Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Ah, "The Mummy" on Halloween night! What could be better? My brother and I, now aging boomers, were allowed as children the special treat to stay up on Friday nights to watch Horror Theater (or whatever it was called) and scare ourselves silly. This was in the late '50's. "The Mummy" was a favorite, so when I found this VHS tape in the library, I took it home for Halloween.

After a couple of hours of Trick or Treating, the three children were ready to go home. We put on the movie, expecting magic to revisit. Their grandfather (my brother) and I expected to pass on a tradition. We really thought the nine-year-old boy would delight in the movie. He loves things like this. However, it was too slow for him--he fell asleep soon into the movie, as did the other two children.

That left my brother and me to stroll down Memory Lane with the Mummmy! It wasn't the same story we both remembered. We had the notion of lots of wrappings with the mummy walking all over the place with arms outstretched and killing people. Another reviewer said this wasn't "The Mummy" he saw either. Probably a sequel.

Let's return to the reality of the story. We discovered how faulty our memories are. However, the film did surprise us with what was there.

In the 1920's when the discovery of the Tutankhamun tomb was the rage, three other English archaeologists were certain to make a find. Indeed, they did--an ancient sarcophagus with a box attached: Do not open this coffin upon threat of death. Two are wise enough to discuss it. The third cannot control his eagerness and opens it. In a few minutes the mummy is mysteriously wrought to life, and sidles out the door. The archaeologist witnesses this and goes stark raving insane. A chilling scene. The viewer sees only a piece of wrapping sliding out of sight--the only view we get of a newly awakened corpse. Then the hysterical laughing. Everything is always just out of sight. A suggestion of evil. A suggestion of terror. A scream.

The mummy comes back as an Egyptian attached somehow to the museum. It's Boris Karlof in a dark role. Why no one was not creeped out by his persona is beyond me. Bring in the the son of one of the original three archaeologists and the daughter of the museum director and you have a triangle about to happen. Karlof's mummy/man believes she is the reincarnation of his beloved temple virgin from back in the day. He is determined to take her back and almost succeeds.

Today's filming shows all and then some. Old films like this tell the story with suggestion, little nuances, creating creepy atmosphere and mood. As I watched, I slipped in and out of sleep. In one dream sequence I was in the movie, going down one of the underground passages. Only in my dream I rounded the bend to see what veiwers could hear. Black-clad, wispy creatures were stirring around a walking, stalking mummy. I fell on the rocks, they turned toward me. Of course, I awoke, further creeped out.

A successful movie-- "The Mummy"--even now!

Just wanted to mention that I recently compared the transfers on the Mummy Special Edition (Universal Legacy Series) 2-disc DVD released in July 2008 and the original 1999 Universal single-disc DVD release. The quality of the transfers in terms of contrast, brightness, detail, scratches and blemishes, etc., seems to be virtually identical. However, for some unknown reason the framing of the Legacy Series release is cropped tighter than the 1999 edition, with a small but significant loss of picture information along the right, left, and bottom borders. I watched the Legacy Series version yesterday and the missing information was not enough to seriously impact my enjoyment of the movie, but it's kind of irritating that the older, supposedly obsolete edition actually reveals more of the frame than the newer, supposedly definitive edition. Unfortunately, this seems to be typical of Universal's double- and triple-dip DVD editions: two steps forward and one back. I'm still debating whether to hang on to the 1999 edition, which I was hoping to ditch after buying the newest release. So if you're thinking of upgrading in hopes of getting a superior transfer and don't really care about the extras, my advice is stick with the original 1999 release. The only new extras you get with the Legacy Series release are the second commentary track, 1940s Mummy series trailers, and the Jack Pierce featurette, which is interesting but does not contain much new information unless you are completely ignorant of Pierce's career. The Unraveling the Legacy of the Mummy featurette is really just a promo for the two Brendan Fraser Mummy movies, it doesn't even address the 1940s mummy series, or any other mummy movies for that matter. The TCM Universal Horror documentary is nice but it is available on the Dracula and Frankenstein 75th Anniversary Edition DVDs and hardly worth the purchase price of the new Mummy DVD by itself, especially if you already have the Dracula or Frankenstein anniversary sets. If the limited new extras sound worth it to you, go for it, but realize that you are losing some picture information in the feature attraction, not to mention the Production Notes, Cast and Filmmakers' Bios, and Mummy Archives (poster and stills gallery) extras from the 1999 release. I never bought the Mummy Legacy Collection box set so I can't comment on that release.