Content warning: animal death (dog (off-screen)), blackfaceMy friend Lauren is kind enough to let me walk her through the Universal horror classics. We've seen Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and now Boris Karloff's Mummy. I will admit, I'd never sat down and actually watched it before.
A terrible discovery during an archeological dig sends one man mad (Bramwell Fletcher) and another into retirement. Ten years later, Frank Whemple (David Manners) comes to Egypt to continue his father's work. An enigmatic local named Ardeth Bey (Boris Karloff) leads him to the tomb of Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon. At a party in celebration of the find, Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann) falls into a trance and attempts to break into the museum where the remains of the princess have been taken. Frank and Helen's psychiatrist/occultist, Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan), theorize that Helen is the reincarnation of Ankh-es-en-Amon. Dr. Muller is immediately suspicious of Ardeth Bey, believing him to be the resurrected mummy Imhotep from the first disastrous expedition.
I was a little surprised at how much overlap there was between this and the 1999 The Mummy. The Fraser/Weisz version is vastly superior but I love it even more now, knowing how they incorporated the original story. Even the white cat!
The makeup work is phenomenal but the performances are only so-so. It's barely over an hour long but it dragged in places. Stick to the remake, but if you're curious, be prepared to shell out some money because this isn't available for streaming except to rent or buy.
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