The Mummy

Starring: Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Arthur Byron
Directed by: Karl Freund
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Horror, Drama
1932

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of archeologists unearth a thousands of years old mummy (Boris Karloff), who comes back to life when an ancient spell is read aloud. He is determined to bring back his true love, whose soul he believes now inhabits the body of a beautiful young woman (Zita Johann) who doesn't want to die.

Review:

Tim: The Mummy is certainly one of the all time classic monster movies, as Universal's film has inspired countless other movies over the last 70+ years. It is certainly creepy and memorable, but I don't think it quite lives up to the other monster movies of its day. Still, this is a good movie, and an important film in the history of movies.

This movie works mainly because of two performances. The first is that of Boris Karloff. Karloff has received so much credit over the years for this performance, and for good reason. He is memorable, frightening, and overall, quite terrific as Im-ho-tep. I absolutely loved the pure evil that he exuded in every second of his screen time. He really gives the definitive Mummy performance, against which all others must be judged. Secondly, I also wanted to mention the peformance of Zita Johann. I had never heard of Johann, and was surprised she only appeared in 8 films in her entire career. I think she is terribly underrated- her performance here is quite good. I thought she was very often stunning, believable, and enjoyable on screen. This movie works because we are genuinely fearful for her safety. She was excellent, and I am surprised we don't hear more about her.

The rest of the cast (basically the other three male actors) are all not quite as good- indeed, they are fairly forgettable. This movie needed a stronger actor or two in one of these roles. The film grinds to a halt whenever these men are on screen without the presence of Karloff or Johann. This hurts the movie.

The Mummy features some pretty amazing moments. The highlight of the film has to be the opening sequence of the mummy first coming to life- Karloff only opens his eyes slowly, which is creepy beyond measure. We then see a hand, and his bandages slowly drag across the floor. This first scene doesn't feature any jump-out-of-your skin moments, but is lastingly frightening because of how much it leaves to our imagination. I also loved the makeup done on Karloff. His skin looks exactly like ancient parchment. There are a number of close-up scenes of just Karloff's face, and every one of these is unbelievably creepy. He just looked believable and amazing, and I loved those moments.
Dracula a bit too closely- I wish it went out on its own branch a bit more. It could also have used a scene or two with the actual mummy itself. That might have created some more suspense and thrills.

The Mummy isn't a perfect movie, but it is an important, influential movie. It is certainly well worth watching, and will provide more thrills than suspense than you probably expect.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Returns, Dracula, Frankenstein