original production:

LAS LUCHADORAS
CONTRA LA MOMIA

Cast: Lorena Velazquez (Loreta Venus), Ramon Bugarini (as "Raymond Bugarini") (Black Dragon), Elizabeth Campbell (Golden Rubi), Chabeia Romero, Maria Eugenia San Martin (Charlotte Van Dyne), Armando Silvestre (Mike Henderson), Jesus Velazquez (as "Victor Velazquez") (Mayo), Chucho Salinas (Tommy), "with the Milagros Inda Ballet"

SYNOPSIS:
As our story opens, newspaper headlines reveal that a number of horrible murders of noted Mexican scientists are being attributed to the infamous "Black Dragon" and his gang.

One evening, a scientist nervously tells his assistant that the Black Dragon gang is after him now. He instructs his assistant to drive him to a local sports arena. The scientist runs inside, hoping to hide in the crowd.

Inside the arena, an exciting match is in progress, featuring several wrestling women, including the most beloved female wrestlers in all Mexico, Loreta Venus and Golden Rubi!

The Black Dragon's gangmobile pulls up to the arena entrance. A thug named Mayo gets out, knocks out the door attendant, and runs inside to find his victim.

Inside, Loreta and Rubi admirably engage their ruthless opponents, as their boyfriends, police detectives Mike Henderson and Tommy shout enthusiastically from the audience.

Mayo cannot locate the scientist he seeks, so he leaves the arena.

After Loreta and Rubi win the fight, they retire to their locker room. Rubi sees a man hiding behind a column, and orders him to present himself.

The man sheepishly comes out into the open; it is the scientist we saw earlier. He introduces himself as Dr. Mike Zorba. He has come to see detective Mike Henderson, and hoped he would find him here.

At that moment, Mike and Tommy enter. Dr. Zorba explains his presence to the confused men; Zorba was sent by Mike's uncle, a Professor Louis Tracy, who requests that Mike and Tommy come to his aid at once; both scientists have been marked for death by the Black Dragon gang!

Zorba nervously explains the situation: several months ago, he and several colleagues investigated an Aztec pyramid, and came away with an ancient scripture, or "Codex", which is supposedly of great value.

Since then, the notorious criminal known as "the Black Dragon", who wants the codex for his own nefarious purposes, has been systematically eliminating all the scientists who participated in that fateful archeological expedition!

Zorba informs the gathered that only he and Tracy are left, and both are scared for their lives!

As Zorba speaks, Mayo peeks through an open window, and blows a poison dart at Zorba, killing him instantly.

Later, the police commissioner holds up the poison dart; he knows this is the work of the Black Dragon gang!

The gangmobile arrives at Black Dragon headquarters. Black Dragon, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Fu Manchu, holds court with his two karate-expert sisters.

Mayo and the gang inform Black Dragon of Zorba's murder. Black Dragon is at first angered at this information, but is relieved when Mayo informs him that he is certain that the dead man did not possess the coveted scripture.

Black Dragon informs Mayo that only Doctor Tracy is now left, and that no harm must come to him, or his family... until the codex is stolen from them!

Later, at Doctor Tracy's apartment, the situation is discussed. The daughter of one of the murdered scientist, Charlotte Van Dyne, vows vengeance on the killers of her father.

Tracy discloses that Black Dragon possesses some parts of the codex, which purportedly reveals the location of a great Aztec treasure. As the partial scripture is worthless, Black Dragon needs the other parts desperately.

Tracy decides to pass out sections of the codex to everyone present, in order to decrease the risk of the whole of it being stolen. It is suggested that everyone live at the Tracy house for the time being, until the situation is resolved. Mike, Loreta and Rubi leave.

No sooner does Tracy leave his apartment than Mayo and the gang break in and snoop around. They surprise Charlotte, and kidnap her.

Later, Mike, Loreta and Rubi arrive back at the apartment, and find Charlotte missing; they suspect the work of Black Dragon.

Meanwhile, Dr. Tracy goes to an undisclosed location, and sections off pieces of the sacred codex. He then sends the sections to the others.

Meanwhile, back at Black Dragon's laboratory, the evil madman injects Charlotte with a drug which will make her his zombie!

Later, Mike calls Loreta and Rubi, and informs them that Charlotte has not turned up. Unbeknownst to them, Black Dragon's gang is listening in on the conversation.

Black Dragon continues his brainwashing program on poor Charlotte. The she- zombie slowly rises from her slab, and obeys her master's every command. She walks into the gangmobile, and is driven off to her first act of brainwashed mischief.

Soon, Mike arrives at Tracy's apartment, and tells Loreta and Rubi that Charlotte is still missing. The doorbell rings, and a messenger delivers a large hatbox for Tommy; he has had his sombrero blocked!

The group immediately suspects trouble; Tommy doesn't even wear a sombrero! They check the hat for secret messages, and find one: go to room #13 at the Hotel Rio! Unbeknownst to our heroes, Black Dragon is watching all of this transpire on his super-zoom tele-snooper, awkwardly hidden behind a bookshelf.

It is decided that Tommy should go to the hotel as instructed, and pick up his part of the codex from Dr. Tracy. Rubi agrees to go along to protect her "little man".

Black Dragon tells his men to go to the hotel also, and prepare for the arrival of our heroes.

Tommy and Rubi arrive at the hotel, and ask the desk clerk for directions to room #13. He tells them, but as they leave, we see that the real desk clerk has been tied up, and the fake desk clerk is really one of Black Dragon's thugs!

Tommy and Rubi find room #13 and knock, but there is no answer. Finally, the two enter the room, and are immediately assaulted by more Black Dragon thugs, who overpower our heroes easily.

Black Dragon sends Charlotte the zombie back to Tracy's apartment, to await further orders.

Meanwhile, back at room #13, thugs torture Tommy, trying to get information out of him. Mike and Loreta arrive, and a fight ensues.

The detectives and the wrestling girls overpower the thugs, and capture two to take to police headquarters.

Other thugs escape, and report back to Black Dragon headquarters. They hand over the piece of the codex they were able to steal.

Black Dragon assigns his sisters to face off against the wrestling women in a match, to thus destroy them!

Meanwhile, Mike and the police inspector interrogate the captured gang members, but they both commit suicide before revealing anything.

Later, Black Dragon spies as Tommy retires in Tracy's apartment for an afternoon nap. Black Dragon then commands Charlotte to arise from her bed, and take a syringe full of truth serum to inject the sleeping lad.

Charlotte injects Tommy with truth serum while Black Dragon speaks to him through his spy-scope. He asks where Dr. Tracy is hiding, but the drugged Tommy is able to honestly feign ignorance.

Suddenly, Loreta and Rubi enter the apartment, and Charlotte attacks them. Loreta knocks Charlotte out, however, but not before she has been injected with the truth serum.

A messenger arrives, and hands Charlotte a bunch of flowers, which is addressed to her.

Inside the plant is a key to a post office box on Third Street. Black Dragon tells Charlotte to bring the key to him immediately.

Black Dragon then tells his sisters that all is going well; soon they will have the codex, and the sacred Aztec treasure will be theirs!

Loreta eventually comes to, and finds Rubi and Tommy still passed out. She also finds the note about the post office key, and begins to revive her friends.

Meanwhile, Mayo has gone to the post office box, and retrieved the codex fragment.

Later, our heroes attempt to revise their plans, while Black Dragon looks on with his incredibly obvious snoop-a-look. Mike looks at another of Dr. tracy's documents, and discovers that the final piece of the codex puzzle is hidden in the very sports arena where Loreta and Rubi perform!

Later, Rubi arrives at the arena, and attempts to locate the codex piece, but soon Mayo and his thugs arrive as well, and a fight ensues.

Black Dragon enters as well, and watches the fight. Soon, Mike arrives too, and threatens to burn the remaining codex-piece if things do not settle down. Black Dragon makes a deal with the cop; a fight between the Black Dragonettes and the Wrestling Women, winner take all!

Mike is skeptical, but Black Dragon (who reveals his real name as Prince Fujiyata), promises to be true to his word. It is agreed, and the fight is to be held in two weeks.

Two weeks pass. The crowd assembled to watch the big fight is tremendous. Inside, Mike is still trying to talk the women out of this fight, which he feels is suicidal, but Loreta insists that they can hold their own against these sneaky oriental judo champions.

The fight begins. The crowd goes wild. The judo sisters are good, but the wrestling women are better. After a lengthy battle and several close calls, our heroes emerge victorious.

In the locker room, everyone congratulates Loreta and Rubi on a job well done. Even Black Dragon commends the pair, and hands over his piece of the codex as promised. Mike, however, betrays his part of the bargain by pulling a gun, and announcing he is going to take the Dragon straight to prison!

As Mike and Tommy escort Black Dragon and Mayo down the hall at gunpoint, the judo women intervene, and engage the policemen in a fierce battle. During the struggle, Black Dragon and Mayo escape.

The oriental women defeat the policemen and leave. Loreta and Rubi arrive, and try to cheer up their vanquished boyfriends.

Back at headquarters, Black Dragon tells Mayo that they should let their enemies be for awhile; perhaps left alone they will discover the location of the great treasure, after which they may be overthrown.

Back at Dr. Tracy's apartment, the group decides what to do. Tracy wants to give up the search, but the others insist that he keep on, for the good of the country and for the memory of those scientists who gave their lives.

Tracy finally agrees, and spends long hours researching the documents, while the others play chess and poker, and Black Dragon looks on...

Finally, Dr. Tracy deciphers the hieroglyphics, and tells the great story of Popoca, warrior god of the Aztecs!

According to the document, Popoca seduced a young virgin who was about to be sacrificed to the gods. The eloping lovers were soon caught, however, and returned to the great temple, where they were punished for their transgressions.

The assembled group is impressed with the story, but Black Dragon, who has been listening in all along, thinks its all nonsense. Dr. Tracy and his colleagues feel they should investigate.

Soon, the group arrives at the great pyramid, unaware that Black Dragon's gang waits for them there. Dr. Tracy finds the right spot on the map, and breaks down an opening for them to enter the sacred tomb of Popoca.

Black Dragon tells his men to wait for now, and let Dr. Tracy's group do the work of locating the treasure.

Dr. Tracy and his group enter the dank pyramid. Soon, they find the passageway to the great temple, in which lies the sarcophagus of the princess, covered with cobwebs and spiders.

Dr. Tracy examines the mummy with great enthusiasm. Nearby, a coffin opens by itself, and out comes a hideous, undead thing: the Aztec Mummy! The mummy starts towards our heroes, who quickly run out of the pyramid, leaving the mummy wailing next to his beloved princess.

Back at Dr. Tracy's apartment, the group tries to reconcile themselves to the incredible events they have just experienced. Dr. tracy consults a book which explains more of the legend of these weird ancients, and also begins to examine the priceless Aztec necklace which he took from the temple.

Meanwhile, Black Dragon instructs his gang to go to Tracy's apartment and retrieve the valuable necklace for him.

Later that night, as Dr. Tracy continues his work on the Aztec necklace, a rubber bat appears at the window, and turns into the Aztec mummy!

The Black Dragon gang arrives at the same time. They try to shoot the mummy as it approaches, but the undead cannot be felled by machines. The mummy easily overpowers the thugs, and turns back into a bat to approach Dr. Tracy's apartment.

The bat-mummy flies in to Dr. tracy;s winow, but as it is about to grab the necklace, it sees the sun rising, and knows it must flee before dawn.

The next morning, Tommy and Charlotte read the newspaper headlines, which describe how a "strange creature" mangled all the members of the Black Dragon gang. They know it is the Aztec Mummy come back for the breastplate, but doubt anyone else would believe them.

Charlotte and Tommy agree that they must return to the pyramid, and attempt to give back the sacred breastplate. As it is daylight, Charlotte feels that the mummy may not attack them.

The two return to the pyramid. They are scared, but determined. After awhile, they become separated.

Soon, Tommy calls for Charlotte, but cannot locate her. Terrified, he runs out of the pyramid, and races back to Dr. Tracy's.

Tommy excitedly tells the others about the mishap, and how they must all return to the pyramid to rescue poor Charlotte. But they must hurry: the sun is about to set!

Meanwhile, back at the pyramid, Charlotte is desperately trying to find her way out. Soon, our intrepid heroes arrive. Charlotte is now lost. She hears a horrible shuffling sound; the mummy is awake!

The mummy slowly approaches poor Charlotte, who is terrified. Charlotte faints; the mummy picks her up, and carries her to the sacrificial altar.

Our heroes enter the pyramid, as the mummy prepares a sacrificial ritual for Charlotte.

Mike enters the tomb just as the mummy is about to sacrifice Charlotte. He fires his gun to distract the monster. Loreta and Rubi attack the mummy with torches, and the monster retreats, turning into a bat. He turns back into a mummy, and approaches our heroes once more. He suddenly turns into a tarantula, and hops on Charlotte. The men cover the spider with a tarpaulin, and try to wrap up the beast before it turns back into a mummy.

Dr. Tracy frees Charlotte. He begins to retrieve the breast plate, but Charlotte says it is to remain in the tomb.

The group leaves the pyramid while the mummy struggles to escape its shackles. Soon, the tomb begins to cave in on the horrible undead one.

Outside, our heroes are safe but shaken. They wonder how long the Aztec treasure will remain hidden, protected by its loyal guardian.

THE END

REVIEW:
The terms "Wrestling Women" and "Aztec Mummy" should cause chronic drooling on the part of any self-respecting cult film buff. Put the two phrases together, however, and same film nuts would likely swoon, then contemplate on bended knee their good fortune.

Indeed, THE WRESTLiNG WOMEN VS THE AZTEC MUMMY is one of the great titles in psychotronic film history, and what do you know, but the film itself is a friggin' classic to boot!

We open with great, creepy opening music over atmospheric travelogue footage of Mayan pyramids, over which of course hover those beloved drippy Murray credits.

Suddenly, we're in a crime picture, with gangland murders and a Chinese bad guy! Then, we drive a big old boat of an auto right into a ring full of wrassling chix! We know nirvana can't be far behind!

Surely, this beloved flick is one of the oddest, most wonderful mixtures of genre ever concocted: gangsters, wrestling, sci-fi/horror, and a poor man's Fu Manchu story! This flick is a (perhaps unwitting) tribute to American cliffhanger serials, as well as the 40s Hollywood staple, the mystery picture series (Charlie Chan. etc).

The wrestling women, Loreta Venus and Golden Rubi (as well as their odd-couple detective-boy friends), reprise their roles from the equally wonderful DOCTOR OF DOOM.

The villain, the "Black Dragon", is an hilarious skid-row riff on "Fu Mancho"; he dressed like a Mandarian opium dealer, and talks like a cardboard ogre (the same voice actor is used here as with the drooling ogre in PUSS 'N BOOTS). He likes to send secret messagea in sombreros, and employs two Asian karate chix to battle our lovely wrestling amazons.

The big Dragon also possesses some ludicrous spy technology, including a ridiculous zoom-lens "Telesnooper" that is as absurd as anything the Professor ever used to capture Felix's bag of tricks!

After an hour of original shenanigans, we thought we got away from recycled LA MOMIA AZTECA stock footage, but no, there it is!

One of the most astounding folkloric liberties taken here is the title mummy's unexplained ability (presumably for the convenience of the filmmakers) to convey himself from one location to another by turning into a rubber bat! Shades of Nostradamus!

There's assuredly a lesson here: take a certifiably insane source film with a classic title, saddle it with a bounty of overwrought dialogue, and you create one of the undying greats of cultfilm infamy.

COMMENTS:
* (updated 02-14-06) Thanks to a terrific new book we just received, "Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold" by Kevin Heffernan, (2004, Duke University Press), we have been able to update the U.S. television release date for this Murray horror title to 1965. The appendices to this study of the horror film in America, circa 1955-1968, include complete listings of syndication feature film packages from many distributors, including American International Television, who subleased the K. Gordon Murray film catalog under the title THRILLERS FROM ANOTHER WORLD. It seems that 1965 was the watershed year for genre film sold to television, with a veritable flood of titles released by both domestic and foreign distribs.

* (effective 05-01-03) After a very brief window of availability, this long-sought K. Gordon Murray title is once again out of print, due to international copyright issues. Used video tapes of this title may be found on online video dealers and auction sites. Stay tuned for further developments!

* In 1986, Rhino Home Video, with the help of cultfilm wunderkind Johnny Legend, released a customized version of this august classic, entitled ROCK N' ROLL WRESTLING WOMEN VS THE AZTEC MUMMY. It's actually not bad, trimming the film down to an hour and adding some silly but harmless faux-rockabilly tunes over some of the wrassling matches. The only real gripe we've got with this revisionist curio is the somewhat elitist feeling that cutting out all the "bad parts" will somehow make an old, creaky film palatable to twenty-something vid- iots, a notion which is not only ill-advised, but which goes against the whole credo of the cult film enthusiast: "They're ALL bad parts, and we LIKE it that way!!!" Or, as Jean-Luc Godard might say, "Don't f**l with the classics!" Still, this edition is one of the best ways to easily view this hard-to-find cross-cultural masterwork.

* For an excellent and informative online review of THE WRESTLING WOMEN VS THE AZTEC MUMMY, visit David Wilt's Mexican Film Pages.

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