Year: 1932
Country: U.S.
Company: Universal
Subgenre: Mummy Movies/Universal Monsters
Runtime: 73 minutes
Director: Karl Freund
Boris Karloff is, of course, ultra-famous as one of the pre-eminent Universal Monsters: Frankenstein's Creature (depending on who you ask, he is either ahead of Lugosi as Dracula or tied with him); but Karloff got the chance as an actor to do what none of the others did: play two classic Universal Monsters upon inception. As a kid I was always a MUCH bigger fan of The Mummy than I was Frankenstein, but then again, I was Egypt crazy. Even as an adult, I still enjoy the Mummy movies more; they are quite simply more scary. It was directed by Bohemian born Karl Freund, who had never helmed a big production prior. Principally a cinematographer, who had worked on Dracula the year before (he was F. W. Murnau's DP for many years before they both immigrated to the U.S.), the film is one of the only original Universal monster productions not based on a popular gothic novel. Producer Carl Laemmle wanted to do something with the supposed "curse of the pharaohs" that was popularized by the newspapers after the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. So it's based on a real event, though the curse is obviously bunk, ginned up to sell papers. Like the character of the vampire in Stoker's book, the decision was taken to name the characters in the film after actual historical people. One was the daughter of Akhenaten & Nefertiti AND (half) sister and wife of "King Tut": Ankhesenamun. The other was the based on the great old kingdom architect and doctor Imhotep. Additionally, Karloff's character after coming back life from the mummified state of Imhotep was called Ardeth Bey (Bey is curiously a Turkish name...). The direction is not a deliberately "off-kiltter" such as you find in James Whale productions, but it does have moments or bursts of unsettling humor in places. A good example of this occurs early in the film when, upon seeing the mummy come to life, archaeologist assistant Norton goes mad with laughter and later dies laughing uncontrollably. It's both terrifying and amusing; it is almost impossible not to snicker at it. This is Karloff's only turn "in the bandage" so to speak, and it is top of the line Universal horror!!
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