The Mummy (1959)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Terence Fisher

Writer:

Jimmy Sangster (writer)

Release Date:

16 December 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Torn from the tomb to terrify the world!

Plot:

In the 1890s a team of British archaeologists discover the untouched tomb of Princess Ananka but accidentally...

Plot Keywords:

Tomb | Mummy | Revenge | Egypt | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Peter Cushing	...	John Banning
Christopher Lee	...	Kharis, the Mummy
Yvonne Furneaux	...	Isobel Banning / Princess Ananka
Eddie Byrne	...	Inspector Mulrooney
Felix Aylmer	...	Stephen Banning
Raymond Huntley	...	Joseph Whemple
George Pastell	...	Mehemet Bey, Alias Mehemet Akir
Michael Ripper	...	Poacher
George Woodbridge	...	Police Constable
Harold Goodwin	...	Pat
Denis Shaw	...	Mike
Gerald Lawson	...	Irish Customer
Willoughby Gray	...	Dr. Reilly
John Stuart	...	Coroner
David Browning	...	Police Sergeant

Also Known As:

Terror of the Mummy (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:88 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1960) | USA:Unrated | West Germany:16 | UK:X | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

A door that Christopher Lee must crash through was accidentally bolted by a grip before the scene is shot. Lee's shoulder was dislocated when he broke down the door, but the shot remains in the movie.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the scene where the mummy breaks through an upper window and into Stephen Banning's padded cell at the asylum, a large smudge of the swamp mud that covers the mummy suddenly appears on the cloth wall, even before Christopher Lee slides down it, reflecting a prior take.

Quotes:

Poacher: I've seen the likes tonight that mortal eyes shouldn't look at.
Irish Customer: You've been around to Molly Grady's again.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Tale of the Mummy (1998)

Almost as good as Universal's 'The Mummy'. Features a terrific performance from Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee makes a menacing Mummy, even more powerful and threatening than Karloff's.

When Hammer started making horror movies in the 1950s that were inspired by some of the classic Universal movies of the 1930s they had to tread carefully. Universal threatened legal action if they copied the makeup of their Frankenstein's monster for example, which is the reason the Monster (played by Christopher Lee) looked quite different to Karloff's in Hammer's 'Curse Of Frankenstein'(1957). By the time they made 'The Mummy' two years later some kind of understanding had been entered into and this movie, though it isn't credited as such, and the characters names have been changed, is pretty much a remake of the 1932 Universal classic which starred Boris Karloff. Once again Lee plays the Karloff role, except a second character played by George Castell has been created for this version, so we don't get to see Lee without his bandages, apart from a brief flashback sequence. Peter Cushing plays the leading man role, an archaeologist who is initially sceptical but soon must accept the existence of the Mummy. Yvonne Furneaux plays Cushing's devoted wife who is also a dead ringer for Princess Ananka, the woman the Mummy loved centuries earlier. Furneaux is probably best remembered for playing Catherine Deneuve's sister in Polanski's classic 'Repulsion', and also appeared in another sixties art film classic Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita'. Cushing gives a terrific performance as usual. I've yet to see a Hammer movie where he didn't. Lee makes a menacing Mummy, even more powerful and threatening than Karloff's. Though I still love the original version of 'The Mummy' this one is almost as good. In fact it's very difficult to choose one over the other. Both come with my highest recommendations and wipe the floor with the recent tongue in cheek versions starring Brendan Fraser et al. It's a pity that Hammer didn't make more Mummy movies starring Cushing and Lee. I do however highly recommend Hammer's 'Blood From The Mummy's Tomb', even though it has no connection to 'The Mummy' and doesn't feature either actor.