They are unemployed archeologists in need of a dig to utilise their skills and grow their bank balances. These intruders are Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and his wise-cracking compadre Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford). Of course, as soon as he dies, someone does in fact open the Princess’s tomb.
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If the queen’s tomb is penetrated, he also shows him how to wake Kharis in order to wreak his vengeance on the intruders.
The High Priest of Karnak, now dying, passes on his sacred mission to his successor, Andoheb (played by the original generic evil Brit George Zucco), with explicit instructions on how to feed the sleeping Mummy to keep him comatose. The plot is based around an order of monks, The Temple of Karnak, tasked with guarding Kharis’s tomb - over time, their numbers have been reduced until only a few fanatical adherents remain. Thankfully, though the villain is a carbon copy of Karloff’s Imhotep, the story bears almost no resemblance to the preceding film. Cast because his lanky frame could match Karloff in the stock footage they were using, Tyler does not get a lot to do, and after Karloff’s more otherworldly presence, Tyler is a disappointment. Kharis would continue to plague the various sequels, but it would be the only time in the bandages for actor Tom Tyler (most famous for playing Captain Marvel in the well regarded movie serial). Footage of Kharis’s mummification is just clips from the original Mummy (with Boris Karloff clearly recognisable in long shots). The Mummy’s origin is almost exactly the same, with the names changed: hence Imhotep is now Kharis and his beloved Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon is now the more pronounceable Princess Ananka. The Mummy’s Hand (Christy Cabanne, 1940)Ī new Mummy (Kharis instead of Imhotep), but suspiciously close to its predecessor, this is more of a soft reboot of the original than a true sequel. The final sequence, in which Imhotep prepares to resurrect his love benefits from Freund’s talents for mood and chiaroscuro, but comes too late to improve overall impressions of the film.Īside from a few memorable images and Karloff’s quiet, eerie performance, The Mummy is underwhelming. Dracula may be a flawed film, but it has the terrific opening section in Transylvania, which is far scarier and more dynamic than any scene here. Even compared to Dracula, regarded as one of the most flawed of the Universal horrors, the film lacks a truly outstanding moment. It does not work - it merely emphasises the lack of other highlights in the film. The most famous image is of Karloff staring straight at the camera - it’s a terrific shot, but the movie repeats it over and over again at various moments to provide more tension. Moments hint at potential greatness: The flashback to ancient Egypt is atmospheric, though as with the rest of the film, somewhat stilted. Much of the cast is taken from Dracula (as is the main title music, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake). It lacks the set pieces of other Universal horrors, and the pacing is funereal. Directed by Dracula’s DP Karl Freund, The Mummy looks amazing but suffers from some of the same problems as the original Dracula - leaden pacing and a stage-bound, overly talkative narrative (this was scripted by the same writer as Dracula, John L. Most Universal horrors of this period suffer in comparison to James Whale’s work on Frankenstein and Bride Of Frankenstein, and The Mummy is no exception. To be blunt, it does not stand up in the same way as the better known Dracula and Frankenstein. However, that has probably more to do with the films with which it is associated, rather than the quality of the film itself. Universal’s original Mummy is well regarded as a part of Universal’s classic run of 30s monster films. Disguising himself as Ardath Bey and still intent on his mission, he gives a group of archeologists information about the whereabouts of Ankh-es-en-Amon’s tomb. Brought back from the dead into modern times by a generic moron who reads a scroll he shouldn’t, Imhotep escapes out into the world. The priest Imhotep is mummified alive for trying to resurrect his lover Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon from the dead.
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The Universal Series (1932-1955) The Mummy (Karl Freund, 1932) With the veteran studio gearing up to re-launch its classic monster line-up with a new Mummy, now seems like the perfect time to take a look back at the bandaged ghoul’s previous incarnations.
From Karl Freund’s original classic through Abbott and Costello’s spoof, Hammer’s series of the 60s and Stephen Sommers’s blockbuster reboots of the new century, Universal Studios has kept a not always firm grip on cinematic portrayals of this archetypal monster. Since 1932, there have been several films featuring a Mummy as the antagonist - the most successful and enduring portrayals of this classic movie monster have come under the banner of Universal Studios.
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