Both Aztec Mummy and Female Invaders played recently as part of the “El Futuro Mas Aca: The Future South of the Border” Mexican science fiction film series at the 92Y Tribeca Theater, New York’s newest venue for film series and events (learn more here).

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Planet of the Female Invaders
AKA: El Planeta de las Mujeres Invasoras
Dir. Alfredo Crevenna (Mexico 1967)
Rating: 2 ½ out of 4 Stars (above average)
Capsule Review by: David Austin

If Planet of the Female Invaders were an American film instead of Mexican, and the same in every other respect, there is no doubt in my mind that it would long ago have entered the canon of cult ‘50s sci-fi cheese classics like Teenagers from Outer Space and This Island Earth. All the elements are present – goofy effects, shiny silver costumes, ray beams, extraterrestrial Amazons, and a wonderfully warped view of science.

The plot follows a group of sexy space vixens who fly down to Earth, set up shop at a carnival (disguising their ship as a ride), and kidnap some earthlings for use in their scheme to conquer our planet. The humans, including Marcos (Rogelio Guerra), a crooked boxer and our hero, Silvia (Adriana Roel), his love interest, and a gang of comical mobsters out to revenge themselves on Marcos, are taken to the women’s home planet. There they are held prisoner by the evil queen Adastrea (Lorena Velazquez) and aided by her selfless twin Alburnia (Velazquez again). Meanwhile, a standard issue hunky scientist back on Earth, who happens to be Silvia’s boss, tries to rescue them.

Female Invaders drags a bit in the back half (at approximately 85 minutes, it is about 10 minutes longer than it needs to be) but through most of its runtime it provides a steady stream of old-fashioned entertainment and campy laughs. The girls – obviously a big selling point for the film – dress like galactic cocktail waitresses in micro-mini skirts, and Alburnia wears no more than the censors required. Watching her shimmy inexpertly around the alien base in inappropriately high heels, trying to concoct some kind of half-assed escape plan (the humans are told that their rescuer should bring “nuclear weapons”), never gets old.

The rest of the film is similarly preposterous. The scientist not only has a convenient rocket ship that just needs a little fixing up, but an unexplained surveillance system that allows him to take video footage of the Female Invaders as they fly through space and land on their own planet. An early model of the Hubbell telescope perhaps? The special effects also are about what one would expect – the wires holding up the spaceships look like dark ropes. There is, however, a surprisingly well-shot, edited and choreographed boxing scene featuring Guerra that made me wonder if the director had a history in boxing films.

Female Invaders was shown in a remarkably nice print – here’s hoping it makes an appearance on DVD soon and has a chance to gain the audience it deserves.

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Aztec Mummy vs. the Human Robot
AKA: La Momia Azteca Contra el Robot Humano
Dir. Rafael Portillo (Mexico 1958)
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 4 Stars (poor)
Capsule Review by: David Austin

Aztec Mummy vs. the Human Robot, like its title, is less of a movie than the idea of a movie. In form, if not necessarily in entertainment value, Aztec Mummy is like the similarly pulpy sequel to Kilink Istanbul’da, Kilink Uçan Adama Karsi. Third in a series, following The Aztec Mummy and The Curse of the Aztec Mummy, the bulk of the film is taken up by having the protagonist narrate the events of the first and second films to an audience of scientists who ultimately will serve no purpose. Of course, he describes events he could not have been present for or learned of, and his narration is for the benefit of people who were themselves present for some of the events he describes. At some point, the film switches over to new footage, though, not having seen the previous movies, I am not exactly sure where the new material begins. I suspect it is with the interminable sequence where intermittently costumed villain the Bat spends what seems like a good ten minutes summoning our hero’s wife from a distance with his “hypnotism.”

In this installment, the Bat creates a “human robot” (i.e., a cyborg) to fight Popoca, the Aztec Mummy, in yet another attempt to appropriate Popoca’s clues to an ancient Aztec treasure. The Human Robot looks pretty nifty and the titular confrontation is entertaining (though too short by half). Otherwise, Aztec Mummy is mostly useful if you needed to catch up with the Aztec Mummy storyline but only had an hour to review the highlights.

© David Austin