The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Michael Carreras

Writer:

Michael Carreras (writer)

Release Date:

31 December 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

It Lives Again To Kill Again!

Plot:

When European Egyptologists Dubois, Giles and Bray discover the tomb of the Egyptian prince Ra, American...

Plot Keywords:

Tomb | 1900s | Living Dead | Monster | Legend

Cast

Terence Morgan	...	Adam Beauchamp (Re, younger son of Rameses VIII)
Ronald Howard	...	John Bray
Fred Clark	...	Alexander King
Jeanne Roland	...	Annette Dubois
George Pastell	...	Hashmi Bey
Jack Gwillim	...	Sir Giles Dalrymple
John Paul	...	Inspector Mackenzie
Dickie Owen	...	The Mummy (Ra-Antef)
Jill Mai Meredith	...	Jenny, Beauchamp's Maid
Michael Ripper	...	Achmed
Harold Goodwin	...	Fred one of King's Workmen
Jimmy Gardner	...	Fred's Mate
Vernon Smythe	...	Jessop, Beauchamp's Butler
Marianne Stone	...	Hashmi Bey's Landlady

Runtime:

78 min | USA:81 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:(Banned) (1964) | Norway:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Associated British Elstree Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

Michael Carreras' screenwriting pseudonym "Henry Younger" was a play on fellow Hammer producer Anthony Hinds' nom de plume "John Elder."

Movie Connections:

Follows The Mummy (1959)

Pedestrian Hammer picture

Hammer made its reputation ,not to mention its money , with Gothic horror but in 1964 this was the only such movie on its slate .That year they turned their attention elsewhere --to the psychological chiller with Fanatic and Hysteria ; to the adventure yarn with The Brigand of Khandahar and She ;to the war picture with The Secret of Blood Island .This may be why the movie looks so tired and underfunded -almost as if they wanted to be seen as a studio that could turn its hand to many genres and were a little shame faced about doing horror pictures This a routine and unoriginal revamp of the mummy movie sub genre with all clichés present and correct .There is one deft twist-the mummy's brother turns out to be an immortal ,alive and living in London .For the rest it is the over familiar tale of archaelogists who invade a tomb becoming prey for the rampaging ,vengeful mummy who sets out to kill the " desecrators "and who turns out to have a soft spot for the comely female of the party . Fred Clark is good as the American impresario who seeks to exploit the discovery of the tomb for commercial gain and there is sound support from Ronald Howard ,George Pastell and John Paul but Terence Morgan is dull and the heroine ,Jeanne Roland is so badly dubbed as to be incomprehensible at times .There was no exterior shooting in the picture and it shows with the Egyptian desert represented by a painted backcloth Add a mummy which lacks the poetry and pathos of Karloff and Lee in previous pictures and this is second rate fare ,well below the usual standards of the studio