''The Mummy'' is a 1959 British

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...

, directed by

Terence Fisher Terence Fisher (23 February 1904 – 18 June 1980) was a British film director best known for his work for Hammer Films. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, ...

and starring

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

and

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...

. It was written by

Jimmy Sangster James Henry Kinmel Sangster (2 December 1927 – 19 August 2011) was a British screenwriter and director, most famous for his work on the initial horror films made by the British company Hammer Films, including '' The Curse of Frankenstein'' (19 ...

and produced by

Michael Carreras Michael Henry Carreras (21 December 1927 – 19 April 1994) was a British film producer and director. He was known for his association with Hammer Films, being the son of founder James Carreras, and taking an executive role in the company ...

and Anthony Nelson Keys for

Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classi ...

. The film was distributed in the U.S. in 1959 on a double bill with either the

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wa ...

film '' The Bat'' or the Universal film ''

Curse of the Undead ''Curse of the Undead'' is a 1959 American horror Western film directed by Edward Dein and starring Eric Fleming, Michael Pate and Kathleen Crowley. Plot In an Old West town, young girls are dying of a mysterious wasting disease. Dr. John Ca ...

''. Though the title suggests

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

' 1932 film of the same name, the film actually derives its plot and characters entirely from two 1940s Universal films, '' The Mummy's Hand'' and '' The Mummy's Tomb'', with the climax borrowed directly from '' The Mummy's Ghost''. The character name Joseph Whemple, the use of a sacred scroll, and a few minor plot elements are the only connections with the 1932 version.

Plot

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

in 1895, archaeologists John Banning, his father Stephen and his uncle Joseph Whemple are searching for the tomb of Princess Ananka, the high priestess of the god Karnak. John has a broken leg and cannot accompany his father and uncle when they open the tomb. Before they enter, an Egyptian named Mehemet Bey warns them not to go in, lest they face the fatal curse against desecrators. Stephen and Joseph ignore him, and discover within the

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Gre ...

of Ananka. After Joseph leaves to tell John the good news, Stephen finds the Scroll of Life and reads from it. Outside, members of the archaeological team hear his screams and rush into the tomb to find Stephen in a

catatonic Catatonia is a complex neuropsychiatric behavioral syndrome that is characterized by abnormal movements, immobility, abnormal behaviors, and withdrawal. The onset of catatonia can be acute or subtle and symptoms can wax, wane, or change during ...

state. Three years later, back in England, Stephen Banning comes out of his catatonia at the Engerfield Nursing Home for the Mentally Disordered, and sends for his son. He tells him that when he read from the Scroll of Life, he unintentionally brought back to life Kharis, the

mummified A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...

high priest of Karnak. The high priest had been sentenced to be entombed alive to serve as the guardian of Princess Ananka's tomb: Kharis secretly loved the princess and attempted to restore her to life after she died; when he was discovered, eternal life and mummification were his punishment. Now, Stephen tells his disbelieving son that Kharis will hunt down and kill all those who desecrated Ananka's tomb. The Mummy (1959) trailer - Christopher Lee shot

The Mummy (1959) trailer - Christopher Lee shot

Meanwhile, Mehemet Bey, a devoted worshiper of Karnak, comes to Engerfield under the alias of Mehemet Atkil to wreak vengeance on the Bannings. He hires a pair of drunken carters, Pat and Mike, to bring the slumbering Kharis in a crate to his rented home, but the two men's drunken driving cause Kharis's crate to fall off and sink into a bog. Later, using the Scroll of Life, Mehemet exhorts Kharis to rise from the mud, then sends him to murder Stephen Banning. When Kharis kills Joseph Whemple the next night, John witnesses it. He shoots Kharis with a revolver at close range, but to no effect. Police Inspector Mulrooney is assigned to solve the murders but, because he is skeptical and deals only in "cold, hard facts", he does not believe John's incredible story about a killer mummy, even when John tells him that he is likely to be Kharis' third victim. While Mulrooney investigates, John notices that his wife Isobel bears an uncanny resemblance to Princess Ananka. Gathering testimonial evidence from other individuals in the community, Mulrooney slowly begins to wonder if the mummy is real. Mehemet Bey sends the mummy to the Bannings' home to slay his final victim. However, when Isobel rushes to her husband's aid, Kharis sees her, releases John, and leaves. Mehemet Bey mistakenly believes that Kharis has completed his task, and prepares to return to Egypt. John, suspecting Mehemet Bey of being the one controlling the mummy, pays him a visit, much to Bey's surprise. After John leaves, Mehemet Bey leads Kharis in a second attempt on John's life. The mummy knocks Mulrooney unconscious, while Mehemet Bey deals with another policeman guarding the house. Kharis finds John in his study and starts to choke him. Alerted by John's shouts, Isobel runs to the house without Mulrooney; at first, the mummy does not recognize her, but John tells her to loosen her hair and the mummy releases John. When Mehemet orders Kharis to kill Isobel, he refuses; Mehemet tries to murder Isobel himself, but is killed by Kharis instead. The mummy carries the unconscious Isobel into the swamp, followed by John, Mulrooney and other policemen. John yells to Isobel; when she regains consciousness, she tells Kharis to put her down. The mummy reluctantly obeys. When Isobel has moved away from him, the policemen open fire, causing Kharis to sink into a quagmire, taking the Scroll of Life with him.

Cast

as John Banning *

as Kharis / The Mummy * Yvonne Furneaux as Isobel Banning / Princess Ananka *

Eddie Byrne Eddie Byrne (31 January 1911 – 21 August 1981) was an Irish actor. Career His stage work included many appearances with Dublin's Abbey Theatre, and also work with the National Theatre in London. Outside Ireland he is probably best known ...

as Inspector Mulrooney *

Felix Aylmer Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE (21 February 1889 – 2 September 1979) was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television. Aylmer made appearances in films with comedians such as Will Hay and George Formby. Early ...

as Stephen Banning *

Raymond Huntley Horace Raymond Huntley (23 April 1904 – 15 June 1990) was an English actor who appeared in dozens of British films from the 1930s to the 1970s. He also appeared in the ITV period drama ''Upstairs, Downstairs'' as the pragmatic family s ...

as Joseph Whemple * George Pastell as Mehemet Bey *

Michael Ripper Michael George Ripper (27 January 1913 – 28 June 2000) was an English character actor. He began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 1950s was virtually unknown; he was seldom credited. Along with Michael Gou ...

as Poacher *

George Woodbridge George Woodbridge may refer to: * George Woodbridge (actor) (1907-1973), English actor * George Woodbridge (illustrator) George Woodbridge (October 3, 1930 – January 20, 2004) was an American illustrator known for his exhaustive researc ...

as P. C. Blake * Harold Goodwin as Pat * Denis Shaw as Mike * Gerald Lawson as Irish Customer *

Willoughby Gray John Willoughby Gray MBE (5 November 1916 – 13 February 1993) was an English actor of stage and screen. Early life Willoughby Gray was born in London to his mother, Mary Henderson; his father, John Gray, was killed in action in Iraq soon af ...

as Dr. Reilly * John Stuart as Coroner * David Browning as Police Sergeant * Frank Sieman as Bill * Stanley Meadows as Attendant * Frank Singuineau as Head Porter

Production

Filming occurred at Bray Studios in Berkshire. Originally the scenes of Kharis's tongue being cut out and shotgun demise were more graphic, but were trimmed for the British censor.A History of Horrors: The Rise and Fall of the House of Hammer
Denis Meikle, page 79. In the video, ''Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror'', Peter Cushing says he suggested the scene in which he drives a spear through the mummy. He was inspired by the pre-release poster (see image above) which shows the mummy with a shaft of light passing through it. A fibreglass replica of a sarcophagus created for the film is in the collection of the Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' of the UK wrote: "More glamorously photographed than ever, Hammer's latest excursion into nineteenth century macabre fantasy is weighed down by wordy historical exposition, flashbacks to ancient Egyptian burial ceremonies and a resultant slackening in pace". Howard Thompson of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' thought that the film was "woodenly directed" and "should have been better". '' Variety'' wrote that the film was "excellently executed" in all technical departments, and while there was "little of actual newness" to the plot, the film "carries the type of action expected, and while chiller aspects aren't too pronounced they're sufficient to those who want to find them". ''Harrison's Reports'' called it "a fairly good picture of its kind, produced on a more lavish scale than its predecessors and enhanced by Technicolor photography". ''The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films'' wrote of the film: "Structurally little more than a string of picturesque and nice-lit killings, ''The Mummy'''s melancholic presentation and romantic undertow grants it a certain atmosphere which elevates this bandaged brute far beyond its cinematic predecessors". It currently holds a positive 89% "Fresh" on film review aggregate website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 9 reviews.

In other media

The film was adapted into a 12-page comic strip for the July 1978 issue (#22) of the magazine '' Hammer's Halls of Horror''. It was drawn by David Jackson from a script by Steve Moore. The cover of the issue featured a painting by Brian Lewis of

as Kharis. The film is cited as a particular influence on the '' Doctor Who'' serial '' Pyramids of Mars'' (1975).

References

Bibliography

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mummy, The 1959 films 1959 horror films 1950s English-language films 1950s historical fantasy films 1950s historical horror films Ancient Egypt in fiction British historical fantasy films British historical horror films Films about curses Films adapted into comics Films directed by Terence Fisher Films set in 1895 Films set in 1898 Films shot at Bray Studios Films with screenplays by Jimmy Sangster Gothic horror films Hammer Film Productions horror films Mummy films Reboot films Universal Pictures films 1950s British films