Holy Karnak, this series is moldy Even as a little kid, I could recognize from afar that the Mummy franchise was the cheapest of the Horror brands. Never bothered to watch them until the original Karloff version a few years ago. And now. Decided to brush up on my Egyptology and dusted off the mold-encrusted video I'd taped last October to view all of Universal's Kharis-model Mummy flix.
The acting is plenty cheap. And everyone who goes up against the Mummy desperately needs some fisticuff lessons... all of them rush him spastically with something in hand to bean him, but their timing is way off and they don't even begin to raise the bludgeon until his laconic hand is on their throat. This tired choreography is repeated endlessly, victim after victim.
But if you're in the mood for camp, these flicks can be quite fun. Especially if you want to play at Mystery Science Theater, and lob insults back at the screen... "You're SUCH a slut, Ananka!" and mock their delivery ... "By the will of Aman Ra and the power of the Tiki-Tiki berry, you will rise and do my bidding. You will go forth while the moon is high, and bring back to me a Domino's Pizza with all the toppings. And KILL anyone who dares top it with anchovies."
THE MUMMY'S HAND (1940) The most promising of the bunch, it featured Cecil Kellaway, George Zucco, Wallace Ford, and as our stout-hearted hero -- Dick Foran. And ex-cowboy Tom Tyler as the Mummy. Even the Undead's slow gait was a challenge for the arthritic Tyler.
THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1942) Lon Chaney Jr's first stint at the Stiff. What's intriguing here is that some of the main characters from the last installment are hauled out again... just to get KILLED this time! Dick Foran, who is even listed at the top of the credits, is the FIRST to get bumped off! (Maybe this was where Hitchcock got his Marion Crane inspiration.) These guys lost the Secret Formula to forumulaic shlock. Even lovable Wallace Ford bites the big one. THIS is just not done! --They killed off the Comedy Relief, fer chrissakes! (Okay, he was lame anyway as funny side-kicks go, so it was really satisfying to see him get stifled -- but they're not supposed to DO that!)
THE MUMMY'S GHOST (1944) Again, any interest I have in posting this drivel is to point out that we have here another strange deviation from the standard "classic" Horror formula ... NO HAPPY ENDING! The obligatory mob does NOT catch up to the fiend before he carries the heroine to a watery grave -- despite the fact that he's slow as molasses, dragging one crippled foot behind the other. No, it just ends abruptly with the would-be fiance nursing a chronic case of Blue Balls. If 1940's sensibilities were what they are today, the theaters would have been filled with bewildered sneers from the peanut gallery, like "That's just f^cked-up, man."
THE MUMMY'S CURSE Perhaps the worst of the lot. But the funniest, so don't miss it. Princess Ananka was played by Virginia Christine. Just as I was about to forgive her wooden acting on the basis of her nice figure, I recognized her as the busy-body "Mrs Olsen, the Folger's Coffe Lady" -- and recoiled in true terror. Our hero this time is more dry than the mummy. And he has the typical protagonist's congenital cranial growth -- the ubiquitous pith helmet.
These movies are best enjoyed as drinking games.
Still you have to give UNIVERSAL credit for conjuring legends out of thin air. A silver bullet to kill a werewolf. Keeping a mummy in limbo-life via an ancient formula of tanna leaves and a secret occultic priesthood. If you didn't know better, you'd think these were bona fide beliefs from Dark Ages Europe and Ancient Egypt. They created a universe of self-contained logic. As long as you buy into their goofy supernatural rules, you could kick back and watch the fiends go at it.
But they abandoned the power of the original, which was a mummy empowered. All later iterations reduced the poor fellow into being a mere dupe for a long line of self-serving priests. A junkie who needs his fix of Jujubes. The dreaded evil villain is now a strange hybrid of both "the Monster" and "Fritz the hunchback" and "Renfield", all rolled into one.
Karloff's Mummy was much more effective as a Super-Fiend. He was like a Dracula, masterfully pulling supernatural strings on all levels. And like Lon Chaney Sr's original version of the Phantom, totally in control. So I guess I have to give some grudging respect to the new versions of THE MUMMY. Although these 2 new movies are way too CGI-fixated and have lost the feel for atmosphere, at least they have a mummy who's in charge of his minions, instead of vice versa.