Monday, March 10, 2014

Horror Film countdown 2013, part 15


The Mummy (1959), dir. Terrence Fisher, Hammer Film Productions




With Frankenstein and Dracula proven hits, the Mummy seemed the next Universal Monster to remake. With Fisher directing the returning Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, Hammer set out to make a Mummy film, but not simply to rehash the same story as the Universal film, but taking sections from all the Universal films and mixing them together to form a new story.

 

In 1895, the Banning brothers Stephan (Felix Alymer) and Joseph (Raymond Huntley), along with Stephan’s son John (Cushing) have discovered the long lost tomb of the Princess Ananka. While opening the tomb, a well-dressed man (George Pastell) appears and tries to be a halt to the work, claiming a curse.

Stephan laughs the man off and enters the tomb anyway. Marveling at the treasure, especially the previously thought to be a myth Scroll of Life, Stephan sends Joseph out to inform John of the treasures. Moments later, however, Joseph rushes back inside as Stephan is now sprawled across the floor, rambling.

 

Three years later, John visits his father in the local asylum. Having finally come out of his state, Stephan informs John that he didn’t suffer a stroke, but rather a severe state of shock. After reading aloud from the Scroll of Life he accidentally brought a mummy back to life. A mummy he is sure will come for all of them. John is skeptical.

Stephan is right, as the well-dressed man, now identified as Mehmed Akham, arrives in the countryside with a large box. A box that is sadly lost in the bog that borders the asylum. Akham reads aloud from the Scroll of Life and Kharis (Lee) rises from the muck. It seems some thousands of years ago, Kharis was the high priest of Karnack. When the princess Ananka died, he attempted to bring her back using the Scroll of Life. He was caught at the last minute and buried alive, cursed to stand guard over the princess for all time.

 

From there things progress the usual way in a mummy film. John’s wife Isobel (Yvonne Furneaux) naturally has a strong resemblance to the princess and this is brought up more than once. Lee manages to emote purely through his eyes and keeps the pace with Cushing evenly.

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