The Mummy (1959)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Sadly Over-hyped

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Terence Fisher may not be that slam-bang action type of filmmaker that modern audiences might be used to know with blockbusters (such as decent ones like the 1999 Mummy, or bad ones like the 2017 Mummy), but he was an ideal choice for these color-filmed, handsomely mounted though modestly budgeted horror films from Hammer in the 50's. Following his great success on Dracula, it stood to reason he should do the Mummy, and what he came up with was at times creepy - and, I imagine if you saw this as a kid or decide to show this to small children, scary at points, like when the Mummy crashes through the window into the padded room at the asylum - and deliberately paced. In other words, it moves a little slow, but that's not to the detriment of the film; it's more your problem than the movie's if you find yourself frustrated, and unlike even the 32 Mummy, this doesn't lack a good many memorable sequences and visuals (the 32 Mummy did have some, but not enough).In this you also get of course Cushing and Lee, and I really liked their physicality in the movie. Cushing's character, the son of an archaeologist that has a history with the red-fez wearing Master-of- the-Mummy in this story, is hobbled with a bad leg, and this isn't just something that the writers give Cushing for as some crutch, no pun intended. Instead this ends up becoming important when the Mummy comes in ready to strangle people, and seeing Cushing moving about, whether it's in an action-y moment or otherwise, is fascinating in how he puts his body into things, as any good actor should. Lee, too, is thoughtful in what is a character with no spoken lines (if Lee does speak, I don't remember it, and I just watched the film), and he is remarkable perhaps due to limitations with his costume or injuries on set or what have you, and he makes him as memorable as the Karloff Mummy; you feel his presence in a room and his eyes do a lot of good work as well.There is a point midway through the film when Cushing reads from the history of this Karras character from thousands of years prior in Egypt when everything went down, and this is the one part of the movie that dragged for me. it's not to any major detriment of the film, but it's the one time I felt Fisher's style, which I otherwise loved in the film (i.e. that scene where the casket falls off the wagon, falls in the mud pond, and then when the character comes over later to say the things that make Karras come out of the ground, beautiful), start to get a little long. But this is a minor complaint in what is otherwise the best of the Mummy movies; it has a strong musical score, the acting is quality (yes, even the typical types you get in Hammer movies like the local British drunks at the bar), and the ending is almost bordering on tragic if you think about how this character has been depicted (the Mummy is the horror movie icon that doesn't have his own agency, or at least as much as the others).

I know there is a Boris Karloff original, and of course there was the Brendan Fraser film followed by two sequels, I was interested to see this offering from Hammer (Horror) Studios, directed by Terence Fisher (The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Hound of the Baskervilles). Basically in Egypt in 1895, archaeologists John Banning (Peter Cushing), his father Stephen (Felix Aylmer) and his uncle Joseph Whemple (Raymond Huntley) are searching for the tomb of Princess Ananka, the high priestess of the god Karnak, John has a broken leg so cannot accompany his father and uncle when the tomb is opened. An Egyptian named Mehemet Bey (George Pastell) warns them not to enter, or face the fatal consequences of the curse against desecrators, they ignore him and discover Ananka's sarcophagus, Joseph leaves to tell John the good news, while Stephen finds and reads from the Scroll of Life, he is heard by the others screaming and is found in a catatonic state. Three years later, in England, Stephen is in Engerfield Nursing Home for the Mentally Disordered and out of his catatonia calls for his son, he tells him that reading the Scroll of Life he unintentionally brought back to life Kharis (Sir Christopher Lee), the mummified high priest of Karnak. In flashback we see that Kharis had a forbidden love with Princess Ananka, and following her death he attempted to use the Scroll of Life to bring her back to life, but he was arrested before being able to complete the reading, he was punished to be mummified and entombed alive to serve forever as the guardian of Princess Ananka's tomb, in the present day Stephen warns his disbelieving son that Kharis will hunt down and kill all who desecrated Anaka's tomb. Mehemet Bey is revealed to be a devoted worshipper of Karnak, he comes to England to wreak revenge on the three archaeologists who disturbed the Egyptian tomb, he hires drunken carters Pat (Harold Goodwin) and Mike (Denis Shaw) to transport the slumbering Kharisin a crate to his rented home, but their drunken driving causes the crate to sink into a bog. Later though Mehemet reads from the Scroll of Life to summon Kharis to rise from the dead and out of the mud, he sends the Mummy to murder Stephen Banning, and the following night the Mummy is sent to murder Joseph Whemple, right before John's eyes, he shoots the walking corpse at close range with a revolver, but to no effect. Police Inspector Mulrooney (Eddie Byrne) is assigned to solve the murders, being skeptical he deals is cold hard facts and does not believe John's story about the killer mummy, even being told he may be Kharis's third victim, while the investigation goes on John notices his wife Isobel (Yvonne Furneaux) bares a striking resemblance to Princess Ananka, meanwhile gathering testimonial evidence from others in the community Mulrooney slowly gathers that the mummy may in fact be real. Mehemet Bey sends the mummy to kill his final victim, but when Isobel rushes into the room to help John, Kharis sees her, releasing John and soon leaves, Mehemet mistakenly thinks the mummy has completed his task and prepares to return to Egypt, John suspects Mehemet of being responsible for the resurrection and controlling of the mummy, and to the Egyptian's surprise he pays him a visit. After John leaves Mehemet Bey sends Kharis for a second attempt to kill him, while Mehemet deals with other police officers guarding the house, Mulrooney is knocked unconscious, Kharis finds John in the study and starts choking him, Isobel runs in to help again, but the mummy only recognises him with her hair down, and he releases John. Mehemet comes in and orders the mummy to kill Isobel, he refuses, Mehemet attempts to murder Isobel himself but Kharis kills him, unconscious Isobel is carried by the mummy to the swamp, John, Mulrooney and other policemen follow, John shouts for Isobel to wake and tell him to put her down, she reluctantly obeys, he moves away and the policemen open fire, the mummy sinks into the ooze, taking the Scroll of Life with him. Also starring Worzel Gummidge's Michael Ripper as Poacher and Willoughby Gray as Dr. Reilly. Cushing is crisp and charming as the archaeologist who goes against the threat from Ancient Egypt, and Lee is creepy both in the flashback pharaoh look and bandaged up and limping around, it is a simple enough story, you can tell the 1999 remake borrowed elements of the same storyline, there are only mildly bloody moments and the good old fashioned talkative scenes, it may not be as great as the other Hammer films, but it is a worthwhile classic horror. Good!

Returning home from an expedition, a rash of strange deaths points to a revived mummy brought back to avenge the team's entrance to a sacred Egyptian tomb and must try to stop its' controller from finishing the rampage.This is one of the better entries in the genre with a lot to like. One of its better features is that there's a lot of screen-time given to the mummy itself which prompts a lot of good parts along the way. Besides the fact that we get to really feel for it's dangerous actions as well as the spectacular make-up for the being, there's some really well-done action scenes that are rather enjoyable. The initial attack at the nursing home, as the mummy breaks into the room of one of his victims who has seen him coming and is desperately trying to get away only for a savage assault before the inevitable happens, the back-story fill-on flashback on the father where we see the creature coming to life in grand fashion as well as the first assault in the study where it sneaks up on the victim who's completely unaware of it's existence and then starts a vicious brawl before being distracted by the wife each provide this with rather enjoyable moments that keep this going along nicely. The nursing home sequence gives it a sense of ruthlessness, there's a great nod to the history of the culture by showing what really happened on the trip and the several attacks in the study not only give this a pretty rousing series of attacks but also display the kind of emotion and heart which is required for these kinds of stories as, despite being caked in layers of muddy bandages, his frame and body language combine into one perfect image. As well, the extended and prolonged mummification flashback here is simply marvelous, far more detailed in here than in the original version as well as a little more bearable in that it has new ideas in it that helps separate this one as being not just another remake and gives this a different identity. As well, the set design is perhaps the best part of the film, as is the case with so many of the mummy films simply because of what has to be done to the set to make it believable. You would have to create artifacts, sculptures, tools, paintings, and other sort of details in the tomb, and what's seen here in the detail and design as being the most striking part of the film. While this one does tend to revert too often to the clichés of the franchise and never really does anything too original in that regard, far too much here overcomes that.Today's Rating/PG: Mostly off-screen Violence and implied Nudity.

It is 1895. British archaeologists John Banning (Peter Cushing), his father and his uncle discover the tomb of Princess Ananka. John stays in his tent after injuring his leg. Egyptian Mehemet Bey warns them not to go in. Once inside, his father finds the Scroll of Life, reads from it and gets struck down in a catatonic state. Mehemet is able to steal the Scroll. Three years later back in London, his father revives to tell John that the mummified high priest of Karnak, Kharis (Christopher Lee), was reanimated. John doesn't believe him and then Mehemet unleashes the mummy on his father using the Scroll.This is B-horror done relatively well, which means that this is still a minor bore. The dialog and the staging is stiff but the acting is better than most. It's helped by some good British actors starting with Cushing. The mummy emergence from the mud is a good idea. He looks much better dirty and muddy. The kills are done off screen. It's still the old way but it's done well.