Dr Lenera
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Joined: 19/10/2005
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THE MUMMY [1959]
At the turn of the century Steve Banning leads an expedition to Egypt to unearth the tomb of Princess Ananka. He succeeds but inside finds the mummy of Kharis, who was buried alive for trying to bring his love Ananka back to life and is now her guardian, and the Scroll Of Life which can supposedly revive the dead. As his son John, who has a bad leg, waits outside he hears a scream coming from inside the tomb. Six years later in England and Steve is now a supposed lunatic in a mental asylum. An Eygptian called Mehemet arrives in England with Kharis ready to kill off those who desecrated Ananka's tomb.........
Watching The Mummy after watching all the Universal mummy movies makes it apparent that Hammer's version is basically a compendium of all the films in the older series. The basic plot is mainly The Mummy's Tomb, but there's also the opening from the 1932 The Mummy where a foolhardy archaeologist uses the Scroll Of Life to revive the mummy, the swamp rising from The Mummy's Curse, the swamp climax from The Mummy's Ghost, and countless other borrowings. Hammer were able to do this because they had just done a distribution deal with Universal which allowed them to use their material, unlike their versions of Frankenstein [The Curse of Frankenstein] and Dracula which were quite different from the original films. Jimmy Sangster was able to shape all this into a coherent plot and even writes some fine dialogue scenes, such as an excellent sequence where John visits Mehemet and tries to provoke him into giving himself away. He only really throws aways the idea of a modern woman being Ananka's reincarnation, though there is a touching scene of the mummy seeing her for the first time, looking at her longingly and outstretching his hands. Unlike the earlier mummies , Christopher Lee's Kharis is a fast moving and powerful menace that can crash through windows, rip off grating and even climb through a ledge into an asylum cell. He's also more brutal, though shots of him snapping a man's spine and a tongue being cut out were not used in the final print [though as with other Hammer films there are rumours the Japanese print had the cut footage]. The Egyptian sets and the flashback have far more detail and are far more authentic than the earlier movies and Jack Asher's colour photography is at it's best and most dreamlike here, especially during the atmospheric swamp scenes where the set is sometimes bathed in blue and red. Expertly directed and paced by Terence Fisher, this is probably the most entertaining all round mummy film. It is extremely derivative of the previous series though. 8/10
THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB [1964]
In the Egyptian desert, a group of bandits kill an archeaologist and cut off his hand. Meanwhile elsewhere more explorers have found the tomb of Ra-Intef, who thousands of years ago was murdered by his brother Be. Be was then cursed to walk the earth for eternity. The group's financier, Alexander King, wants to take the mummy on tour around the world and hopes to become rich. Despite objections from the Egyptian government and some strange murder attempts, the tomb is taken on a boat to London, but who is Adam, the strange man who is interested in Annette, the expedition's only female member? Then, on the first evening of the show, the tomb is opened and the mummy is gone...........
Decidedly inferior to The Mummy, The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb was originally intended to feature a giant mummy battling tanks and helicopters, but then it was realised the budget wouldn't allow for anything like that. The film wins points for some original story elements, such as the mummy's brother being doomed to immortality [shades of The Wandering Jew?], but director and writer Micheal Carreras [son of Hammer honcho James Carreras] fails to shape things into a decent screenplay. Even worse, the film wastes two thirds of it's running time until the mummy awakes, with much padding involving endless talk about how bad it is to steal Egyptian relics, two flashbacks, and an uninteresting love triangle. Of course there's nothing wrong with a good build up, but too much of this movie is dull and suspense c ertainly isn't built. It also doesn't help that the three main cast members are colourless , but there is a great turn by Fred Clark as King, who is given some rather good lines too, while George Pastell returns to play pretty much the same character as he did before, though with a different first name. Once the mummy is awakened the film does get quite good, with some good deaths, the best where Ra smashes his foot down upon a man's neck-you see nothing, but the horrid sound effects fill you in. Rather more atmospheric is a great scene where a victim-to-be ascends a fog-shrouded flight of steps only to be knocked down them to his death. This mummy, played by Dickie Owen , is rather porkier but is handled in quite a creepy way, with a bluish colouring, heavily augmented breathing and seemingly no mouth. The sewer climax is fairly well staged but the tiny budget shows teribly with some very unconvincing desert backdrops and some laughable severed hands. Overall The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb has far too many problems to be a good film and is easily the weakest of the Hammer series, but there are points of interest and good moments if you are prepared to wait for them. 5/10
THE MUMMY'S SHROUD [1967]
When ancient Egypt is torn by civil war, the young pharoah Kah-To-Bey is hurried to safety by his loyal bodyguard Prem, but the boy dies and is buried, to be guarded by Prem and a line of priests. Also buried is a scroll which, if read from, can bring Prem back to life. Fast forward to 1920 and an expedition, bankrolled by unscrupulous millionaire Stanley Preston, finds Kah-To-Bey's tomb and, despite being threatened to stop by the sinister Hashmid, take the body of Kah-To-Bey to Cairo. However, one member of the group, Basil Warden, regrets what they have done and goes mad. Visiting a fortune teller, Haiti, he is told he will die there and then. She's actually in league with Hashmid to kill off the desecrators using Prem, and Basil is first.........
A considerable improvement on The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Shoud was the last Hammer film to be shot at Bray Studios, and it is undemanding fun. A little more research was done, with the mummy looking a lot more like a proper Egyptian mummy and the skeleton of the boy also looking disturbingly realistic [it was modelled on one in the British Musuem]. Things are a little unpromising at first, with no attempt being made to hide the fact that all the desert scenes are obviously taking place in one large pit filled with sand, and with another very long and talky build up [though nowhere near as laborious as the previous film's]. However it does have some mounting tension and the use of one major set actually works rather well, giving the film some of that dreamlike atmosphere that all the classic Hammer horrors have. After Prem has been awoken, courtesy of a startling shot of his eyes cracking open, director John Gilling gives us some murder set pieces which, though low on gore, are immensely effective, often stylishly filmed [one victim to be loses his glasses and we glimpse the mummy as a blur] and better those in the previous two films, including a guy being wrapped in bedding and being thrown out of a window, another guy's head being crushed [off screen with horrible sound effects, though the effect was shot and not used] and acid being squeezed onto a writhing victim, whereupon the mummy casually strides off as the man catches fire. The mummy, here played by stuntman Eddie Powell [who had doubled for Christopher Lee] is a truly brutal and relentless creature, and also has a great demise, literally tearing himself to death. Most of the cast are okay rather than great [except for leading lady Maggie Kimberley, who is abysmal], but Catherine Lacey is fun as Marta and Hammer character actor favourite Micheal Ripper, usually seen in very small roles [including two in the previous mummy films], has a great and fairly prominent role as the bullied, mouse-like Micheal Longbarrow. The Mummy's Shroud never quite breaks out of mediocrity to become a minor classic but it's enjoyable all the same and does the best it can with its material. 6/10
BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB [1971]
Margeret Fuchs suffers from a recurring nightmare in which the ancient Eygptian queen Tera, who was an evil sorceress, has her hand cut off and is then buried alive. Afterwards, a strange force kills all the people present. On her birthday, Margeret is given a ruby ring by her father, the same ring that, twenty years before, he had taken from Tera's severed hand when he and some others found Tera's tomb and her body perfectly preserved. That same day, his wife had died giving birth to Margeret. Now, the sinister Corback wants to resurrect Tera, who seems to possess Margeret, but first he must obtain some relics which are in the possession of the men who desecrated Tera's tomb.....
Based on The Jewel Of The Seven Stars by Bram Stoker, and later remade as the inferior The Awakening, this is strictly speaking not a mummy movie, but then you could almost say that about the 1932 The Mummy, as the creature only walks in one scene and even then is only partially seen. Blood From The Mummy's Tomb was plagued with problems, with original star Peter Cushing's wife dying and being replaced by Andrew Keir, and director Seth Holt dying before completion. Micheal Carreras took over and had to do the best he could with reams of footage with no entrances and exits . Despite all this, this is easily better then the two previous films and in my opinion just about betters the 1959 movie. Set seemingly in 1971 but with vintage cars, it is a bit disjointed [unsurprisingly] and the very complex plot is sometimes vague and could have used another half hour, but Christopher Wicking's intriguing script has a few surprises [with at least two unexpected deaths] along with a few elements from previous films such as the Scroll Of Life and dismemberment. It's very atmospheric and at times achieves a real otherworldly ambience, with lots of shots of space and a haunting score by Tristram Cary. The murders, with the victims being killed by the possessed relics, are quite frightening and there's loads of blood, with oozing stumps, cuts appearing on faces and lots of gruesomely cut throats. The gorgeous Valerie Leon does quite well as Margeret/Tera and there are strong performances from Keir and James Villiers as the two men fighting for control of her. Sadly the climax is rather feeble- supposedly a more spectacular ending was envisaged, but there's a nicely ambiguous coda. I think that with a bit more time spent on it this could have been one of the real Hammer classics- as it is it's an interesting effort that is intermittently striking and is still one of the best of their 70s movies. 8/10
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check out more of my reviews on http://horrorcultfilms.co.uk/
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RE: Hammer Horror - 
Thanks for the Blu Ray news sounds great.
!!!
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