Leofwine_draca Here's another colourful classic from those chaps at Hammer, made at the peak of their popularity in the late '50s. From here on they were on their way down, forced into lower and lower budgets in the '60s (forced to shoot two lots of films back-to-back in 1965 in order to utilise sets), remaking the same types of film again and again, and desperately trying to cling on to the last remaining viewers in the early '70s with added gore and sex. THE MUMMY is a faithful retelling of previous entries in the genre, only this time with different names and lots of colour. Hammer made their mummy (played by Christopher Lee) a frightening, towering figure of evil, and scenes of it striding across the countryside, caked in mud and slime after rising from a bog, manage to be very frightening indeed.It's also a surprisingly tame film, at least in the version I saw, tame enough to get a PG rating in the UK. The only grisly moment comes when Lee gets his tongue cut out in flashback, but MARK OF THE DEVIL this isn't! We witness the event from behind Lee's head instead. Supposedly, racier/gorier versions were shot for foreign markets, and I'd love to see a print of one of these one day - it would certainly make interesting viewing.Anyway, in the tradition of their previous hits THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and Dracula, this film has a great score from James Bernard, good photography and lots of nice scenery/sets and costumes. Full use is made of the colour film available to Hammer, making it a very nice picture to look at. My only real complaint with this film would be the running time, which feels very short (although it isn't really). A fair quarter of an hour is taken up with a lengthy flashback scene explaining how Lee came to be buried in the princess' tomb. Therefore the film feels very short, and there's not a lot of opportunity to build up atmosphere. Instead what we get is a surprising amount of action and lots of shots of Lee coming out of his tomb and prowling the countryside while menacing music plays on. What more could you want from Hammer? Of course the third pairing of Cushing and Lee is the factor that really makes this film unmissable (just about any film starring the pair is a classic, with perhaps the exceptions of THE GORGON, I, MONSTER, and NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT). Lee plays the monster once more, using only his eyes to convey loneliness and sadness as the titular character. Indeed he puts in a sympathetic performance, yet still manages to be frightening when we first meet up with him. Cushing, on the other hand, does what he does best, i.e. be the hero and fight evil. He does get a couple of excellent fight scenes with Lee set in a library, where he rolls over desks in a display of sudden agility and even spears the mummy with a poker (an idea of his own). Cushing's character is typically noble and intelligent, yet not as interesting as his Doctor Frankenstein or Van Helsing - in fact, John Banning is quite a bland role, but Cushing breathes life into it with his typical skill and makes all of the scenes in which he appears professional and worthy.An excellent supporting cast flesh out the ranks, including Yvonne Furneaux as the glamorous damsel in distress (given shamefully little to do, though, aside from be carried by the mummy). Felix Aylmer is the fussy, selfish elder Banning, who probably deserves the strangling that he gets, when the mummy breaks through the bars of his padded cell and attacks him (again a great moment). Further down the cast list, Michael Ripper puts in a comic bit part as a drunk poacher who can't believe his eyes, George Pastell is suitably evil as a suspicious foreigner, and old-time performers like George Woodbridge (a staple for Hammer) lend solid support.The special effects are limited, but there are some excellent scenes involving the mummy getting shot where huge holes are blown in his chest - very convincing too. The ending sees the mummy taking Banning's wife and walking back into the bog, before putting her down and getting gunned to death by surrounding policemen (KING KONG anybody?), which manages to be quite tragic and fitting. The Egyptian scenes and flashbacks look convincingly done on a low budget, and the mummy kills a string of people to keep the horror content flowing. In all, this is another well-made classic from Hammer, with all the correct elements, and the best mummy movie I've seen so far.

Rainey Dawn A pretty good mummy movie about John Banning (Peter Cushing) and Kharis (Christopher Lee) - fun to watch.This is NOT a remake of Universal's The Mummy 1932 with Boris Karloff. Karloff's mummy was Imhotep NOT Kharis. There was bits and pieces of this film that were reminiscent of the Karloff classic but NOT a remake of it. This film is NOT a remake of Universal's Mummy Kharis series either. Tom Tyler played Kharis in The Mummy's Hand followed by Lon Chaney Jr. in 3 of the Universal Mummy films (Tomb, Ghost, Curse). The film is almost a mixture of all of the Universal mummy movie stories rolled into one - not exactly but almost.I would have rated this one higher if the ending made more since. John Banning shot Kharis in shoulder and looked like close to the stomach but the mummy Kharis survived. The ending Kharis was shot and went down in swampy waters. I'm guessing Banning didn't hit a vital organ but the other shooters at the end did hit a vital organ. Also the movie ended abruptly - seems like just a bit more at the end with John Banning and the other guys "summing things up" would have really been nice.7/10

Claudio Carvalho In1895, in Egypt, the British archaeologists John Banning (Peter Cushing), his father Stephen Banning (Felix Aylmer) and his uncle Joseph Whemple (Raymond Huntley) discover the tomb of Princess Ananka (Yvonne Furneaux). Stephen finds inside the tomb The Scroll of Life and reads it, awaking The Mummy of Anaka's keeper and former lover Kharis (Christopher Lee). He has a heart attack and goes insane. The Egyptian Mehemet Bey (George Pastell) that worships Ananka steals the scroll and controls The Mummy. Three years later, in England, Stephen is an intern in a mental institution and John has married his fiancée Isobel. However the fanatic Mehemet decides to use The Scroll of Life to revenge those that have desecrated Anaka's tomb. The Mummy attacks Stephen and Joseph; however, when The Mummy attacks John, Isobel that resembles Ananka saves her husband. But will she be saved from The Mummy?"The Mummy" is another great horror movie by Hammer directed by Terence Fisher. The remake of the 1932 Universal's "The Mummy" is creepier, with the dirty bandages since he has fallen off into the bog. In addition, the beauty of Yvonne Furneaux is impressive as well the lack of chemistry with Peter Cushing. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): Not Available on Blu-Ray or DVD

GL84 Returning home from an expedition, a rash of strange deaths points to a revived mummy brought back to avenge the team's entrance to a sacred Egyptian tomb and must try to stop its' controller from finishing the rampage.This is one of the better entries in the genre with a lot to like. One of its better features is that there's a lot of screen-time given to the mummy itself which prompts a lot of good parts along the way. Besides the fact that we get to really feel for it's dangerous actions as well as the spectacular make-up for the being, there's some really well-done action scenes that are rather enjoyable. The initial attack at the nursing home, as the mummy breaks into the room of one of his victims who has seen him coming and is desperately trying to get away only for a savage assault before the inevitable happens, the back-story fill-on flashback on the father where we see the creature coming to life in grand fashion as well as the first assault in the study where it sneaks up on the victim who's completely unaware of it's existence and then starts a vicious brawl before being distracted by the wife each provide this with rather enjoyable moments that keep this going along nicely. The nursing home sequence gives it a sense of ruthlessness, there's a great nod to the history of the culture by showing what really happened on the trip and the several attacks in the study not only give this a pretty rousing series of attacks but also display the kind of emotion and heart which is required for these kinds of stories as, despite being caked in layers of muddy bandages, his frame and body language combine into one perfect image. As well, the extended and prolonged mummification flashback here is simply marvelous, far more detailed in here than in the original version as well as a little more bearable in that it has new ideas in it that helps separate this one as being not just another remake and gives this a different identity. As well, the set design is perhaps the best part of the film, as is the case with so many of the mummy films simply because of what has to be done to the set to make it believable. You would have to create artifacts, sculptures, tools, paintings, and other sort of details in the tomb, and what's seen here in the detail and design as being the most striking part of the film. While this one does tend to revert too often to the clichés of the franchise and never really does anything too original in that regard, far too much here overcomes that.Today's Rating/PG: Mostly off-screen Violence and implied Nudity.