THE MUMMY (1959). An awful lotta people seem to think this was a remake of THE MUMMY (1932), but it's not! It's more like a combined remake of THE MUMMY'S HAND, THE MUMMY'S TOMB and THE MUMMY'S GHOST, all in one! Instead of a Dracula-like guy who comes back from the dead seeking the reincarnation of his lost love, it's more the religious fanatic controlling an indestructible killer to avenge the desecration of the tomb. Watching the Universal Kharis movies, it hit me they were probably the real inspiration for Michael Myers-- the guy never talks, and you can't stop him!
Peter Cushing is great as always, and Christopher Lee gets a lot of dialogue-- in the flashback scene-- then, later, despite the heavy make-up, you can really see his face & expressions in head-on shots, and lots of emotion & sadness when he noticed that Cushing's wife is the exact image of his lost love (but no hint of actual reincarnation here). So cool when the guy bursts thru glass doors and gets shot or run thru and it doesn't even slow him down. I also got a charge when Cushing deliberately defied the advice of the detective and visited "the Egyptian"-- and after a bit of friendly chat, started deliberately provoking him by saying those who believed in this ancient religion weren't of very high intelligence... (I kept saying "OH MY GOD!!!", just knowing he was trying to set the guy off.) What a "fun" horror movie!
George Pastell as the Egyptian played a vaguely similar role (though in fact a much more malevolent one) in the DOCTOR WHO story "Tomb Of The Cybermen" which was a sort-of sci-fi take off on this. Despite being the villain here, he's kind of sympathetic. I mean, never mind the original desecration-- when those guys decided to "re-seal" the tomb-- and used high explosives to do it (!!!) I was flabbergasted! I mean, WHAT kind of "archeologists" would EVER do such a thing? It's like, they were just "asking for it"!
Although Hammer did 3 more Mummy movies, none were sequels to this-- or, in any way connected with each other. But then, the Universal Kharis films had no real connection with the Im-Ho-Tep film, either. Strange business...
Peter Cushing is great as always, and Christopher Lee gets a lot of dialogue-- in the flashback scene-- then, later, despite the heavy make-up, you can really see his face & expressions in head-on shots, and lots of emotion & sadness when he noticed that Cushing's wife is the exact image of his lost love (but no hint of actual reincarnation here). So cool when the guy bursts thru glass doors and gets shot or run thru and it doesn't even slow him down. I also got a charge when Cushing deliberately defied the advice of the detective and visited "the Egyptian"-- and after a bit of friendly chat, started deliberately provoking him by saying those who believed in this ancient religion weren't of very high intelligence... (I kept saying "OH MY GOD!!!", just knowing he was trying to set the guy off.) What a "fun" horror movie!
George Pastell as the Egyptian played a vaguely similar role (though in fact a much more malevolent one) in the DOCTOR WHO story "Tomb Of The Cybermen" which was a sort-of sci-fi take off on this. Despite being the villain here, he's kind of sympathetic. I mean, never mind the original desecration-- when those guys decided to "re-seal" the tomb-- and used high explosives to do it (!!!) I was flabbergasted! I mean, WHAT kind of "archeologists" would EVER do such a thing? It's like, they were just "asking for it"!
Although Hammer did 3 more Mummy movies, none were sequels to this-- or, in any way connected with each other. But then, the Universal Kharis films had no real connection with the Im-Ho-Tep film, either. Strange business...