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Movies: The Mummy, The Mummy’s Hand, The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Ghost, The Mummy’s Curse
Stars:
Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Bramwell Fletcher, Arthur Byron,
Edward Van Sloan, Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, Wallace Ford, Cecil Kellaway, Eduardo
Ciannelli, George Zucco, Tom Tyler, Lon Chaney Jr., Dick Foran, John Hubbard,
Elyse Knox, Wallace Ford, Turhan Bey, Peter Coe, Kay Harding, Martin Kosleck,
Virginia Christine, Kurt Katch, John Carradine, Ramsey Ames, Barton Mac Lane,
and Robert Lowery
Writers:
Nina Wilcox Putnam, Richard Shayer, Griffin Jay, Maxwell Shane, Henry Sucher,
Neil P. Varnick, Dwight Babcock, and Brenda Weisberg
Directors: Karl
Freund, Christy Cabanne, Harold Young, Leslie Goodwins, and Reginald Le Borg
Feature lengths:
73 minutes/ 67 minutes/ 61 minutes/ 60 minutes/ 60 minutes
Extras: Feature
Length Commentary With Film Historian Paul M. Jensen, “Mummy Dearest: A Horror
Tradition Unearthed” Documentary, “The Mummy Archives” Photo Gallery,
Trailers
Languages: English
and Spanish Language Two-Channel Monaural Sound
Subtitles: English
Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Two-Disc Digipack
Chapter Stops: 18
Sound: Two-Channel
Monaural Sound
Years of
Theatrical Release: 1932/1940/1942/1944/1944/DVD Release: 2004
Theatrical
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Home Video
Distributor: Universal Studios Home Video
MPAA Rating: Not
Rated
Reviewer: Mark A.
Rivera
Boris Karloff’s
understated, but fantastic performance as Im-Ho-Tep in the 1932 version of
“The Mummy” is a class act onto itself and a worthy candidate for the movie
monster icon hall of fame. The makeup work is outstanding and Karloff’s
mannerisms often convey much about his character without having to say anything.
Is it any wonder that even after the Hammer studios reinvented the mummy
character in the 1950s and Filmmaker Stephen Sommers remade and also reinvented
the mummy as a franchise for the twenty-first century that film historians and
movie buffs of all ages still return to this Universal classic for inspiration?
The screen direction by Karl Freund is exquisite. He takes the simplest frames
and with only few careful camera and object placements, creates an economical
film language that saves pages of exposition for the viewer. In fact “The
Mummy” is so well made that it makes all of the other films in the series that
follow look terribly inferior.
After being
accidentally resurrected by a British archaeology team, Im-Ho-Tep sets out to
find his lost love, a vestal virgin sacrificed in a ritual. The rest of the
films degenerate somewhat into the more typical monster pictures one might
associate with the mummy in general as a horror icon turned cliché with Lon
Chaney Jr. shambling about in the wraps of paper for the final three films as
the mummy Kharis. This image of the creature is actually nearly as popular if
not better known by many than Karloff’s portrayal of Im-Ho-Tep in the first
film. In fact many simply get the various stories mixed up so much that when
they watch the original film, they become disappointed when they don’t see a
shambling monster mucking about in the original feature.
Universal Studios
Home Video presents all five films in their original black and white (1.33:1)
aspect ratios with clear Two-Channel English Monaural Sound and in the case of
the four follow-ups to the original, a Spanish Language Two-Channel Monaural
Soundtrack is also included while all of the films feature English Captions for
the hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded onto both
discs as options. The picture quality varies in part because of the available
source materials used for these digital transfers, but overall they have been
preserved rather well for this DVD presentation. Film Historian Paul M. Jenson
narrates a feature length audio commentary that reminded me of the film school
lectures I attended back in college, but his style at times is so bland that
after forty or so minutes it is hard to just sit there and listen to him read on
and on without growing tired if not irritated by his voice alone. A companion
documentary entitled “Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition (30:11) hosted by Film
Historian David J. Skal examines the impact “The Mummy” has had on
contemporary cinema with participants that include Make-up Master Rick Baker.
A motion gallery
of one-sheet art, lobby cards, and production photos under the title “The
Mummy Archives” (9:48) and theatrical trailers for “The Mummy” (1:36), The
Mummy’s Hand” (1:38), “The Mummy’s Tomb” (1:08), “The Mummy’s
Ghost” (1:09), and “The Mummy’s Curse” (1:07) wrap up the bonus features
contained in this two-disc set. The menus on both DVDs are standard interactive
still frames that are easy to navigate. “The Mummy: The Legacy Collection”
is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline along with other
“Legacy Collection” sets that celebrate “Frankenstein,” “Dracula,”
“The Wolf Man,” “The Invisible
Man,” and the “Creature From The Black
Lagoon” courtesy of Universal Studios Home Video and just in time for
Halloween.
© Copyright 2004
By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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