Count Cagliostro (Tito Novaro, who also directed) reads from a magic scroll and awakens the mummies of Guanajuato and orders them to kidnap several scantily clad senoritas. A little boy sees the mummies parading around in the moonlight and runs and informs the authorities. Of course, they don’t believe him, so he goes and tells his favorite masked Mexican wrestler Mil Mascaras about the resurrected relics. Together with his two pals, Blue Angel and Jalisco Lightning, the trio sets out to put the Count and his undead army down for the count.
Even though Mil Mascaras co-starred in The Mummies of Guanajuato alongside El Santo and Blue Demon the very same year, Robbery of the Mummies of Guanajuato doesn’t appear to be related to that one in any way. I guess it could be seen as a loose remake, but it never quite matches the heights of silliness that movie managed to attain. (Although I did like the scene where Mil investigates a crime scene using a magnifying glass, just like Sherlock Holmes.)
As with that film, it focuses on a trio of wrestlers, but whereas Mil was easily the low man on the totem pole in that one, he’s the main star here. He doesn’t do a bad job in the lead. It’s just Blue Angel and Jalisco Lightning are poor substitutes for El Santo and Blue Demon. Blue Angel does have a great costume though as the big white “A” on his blue mask makes him look like a dime store version of Captain America.
At least the mummies look cool. They resemble haggard zombie scarecrows instead of the traditional bandaged mummies. It’s also funny that Cagliostro not only controls an army of mummies, but an army of little people too. (This is the second movie I’ve seen in two days that featured a villain with an army of munchkin henchmen.)
Unfortunately, the wrestling takes a backseat to the mummy stuff as there is only one wrestling scene in the whole flick. Although Novaro handles the scenes of the mummies being resurrected and stumbling around well enough, they ultimately have very little to do. The finale is pretty much a washout too. The scenes of our three heroes running across a minefield goes on forever, and their brawl with the mummy menace is particularly disappointing. That anticlimactic feeling is only deepened by the fact that Cagliostro’s castle just kind of blows up, leaving our heroes (and the audience) to wonder what the heck that was all about. (I guess if I saw a version that had subtitles, I might’ve known.)
Novaro and Blue Angel returned the next year for The Castle of the Mummies of Guanajuato.
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