The Mummy (1959) – Film Review

Director: Terence Fisher
Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux
Certificate: 15

By Sarah Morgan

It’s 1959 and Hammer Films have already scored massive hits with The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula. The small British studio had hit on a formula – using Universal’s classic horror cycle of the 1930s and 1940s as an inspiration for a series of colour gothic chillers – to transform its fortunes, and now its bosses needed another title to continue its success.

It probably didn’t take them long to hit on 1932’s The Mummy as inspiration, which starred Boris Karloff in the title role. Unlike its predecessors, it wasn’t based on a literary source. Instead, Hammer screenwriter Jimmy Sangster looked at Universal’s film and its sequels and devised a story comprised of elements from all of them.

The result is a lavish tale that begins with the discovery of the tomb of Princess Ananka, the high priestess of the god Karnak, in Egypt in 1895 by a party of British archaeologists that includes father-and-son Stephen and John Banning, and Joseph Whemple.

“Fanatical control”

While Stephen is alone in the burial chamber, he accidentally awakens Kharis, the former high priest who was interred alive with the princess after it was discovered he was in love with her and had tried to resurrect her after her death.

Three years later, once back in England, both Stephen and Joseph are murdered by person or persons unknown. John, meanwhile, having married his sweetheart Isobel, believes he is the next target – and that the killer is Kharis, who is now under the fanatical control of Mehemet Bey, a devotee of both Ananka and Karnak.

Although not as impressive as its predecessors in the Hammer gothic canon, there is much to admire here, not least production designer Bernard Robinson’s sumptuous sets, which were created on a meagre budget but, under Terence Fisher’s skilful direction and Jack Asher’s cinematography, look as if they cost a million bucks.

The film also reunited Fisher with Hammer’s key stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Cushing is his usual assured self as John Banning, living up to his nickname of ‘Props Peter’ by using a range of items and weapons to enhance his character and performance, including a harpoon which he shoves through Kharis to match the scene on the eye-catching poster, which depicts a light shining through the mummy’s abdomen.

“Fun romp”

But it’s Lee, who had trained as a mime, who is the one to watch here. For once he doesn’t have his extraordinary voice to rely on; instead, he must convey all Kharis’s emotions with gestures and eye movements, something he does brilliantly. It’s my favourite performance of his.

The only slight letdown is Sangster’s screenplay. There is far too much exposition via a prolonged flashback sequence that makes the film lose some pace, while the grand finale sees Isobel, played by the luminous Yvonne Furneaux, who has been revealed as the dead spit of Ananka, communicating with Kharis in English – how on Earth could that have happened?!

But never mind. It is, nevertheless, a fun romp, enhanced in this Blu-ray release by a wealth of special features, including a documentary about Hammer’s occupation of Bray Studios, populated by many of the backroom staff who helped breathe life into its most famous films.

Sarah Morgan( Writer )

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

You do not have any posts.