VCI Entertainment Targets July 19 As The Street Date For The Aztec Mummy Collection On Blu-ray And DVD

K. Gordon Murray knew a good thing when he saw it.  

During his youth, he hung out with circus people and used those connections to become a “casting” director, notably providing “little people” for the 1939 production of The Wizard of Oz (Munchkins).  That gave him a taste for “Hollywood” and he found himself settling in Southern California after the war. 

Murray was clever and found a niche market acquiring foreign language films and having them dubbed and reworked into English-language theatrical releases.   He was also recruited by Cecil B. DeMille to help promote his 1952 film release of The Greatest Show on Earth.

Around 1957 or 1958 he “discovered” the horror market south of the border and acquired director Fernando Méndez’s El Vampiro and “produced” an English-language version, which he distributed regionally (limited prints, “bicycled” from one market to the next) as The Vampire. 

After that there was no stopping him, director Rene Cardona’s Santa Claus was a huge hit for him … and then he discovered Popoca, an Aztec Mummy, which was the subject of a series of films from Mexica filmmaker Rafael Portillo.

During his “producing” career, Murray transitioned something like 60 films as English-dubbed theatrical or television syndicated releases and then two things happened.   One, being a bit of a hustler, he ran afoul of the Internal Revenue Service and had his business shut-down and his film library confiscated.  The second, he dropped dead of a heart attack at just 57 years of age.

Word arrived from VCI Entertainment this past week that elements of K. Gordon Murray’s film library have been unearthed and new 2K and 4K films restorations — from the 35mm film negatives — of Murray’s English language versions of director Rafael Portillo’s The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy and Curse of the Aztec Mummy, as well as director René Cardona’s Wrestling Women Vs. the Aztec Mummy will be available as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings.

These film restoration collections will be available on July 19 as The Aztec Mummy Collection.

Film historian Dr. David Wilt will be featured in a video essay titled “The Aztec Mummy Movies.”