Sunday, June 23, 2019

cinema history class: the mummy

Session: Bring Your Own Movie Month, Week 1 (Dave)
Movie: The Mummy (1932)
Directed by Karl Freund



As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:

A mummy has been brought back to life, curse be damned. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:

I need to start this off by explaining that I slept through The Mummy. I had just gotten back from vacation and was severely jet-lagged. I caught up with it a couple days after we saw it in class, and watched it on archive.org. While I can offer a few comments based on that viewing, I don't think it's fair to the movie for me to try rating it. Hence, I am giving it an "NR" -- not rated.

This was a very different movie than I was expecting. Somehow, I was figuring the plot to run something along the lines of the following: Archaeologist opens the burial chamber of a mummy, ignoring a dire curse placed on whoever disturbs it. The mummy comes to life, killing the archaeologist before escaping into the night. It continues on a terror spree, killing innocent people until it is somehow cornered and killed by some contrivance along the lines of a silver bullet.

But this had a more interesting plot -- the Mummy has come to life, and is living among the modern Egyptians, as one of them. He's hoping to eventually free his ancient girlfriend so they can live happily ever after.

What struck me was the similarities to White Zombie, a Bela Lugosi film (also from 1932). I remember WZ having scenes that focused on Lugosi's face as he worked some magic spell. The Mummy did the same thing with Karloff, and it gave the movie a very similar feel.

Ratings:
Me: NR
Ethan: 9
Joe: 10 (Note: Joe rates all genre films on a curve, from 9.0 to 10)
Sean: 3 out of 4


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