the robot shuffles along controlled by Krupp. Taking the pieces awakens the mummy. Robot versus the Mummy. Finally, the fight is on...

Cops and Eduardo grab Krupp. The mummy tears the robot apart and kills Krupp.

Save me, save me, doesn't the criminal, mad scientsit deserve to be saved? Flor gives the mummy the pieces for him to return to sleep in his peace.
Hey, you mind turning the music down, need to get 40,000,000,000,000 winks...

What I say:

Monsters have more than just their typical appearances. Sometimes, they must fight more than just Van Helsing or the typical heroes. The big name battle movies are more boxing match names...Dracula Versus Frankenstein, Freddy Versus Jason, and Godzilla Vs King Kong. Those almost sound somewhat normal in the monster genre. However, I hope to think that the movies reviewed on my site wouldn't be considered such a fighting word as "normal".

The 1970s and early 1980s showed us the coming of Italian films. OK Italian zombie, barbarian, post-apocalypytic, etc... movies. However, that isn't the only country that has taken ideas from other movies and other countries' movies: Mexico. Name any other country that has incorporated so many masked wrestlers in movies to fight mad scientists. Yes, Robot Versus the Aztec Mummy is Mexican genre movie without a wrestler. That is a very rare type of thing not counting the Mexican Santa Claus movie where Santa lives in space with Merlin and battles Scratch, a demon. That has to one of the rare original plots.

The continual narration and flashbacking is a bit jarring. The hero telling the story to his friends every few minutes does get to a bit annoying. It is possible that the Spanish spoken version might be better than a "Baddly dubbed" English spoken version. To be honest, it isn't quite the horrendous Godzilla movie dubbing badness.

Technically, a robot would be completely without a human body. A robot shaped human-like would be an android (Data from Star Trek: the Next Generation). A human with robotic extensions would be a cyborg (6 Million Dollar Man). A cyborg isn't like the Angelina Jolie type in Cyborg 2. Sorry, my sci-fi geek cred needs to be shown every so often...

Egypt doesn't have a copyright on mummies from other empires. Nobobdy could tell that with the Aztec mummy wrapped in the typical bandages. Most people just automatically think about a mummy's tomb in a lost desert or a pyramid . Between Universal Studios Mummy movies from the 1930s and 1940s and the Mummy movies from the past 10 years or so, those aren't the only ones. Probably, one of the most new remembered mummy movies from the past few years would have to with Bruce Campbell as an elderly Elvis. Hammer Studios had the Curse of the Mummy's Tomb in the 1960s.

Krupp is spoken more as a criminal and then second as a discredited scientist. Most mad scientist schemes aren't quite too bright of logical. The typical mad scientist gizmo could easily be used for him to buy everything he wanted without the whole world domination bit. A mad scientist creates a robot but needs to have it fight a mummy to steal an ancient empire's treasure. Why didn't Krupp have the robot steal something valuable that wasn't cursed by mummy? Any kind of criminal spoken almost in hushed tones of Doctor Doom or a James Bond villain should have enough contacts to give him some ideas on banks, jewelry stores, etc.

Robot, Mummy, ancient treasure, hypnosis, past-life regression, criminal mad scientist. What else is missing? Flying saucers and vampires are only a couple of the missing things. Other than that, this is definitely a "kitchen sink" type of movie. Thankfully, it isn't a "triumph of the human heart" opening in select theaters on the East and West coasts before a national release...

Quotable Dialogue
"It was terrible to think I was she."
"You know what to do now, Bruno?"
"You unscrupulous PIG!!"
Morals of the Story
Past-life regression through hypnosis is true.
Aztec people love opera.
Ancient empires protected treasures bycursing if they were tampered.
A Mummy will hate lights.
An Aztec mummy can be driven back with a crucifix.
Hypnosis is a the Jedi mind trick.
Mummys love to stay in cemetaries.
Science must be performed during thunderstorms.
Disintegration doesn't work on a mummy very easily.