The Mummy Review

Review of The Mummy (1959) by screenqueeen: 👍 3.5/5

HOOPTOBER 8.0 DAY 12 19 DAYS REMAIN

This film is a good indicator for what Hammer does best: a well-defined premise backed with shocking violence and both compelling and challenging themes. This time around the British studio takes on the imperial duty of exploring, classifying and pilfering of the cultures they fetishize as part of their non-existent empire.

The setup is one we've seen before but the proceedings are what makes this far more interesting than your average vengeful mummy film. What's kind of amusing is the "flashback" that features Christopher Lee as Kharis is framed by a written account of what John Banning's father assumes happened when the priestess was put to rest, and other than the priestess herself and Lee, every person in that flashback is a person of color. Of course Banning and his father would image a tall and strong Englishman as the menacing mummy Kharis. This was likely on accident as Lee and Cushing tend to populate a lot of the bigger Hammer projects from their horror golden age but I think it puts things in an interesting light.

Towards the 3rd act, John Banning pays a visit to the Egyptian man who has been following John and his father's exploits (to the full meaning of the term) and is unapologetically vengeful himself towards the Brits. They traverse the usual niceties and eventually passive-aggressively clash before Mehemet calls John out on the above-mentioned pilfering of foreign cultural artifacts for academic clout, and instead of trying to justify or sweeten the image, John owns up to it and pridefully acknowledges that it's his job. For me this is the turn where the villain is truly revealed, and it wouldn't necessarily be a spoiler if I lead into the fact that the main white character ends up saving the day with a ridiculous mechanism that renders the mummy's power useless.

It's nevertheless a fun journey and I look forward to more MUMMY pictures.