Cinema Suicide

I have to admit that I have quite the obsession with Mexican B-cinema from the good old days. Typically, my obsession tends to fall on the Mexican National Heroes of both action cinema and the ring, the Luchador. Real, live super-heroes who can just as easily pile-drive an opponent in the ring as fight off masked-wearing robots with sternum punches and half-nelsons. The ones who were mysteries to all, never for once taking off their masks even when they left the ring. Always making wrestling moves look practical in real-life hand-to-hand combat situations. I am a huge fan of the luchador.

When I picked up this movie, I was not expecting a luchador movie. I was pretty sure this was the type of B-rated schlock that plagued drive-ins during the 50’s. Something I was in the mood for at the time, since I couldn’t find a decent looking JD (juvenile delinquent exploitation) film. I was right about the B-schlock part, but was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a dubbed-over Mexican movie. That made it so much better.

I should have guessed that this was Mexican in origin, seeing that it is from the K. Gordon Murray Collection. This is the man responsible for many a poorly-dubbed, Americanizations of some of the greatest classics to come out of Mexico. He is the man solely responsible for exposing Americans to the World’s Greatest luchador: Santo. Although the name was changed to Samson, it was still something that needed to be done. I will get more into K. Gordon Murray at another time. For now, let’s move onto the Wrestling Women.

Despite all my excitement with the possibilities of this slice of cinema history, Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy isn’t all the it’s cracked up to be. First and foremost, the title is misleading. This movie has very little to do with an Aztec mummy. It would have been more appropriately titled “Wrestling Women vs. The Black Dragon”. The Black Dragon is the Fu Manchu-like antagonist who is present throughout the entirety of the movie, unlike the Mummy.

The movie starts with Black Dragon, in all his pseudo-japanese glory, sending out his ruthless band of thugs to assassinate archaeologists that he feels might have discovered an ancient Aztec Scripture. A scripture he believes will give him some kind of supreme power over death. Little does BD know that his latest target is the wrong archaeologist to fuck with. Bring on the Wrestling Women!!!

Despite Black Dragon’s ruthless pack of thugs, hypnotic abilities and a very unbelievable CCTV. He just can’t seem to get one over on Loretta and Golden Rubi, the Wrestling Women. He even sends his very androgynous, twin little sisters to the ring. Apparently they are the supreme “masters” of Judo in all of the Orient, but they are no match for punchy, amazonian-framed, ring goddesses.

Without divulging too much, eventually our mummy shows up and wrecks some shop… towards the last 15 minutes of the movie. This is why I have a problem with the title. Although I must admit that the mummy make up was pretty damn impressive for the time (1964) and didn’t really emulate his Egyptian cousin, which is something I expected. The movie dragged, with the exception of the few fight scenes that didn’t include ring combat, which in itself was a tad bit boring. I didn’t really expect much in the way of a plot, which was a pretty standard for a “B” of it’s time and origin. The dubbing was pretty bad, but that’s to be expected out of a Murray translation. He really wasn’t known for taking the time to make these things look too professional.

Despite the fact I was unimpressed, the extras alone make the purchase worth it. Hours of trailers for other Murray and Something Weird releases. I can’t wait to get my hands on Little Red Riding Hood and the Monsters. Watching the trailer makes me think it is the most fucked up thing I will ever see. It’s got to be better than Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy.