Mexico's "The Living Head" (La Cabeza Viviente) reunites director Chano Urueta and producer Abel Salazar from their just completed "The Brainiac," completed in March 1961 under the title "The Eye of Death." The elements are in place for another Aztec Mummy picture, as we begin in 1525 Mexico for the funeral procession of Acatl (Mauricio Garces), now reduced to a titular head, high priest Xiu (Guillermo Cramer) executing the traitor responsible for his demise (his heart removed with bloody panache, even in black and white), high priestess Xochiquetzal (Ana Luisa Peluffo) bearing the sacred 'Ring of Death' as she joins Xiu in being entombed with Acatl's masked cranium. As one might expect, a modern day expedition led by Professor Muller (German Robles) profanes the sacred tomb, the perfectly preserved body of the high priestess crumbling into dust at the reveal of a flashlight, Muller's daughter Martha (also Peluffo) soon revealed to be her exact duplicate. Only the head of Acatl and his still intact high priest Xiu are removed to be observed in the Muller home, Martha to wear the ring that will single out each despoiler to be sacrificed by the still living Xiu. The relatively small cast, overreliance on dialogue, and lack of incident mark this as a weak entry for Salazar, barely present as the do nothing police inspector who does very little investigating (only two murders, the first occurring off screen). It's a novelty to have the high priest stalking victims in a more active way than his Hollywood predecessors, and might at least rank higher than the Aztec Mummy trilogy of 1957, the final on screen teaming of Salazar and "El Vampiro" Robles. There was a 1975 episode of KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER that broached the same subject, "Legacy of Terror," in which Darren McGavin's intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak faces off against disciples of Aztec mummy Nanoutzin (Mickey Gilbert), who ritualistically cut out the hearts of each sacrifice until he walks again during the final moments (alas, not one of the better ones).