Directed by: Karl Freund
Written By: Nina Wilcox Putnam, Richard Schayer, & John L. Balderston
Cast: Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, & David Manners
Runtime: 153 min
Rating: Unrated
Trailer

With the phenomenal success of the Tod Browning’s Dracula in 1931, Universal Pictures quickly fashioned another monster film in the mold of both Dracula and Frankenstein. Unfortunately for Universal, and for us watching, The Mummy fails to live up to both its predecessors. The plot involves an ancient Egyptian, Im-ho-tep, who is summoned back from the dead by curse and hell-bent on reuniting with his lost love, Princess Anck-es-en-Amon (Zita Johann). The mummy is played by Boris Karloff, who imbues the character with an erudition completely missing from his previous incarnation as Frankenstein’s monster. Whereas in that seminal film he was a monster with a child-like innocence, here he plays a cool, jaded Egyptian with a sense of tragic longing. And yet, despite a richer character, the film suffers from it’s drab, workmanlike cinematography and staging, never allowing the story to progress with any sense of energy or horror. Sure, Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein weren’t scary by any means now, but they had atmosphere and could create a wholly unique mood all their own—something, incidentally, modern horror films usually lack. In the case of The Mummy, the film’s best sequence occurs during the opening ten minutes, where a young scientist on a field expedition accidentally raises the mummy from the dead. The Mummy frightens the scientist to such an extent, that he is left an incoherent, laughing psychotic. The scene is creepy and effective but by the film’s end, it’s apparent that it was too much too soon. The film never makes up this early sequence and as a result the film suffers for it. There are some nice shots, particularly the creepy close-ups of Karloff’s creased, leathery face. But these shots are so hastily edited into the rest of the sequences that they serve as mostly distraction than eliciting horror. The ending, which is terribly disorganized and a little too convenient, is even more disappointing.

Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2009