Blood from the Mummy's Tomb

''Blood from the Mummy's Tomb'' is a 1971 British horror film starring Andrew Keir, Valerie Leon and James Villiers. It was director Seth Holt's final film, and was loosely adapted by Christopher Wicking from Bram Stoker's 1903 novel ''The Jewel of Seven Stars''.Gary A. Smith, ''The American International Pictures Video Guide'', McFarland 2009 p 28 The film was released as the support feature to '' Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde''.

Besides providing a rare leading role for Valerie Leon, the film is notable for its troubled production. It has also been called one of Hammer's best films of the 1970s.

Plot

An expedition led by Professor Fuchs locates the unmarked tomb of Tera, an evil Egyptian queen. A cabal of priests drugged her into a state of suspended animation and buried all of her relics with her. Fuchs is obsessed with Tera and takes her mummy and sarcophagus back to England, where he secretly recreates her tomb under his house. Four days "before her birthday", his daughter Margaret – who bears an uncanny resemblance to Tera and was born at the instant they recited her name - has recurring nightmares. Fuchs gives her the old queen's ring and tells her to "wear it always". This only makes matters worse. Queen Tera's evil power begins to tempt Margaret, as she learns how she is feared by her father's former colleagues.

Margaret notices a man lurking in the vacant building across the street. He is Corbeck, an expedition member who is now her father's rival. Corbeck wants to restore Tera to life, and he persuades Margaret to help him gather the missing relics. However, each time one is given up the person who had held it dies. When they have all the relics, Corbeck, Margaret and Fuchs begin the ancient ritual to reawaken Tera. At the last moment Fuchs learns that the queen's revival will mean Margaret's death. Together Fuchs and Margaret overpower and kill Corbeck, as the house quakes above them. Queen Tera awakens and kills Fuchs, but not before Margaret stabs her. As Margaret and Tera grapple for an ancient dagger, the house finally collapses on them.

Later in the hospital, a woman's face is wrapped in bandages. She is the sole survivor; all the others in the Professor's basement were "crushed beyond recognition". The bandaged woman slowly opens her eyes and struggles to speak, leaving it ambiguous whether she is Margaret Fuchs or Queen Tera.

Cast

Production

Development

Writer Chris Wicking said the film was one of the last projects that James Carreras brought to Hammer. Wicking wanted to use the title of the book but Carreras did not. They brainstormed titles and came up with ''Blood from the Mummy's Tomb'', which Wicking thought they would never use, but they did.All's Well That Ends: an interview with Chris Wicking Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 55, Iss. 658, 1 November 1988: 322.

Finance came from EMI Films.

The job of directing went to Seth Holt, whose films were admired by producer Howard Brandy. Holt had a strong critical reputation for making such films as ''The Nanny'', but had not made a movie in two years. As Holt said in 1971: "I haven't been directing because I haven't been offered anything to direct".Daddy of the mummyscene, The Guardian (1959-2003); London (UK), 18 Jan 1971: 8.

Wicking worked with Seth Holt on the script. The film had to go into production early because there was a gap in the production schedule. Wicking said he had a falling out with producer Howard Brandy and was barred from the set but he continued to work with Holt in the evenings.

Brandy later claimed Wicking's script was "unshootable" and that Holt constantly rewrote it. He also says he and Holt wanted to cast Amy Grant in the lead but Sir James Carreras insisted on Valerie Leon.

Shooting

Peter Cushing was cast in the film and completed one day's filming before leaving the production after his wife was diagnosed with emphysema. Cushing was replaced by Andrew Keir. The R1 DVD of the film released in the United States by Anchor Bay Entertainment contains still photographs of Cushing's day on the production.

Director Seth Holt died of a heart attack five weeks into the six-week shoot, collapsing into cast member Aubrey Morris's arms and dying on set. Michael Carreras asked Don Sharp to take over but the director was unable to as he had signed to direct a film in Israel for the producer of ''Puppet on a Chain'' (this film was ultimately not made).

Michael Carreras directed the final week's filming. He said Holt's footage did not cut together.

According to the book ''Hammer, House of Horror: Behind the Screams'' by Howard Maxford, the budget for the film was £200,000. The film was shot at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.

Release

In January 1972, AIP bought the US distribution rights.

Critical reception

''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' wrote: "Seth Holt died while shooting ''Blood from the Mummy's Tomb''; the final week's work was directed by Michael Carreras, who obviously made every effort to adopt Holt's visual style. Holt, however, was apparently revising his script day-by-day, and the stylistic consistency of the completed film cannot mask a number of unresolved themes and ideas. For all that, ''Blood from the Mummy's Tomb'' is Holt's most distinctive work, and effortlessly the best of Hammer's recent attempts to 'develop' the classic horror themes. The explanatory background that conventionally emerges in a few garbled words during or after the climax in horror movies, here becomes the substance of the whole first half of the film: a mythic, amoral deity is built up, and an entire attendant cosmogony suggested, through astrological references and other choice details. After this, the main drama of the film centres on the debate between Fuchs and Corbeck on the morality of releasing power like Tera's in a world like ours. 'Our world' is in turn the subject of Holt's most characteristically jaundiced view. A surface of perversity and fear barely contains undergrowths of madness, chaos and destruction. Several of the film's scenes occur in a lunatic asylum (where George Coulouris is victim to two of the most gleefully sadistic warders since '' Lost Weekend''); other characters are frequently seen alone in moments of private mania. The young hero (name of Tod Browning, so that you know he's all right) is killed before he has a chance to do anything effectual. And in a breathtaking reversal, Holt saves his all-too-human 'mummy' for his final shot: where she is Margaret, swathed in hospital bandages after the catastrophe. It's all as if Holt had superimposed the psychological-suspense methods of his thrillers on to the Gothic mechanics of the genre; the result (as in the work of all true pioneers) makes the genre seem like new."

AllMovie's review of the film was favourable, commending its "glamorous style" and "creepy atmosphere".

''Empire'' magazine gave it three out of five.

''The New York Times'' called it "tremendous fun, skilful and wonderfully energetic".

''Variety'' called it "polished and well-acted but rather tame".

Legacy

According to ''Filmink'' "over time, a devoted cult has grown around" the film, "partly due to the sexiness of Seth Holt’s death, but also the qualities of the film. There is a magic about ''Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb'', at least to its fans. It’s not completely well realised, but there is so much to admire: the professionalism of Andrew Keir, the splendid villainy of James Villiers and James Cossins (who plays a sadistic nurse), the bewitching Valerie Leon (who genuinely seems like she stepped out of the Ancient past), Tristram Carey’s superbly eerie musical score, Scott MacGregor’s enjoyable production design."

See also

* ''The Awakening'' (1980) - another film based on ''The Jewel of Seven Stars''

References

Notes

*

External links

*
*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blood From The Mummy's Tomb
The Jewel of Seven Stars
1971 films
1971 horror films
1971 fantasy films
1970s supernatural horror films
Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios
Films based on horror novels
Films based on works by Bram Stoker
Films directed by Michael Carreras
Films directed by Seth Holt
Films set in London
Mummy films
Hammer Film Productions horror films
American International Pictures films
Films based on Irish novels
Films set in Egypt
Films about spirit possession
British supernatural horror films
EMI Films films
1970s English-language films
1970s British films
Films scored by Tristram Cary
English-language horror films
English-language fantasy films
Films about queens