1959 horror, dir. Terence Fisher, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee:
IMDb /
allmovie. After an
archaeological expedition goes horribly wrong, trouble follows the
principals home.
Of course with a modern sensibility one has a reasonable sympathy
with Mehemet Bey: he tries very hard to keep the tomb inviolate
without killing anyone, but these tomb-robbers just won't listen.
(George Pastell was a Cypriot, but a favourite actor for Hammer in any
sort of "ethnic" role, especially vaguely oriental ones.) Some time
later and back in England, John Banning is trying to work out who's
going after his father and uncle (and eventually him), while Bey armed
with blasphemous magic sends the mummy after its next victim.
It's interesting to see that this film doesn't open with an
explanation of who's in the tomb; it assumes you can work that out (or
you've seen the earlier films), and saves the detail (and
carefully-implied nudity) for later.
I have to admit that the Egyptian sets look a bit naff (even when
they're meant to be in a tent). I found myself remembering the
Atlantis sets from the Doctor Who story The Time Monster, and that
isn't an association anyone should welcome. (But then, I suspect a lot
of my enjoyment of these films may come from having grown up watching
Doctor Who and thus being able to overlook any shortcomings of
production if the story works.)
I did find myself wondering why Bey didn't just let the mummy kill
everyone back at the dig, rather than letting the survivors loot the
tomb and carry the treasure back to England. And what could be a
really fine polite and malicious verbal duel between him and Banning
just doesn't catch, somehow. It's a slight disappointment.
Also, nobody has servants (extras cost money!) even though they really
should; and Isabel, Yvonne Furneaux with a rather meatier part than
women have tended to get in these things, loses consciousness at the
climax for no obvious reason. (My guess is that a few frames showing
her being struck down were lost in editing.)
But even if I don't love this as much as the other early Hammer Horror
films, I still very much enjoyed watching it.
I talk about this film further on
Ribbon of Memes.