Night 11: ‘The Mummy’ (1959)
This is part of the ‘31 Nights of Horror Classics’ series, which I’ll be doing for Halloween 2017. Every night of this month, I’ll be watching a horror film made before the 90s and I’ll be posting a short review here.
Can the tale of an ancient killing-machine be much more than that? In this version of The Mummy, it really is!
The story follows John Banning (Peter Cushing), an archeologist who is on an expedition in search of Princess Ananka’s tomb. After his father has a chilling encounter inside the tomb, he goes insane, and some time after returning to London he is murdered under mysterious circumstances. Soon, John will find out that there’s a terrible evil on the loose, and it’s set on murdering every person who defiled the sacred catacomb.
I must confess that I was looking forward to this movie mostly because both Cushing and the great Christopher Lee were in it. Yet, after watching The Black Cat I was somewhat hesitant. In that film, only Lugosi and Karloff seemed to stand out, and I was afraid The Mummy would suffer from something similar.
I’m happy to say my fears were unfounded!
Cushing really does shine in his portrayal of the young archeologist. He is a hero you want to root for: elegant and very perceptive. And Lee is absolutely wonderful as both the Mummy and Kharis: frightening and intimidating in his physical personification of the former, and relatable in his controlled expressiveness as the latter.
But luckily, they’re also surrounded by an equally excellent cast, wonderfully detailed set pieces, and have a great and straightforward script to work with. It was a delight to see!
Beyond the story, there is also a great analysis regarding the refined method of colonialism embodied by archeology. Our hero, for all that is good about him, does look down in superiority at the culture he studies. His only interest in it –like the rest of his peers- is academic, but not human.
Like Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy makes these explorers face the consequences of their detached approach. No longer do the means justify the ends. In both films, there are high prices to pay for disturbing that which has been resting.
The story balances the true horror of the monster with a great thought-provoking concept and a truly fun adventure. And even when the audience has all the pieces of the puzzle–since we’re not limited to just one character’s perspective-, it’s still quite a thrilling ride.
Regarding form, I must say I also enjoyed the use of flashbacks. Although I usually dislike this narrative resource, it was used smartly to provide some great information about the origin of the creature and how it got to London in the first place. The first flashback that follows the story of Kharis and the burial of Ananka (Yvonne Furneaux) is simply breathtaking to see! Particularly for us, fans of the Ancient Egypt.
This long sequence is also the most we get of Christopher Lee outside of his ‘mummy’ costume. And if there’s anything the movie really needed was more of Lee, as his performance is so good it leaves you wanting more.
The only negative I could pinpoint would be the main female character. Although Isobel does exhibit some braveness as she stands against the monster, she ultimately isn’t really in the film for that long. Thus, she ends up becoming the token ‘pretty girl’ that will ultimately need to be rescued. However, since it was a trope of the genre at the time, it doesn’t really spoil the experience.
Like I mentioned in my previous comments about the 1932 version of The Mummy, I actually grew up loving the Brendan Fraser movie made in the 90s. However, after watching this one, I can finally say that the ’99 version has some very real competition as my favorite mummy film.
If you can, definitely watch it for this Halloween!
Grade: 9/10. All that you want in a truly great horror classic.
Scare Factor: quite frightening.
Gore/Violence: nothing too graphic.
Nudity/Sexual Situations: nothing too graphic.
Previous Night: ‘The Black Cat’ (‘34)
Next up: ‘The Wicker Man’ (‘73)
