The Mummy The Mummy Warner Home Video 1959 / Color / 1:78 anamorphic 16:9 / 88m. Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux, George Pastell Cinematography Jack Asher Production Designer Bernard Robinson Film Editor Alfred Cox, James Needs Original Music Franz Reizenstein Written by Jimmy Sangster and Produced by Michael Carreras & Anthony Nelson Keys Directed by Terence Fisher
	Reviewed by Glenn Erickson Finally, Warners has released the first of their Hammer holdings on DVD, one of the last of the first wave of British horror films that enjoyed enormous worldwide success in the late '50s. Remembered as the third-rate series of chillers produced by Universal a decade earlier, the theme of a living mummy was revitalized by the creative team at Hammer and remains, with the Karloff original from 1932, the best Mummy movie ever made. Warners has timed their library DVD to land on the shelf right next to the new Universal The Mummy Returns, but this is ten times the movie even if it does only sell 1/10th the number of units - this is a real movie, not Scooby Doo Meets the CGI Monsters. Synopsis: Archeologist John Banning (Peter Cushing) is so intent on staying with his father's expedition to unearth the Egyptian tomb of Ananka that he refuses to have his broken leg properly set. He's therefore unable to assist when his father Stephen (Felix Aylmer) is unaccountably driven mad just as his dream of discovery comes true. Years later back in England, the now-crippled John again fails his asylum-restrained father when he discounts the old man's claims that a living mummy is loose in the world, much to John's later regret. Mehemet Bey, an Egyptian adept of the god Karnak, has the holy scroll of life and the living mummy Kharis (Christopher Lee) as well, and plans to use both to murder the English infidels. Hammer's The Mummy is a superior horror entry second only to the company's superlative Horror of Dracula. Jimmy Sangster's tight script is similar to the early Universal series because by this time Hammer was licensing the rights to Universal's originals. The new version retains the Kharis name as well as the ancient flashbacks, and the idea of the mummy threat returning to haunt the defilers of his crypt. Hammer's top horror team are in top form, with the inimitable Peter Cushing again playing his crisp, rational scientist and Chris Lee doing wonders with the kind of thankless part that had previously been sloughed off on a cowboy actor (Tom Tyler) or a stuntman who matched Lon Chaney Jr's heft. This is a beautifully directed movie and one that needs to be seen wide screen, as on this disc, to be appreciated. Terence Fisher plays his scenes in masters rich in depth and complexity - directing our interest within the frame rather than constantly cutting. When action does occur the cuts to closeups are therefore all the more jarring. Several major action moments explode out of these master shots in a way that cleverly contrasts the easygoing complacency of the veddy proper Brits with the ferocious primal force they've unleashed. John's advisor Joseph Whemple (Raymond Huntley) is strolling to the stairs when the doors behind him suddenly smash in. The shot holds as the mummy strides forward out of the depth of the frame to attack Whemple in medium closeup. No buildup or telegraphing of the attack with music - just sudden violence. Lon Chaney's Kharis devolved into the most foolish of the Hollywood monsters because of his essential harmlessness. Shambling along on one bad foot and closing on his prey with all the menace of a turtle, Universal's Mummy became a joke the moment he ceased to be a credible threat. With his killings governed by a mad priest (George Zucco, John Carradine) and programmed with the burning of Tana leaves (yawn), the series quickly became tired. Hammer's spin on the conception of this monster makes Kharis a powerful and fast-moving adversary, silent but with staring eyes, an automaton that barrels down a beeline to crush the throats of his victims. Until, that is, his mission is complicated by the vision of the woman he loved 4 thousand years ago. Flashbacks tell the tale of Kharis' blaspheming scheme to revive his dead lover Ananka (just as Karloff / Im-ho-tep had attempted) and the horrible fate meted out to him when caught in the act. The Golem-like hulk suddenly shows human signs of hesitation, adoration and weakness - all communicated through Lee's evocative eyes and precise mime. Sangster and Lee basically combine Karloff's eternal love with the strangling boogeyman Kharis. Hammer's early films had powerful dramatic confrontations, and there are moments in The Mummy that are as good as any horror film ever made.  1 The basic plot of The Mummy is little more than a series of fairly predictable monster attacks. But Sangster has given the tale more layers of complexity. This was the first Hammer that can be said to be politically-based; the priggish Englishmen go up against vindictive third-world pagan ideology. For the success of this we can thank actor George Pastell (From Russia with Love), who makes of Mehemet Bey a devout worshipper acting only out of love for his God Karnak. We also like him because he's on the receiving end of colonial contempt - dismissed at the tomb and mercilessly baited by the hero during what might be the film's best scene. John Banning pays Mehemet Bay a midnight visit, to provoke the murderous Egyptian into showing his cards. Both parties are playing a game - John teasing Bey with contemptous slander against his country and religion, and Bey feeding his English guest the kind of stereotypical palaver he knows the Englishman believes - that Easterners have no respect for human life, etc. Neither actor protects his personal image or otherwise softens the attack to make the scene more P.C., as would be done today - it's a direct confrontation between East and West, and the polite formalities exchange more malice than the film's violent scenes. The Mummy makes a good double-bill with Hammer's The Stranglers of Bombay from the same year, which also starred George Pastell and dealt more directly with a historical clash between colonial Britons and the 'primitive' cult of a third-world country. Taking the film over the top quality-wise are two major factors, the photography and the music. The Mummy was printed in Technicolor, with saturated hues and deep inky blacks that made Horror of Dracula and The Hound of the Baskervilles powerful visual experiences. The richness of the images is spellbinding, from the mud caking Kharis' face to the limpid eyes of Isobel Banning (a ravishing Yvonne Furneaux, familiar as Catherine Deneuve's sister in Repulsion a few years later). Terence Fisher's wide masters are full of details - the knicknacks in Banning's study, the oppressive ceilings and green & gold light in Ananka's tomb. On this DVD one can appreciate Fisher's more subtle touches, such as a few nicely canted shots, and the superb Escher-like perspective trick in a shot framed by George Pastell's altar, that makes Christopher Lee look ten feet tall. Franz Reizenstein's music is by far the best score in a Hammer film. The main theme carries the weight of an epic like Miklos Rosza or Dimitri Tiompkin, with soaring vocals and a pounding beat, yet blasts out when needed to mirror the violence onscreen. The score greatly augments Kharis' motivations, sending him on his murder missions with regal flourishes, and evoking his devotion and tenderness when confronted by the vision of his lost Ananka. In his book Hammer and Beyond, the British Horror Film, Peter Hutchings makes a good case for a sexual reading of The Mummy. The men in the story are weaklings, either sexless cripples like John Banning, who doesn't seem to appreciate the sensuality of his wife Isobel, or the sex slave Kharis, who throws away his life and his faith for a dead woman. Even in the afterlife, the female is in charge - motivating murder across millennia. This reading hits hard in the final confrontation. Kharis may be the man with the back-breaking violence, but he's just a puppet in the hands of a woman who simply resembles the princess to whom he's so devoted. The power of the feminine sex trumps all - English society, ancient religions, magical powers. Warners' DVD is beautifully detailed in 16:9 and lushly colored, making their previous flat and pale laserdiscs and VHS versions totally disposable. Some shots look a bit soft - but only parts of the frame, indicating that there may be problems in some of the elements, but none of this is the least bit distracting. The image has been cleaned of scratches and other blemishes. It simply looks great. Not so promising is the Warners attitude toward The Mummy; this release does not signal the imminent coming of their other superior Hammer holdings, like Horror of Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (Note: now all available). At last month's studio day at Dave's the Laser Place, the Warner rep discounted that notion and (like most other studios) gave the attitude that library product was small potatoes. Unless The Mummy is a big seller, even titles like Them! aren't going to be coming out soon. Even if this disc does business (and the Hammer fans are not numberless, to be honest) the earliest we could see more fantastic horror and science fiction from Warners will be 2003. So Savant bought a copy of The Mummy this time around, to up the sales tally by a big One. As a fan, I feel like an Egyptian priest at the tomb of Hammer, with Warner archeologists refusing to bring out the goods. But this Mummy disc is treasure enough for the present. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Mummy rates: Movie: Excellent Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent Supplements: trailer Packaging: Snapper case Reviewed: October 6, 2001 Footnote: 1. Savant saw The Mummy first-run in 1960 in an audience that was totally captivated - surprised and thrilled by the violence, and cheering and applauding at Kharis' climactic shift of loyalty. Return Other DVD Savant Hammer Films Reviews: Quatermass 2, X the Unknown, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Revenge of Frankenstein, Hound of the Baskervilles, Horror of Dracula, The Brides of Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, The Phantom of the Opera, Night Creatures, Nightmare, Paranoiac, The Kiss of the Vampire, The Evil of Frankenstein, The Plague of the Zombies, Die! Die! My Darling!, Quatermass and the Pit, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Countess Dracula, The Vampire Lovers, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Demons of the Mind, Straight on Till Morning [Savant Main Page] [Savant Links] [Article Index] [Review Index] [Savant 5 Year Report] DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson Advertise With Us Review Staff | About DVD Talk | Newsletter Subscribe | Join DVD Talk Forum Copyright © DVDTalk.com All rights reserved | Privacy Policy