Horror Classics: The Mummy (1959)

Well, it’s spooky season again and you know what that means; horror movies! Usually, when you think about The Mummy, the films that come to mind are either the 1999 film with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz or the 2017 film starring Tom Cruise. Both of these films were produced by Universal Studios. Of course, those aren’t the only Universal Mummy movies, no, no, no, there were, in fact, six others.

1. The Mummy (1932)
2. The Mummy’s Hand (1940)
3. The Mummy’s Tomb (1942)
4. The Mummy’s Ghost (1944)
5. The Mummy’s Curse (1944)
6. Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Now, while the last one (Abbot and Costello) was a horror-comedy crossover - which was a common thing towards the end of the original Universal Classics with Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman all getting their own crossover films towards the end of the ‘40s and ‘50s - there was a very loose continuity between the others. It wasn’t long after the last one came out that Hammer Film Productions got to take their own crack at a Mummy film.

For this horror marathon, we’ll be focusing on the Hammer series, and I’ll be visiting the original Universal series later on.

Behind the Scenes of 1959's Mummy

I didn't find a whole lot of behind-the-scenes stuff for this one, but here's what I did find.

The film was produced by Michael Carreras and Anthony Nelson Keys with a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster. Like many Hammer productions, production on The Mummy was done at Bray Studios, and the film drew on several minor plot beats from the Universal Classics.

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were cast as John Banning and Kharis (the Mummy) respectively. The Mummy was their third outing together, the previous two being Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958).

The Mummy was met with mixed reviews upon release. Some thought the film was pretty good, and others thought it wasn't good enough. Still, the film has garnered a sort of cult following nowadays.

The Plot

Our story starts in 1895 with archaeologist Stephen Banning (Felix Aylmer) uncovering the tomb of a long-lost princess Ananka. Accompanying him are his son John (Peter Cushing) and brother Joseph (Raymond Huntley). As they get the tomb open, an Egyptian man named Mehemet Bey (George Pastell) tries to stop them from entering, warning of a rather nasty curse. They, of course, ignore him and go in anyways.

The only one who doesn’t go in is John because he has a broken leg. Stephen is left alone briefly and finds a mysterious scroll - the Scroll of Life (the book of the dead) - and reads from it. The result scares him into a catatonic state.

Three years later, in 1898, Stephen comes out of his catatonia at a nursing home. He warns a very skeptical John that he had accidentally brought a mummified high priest to life. He also says that the mummy will hunt down everyone who was involved in opening Ananka’s tomb.

Kharis - the mummy - was a high priest who was secretly in love with the princess. After she died, Kharis tried to resurrect her (the idea being that since she’s died, they could be together after she was revived because she wouldn’t be a princess anymore). Of course, that didn’t work out so well, and he was quickly stopped. Because of how he’d violated traditions, his punishment was severe; he was buried alive to guard the princess for eternity.

How will the Mummy get there? Well, Mehemet Bey has made his way to England with the intention of going after the Banning family.

What Works and What Doesn't?

So, for starters, Jack Asher’s cinematography is on point and the musical score by Franz Reizenstein is on point.

The story is well-written, even if it’s just more of the same Hammer fare and it’s reasonably well-paced. Additionally, the costumes are very nicely done; they are very vibrantly colored and the props department should get major brownie points for their contribution to the film.

As far as the performances go, Peter Cushing is great - as always and Yvonne Furneaux was lovely as Isobel Banning. George Pastell is really good as Mehemet Bey, he plays the part of a modern cultist with just the right balance of sophistication and crazy. Christopher Lee’s performance, however, is the one that stands out. He has only a few lines of dialogue, but the rest of his performance is physical. Considering that we only see his eyes, that’s very impressive.

Is there anything that doesn’t work here? Well…sort of. The pacing is okay, but - and this is one point where I do agree with the critics - the flashback sequence drags things down quite a bit. The ritual that showcased Ananka’s funeral rites was well done, but it slows everything down to a crawl.

Peter Cushing’s narration over the whole thing does make it more bearable though.

The Final Verdict

Overall, The Mummy is a decent flick for a Friday night when you want to switch your brain off for a bit. It’s not perfect, but it’s fun to watch, and if you haven’t seen it then I can definitely say it’s worth a watch!