31 Days of Horror Reviews 2018: The Mummy (1932)

Inspired by the discovery of King Tut’s tomb and the “curse” connected with it, Universal’s The Mummy stands out as one of the studio’s most unique film in it’s early Horror line up.

REVIEW

After growing up with the Brendan Fraser movies and witnessing the train wreck that is the Tom Cruise one, the original classic feels like an oasis in the desert. It has great acting, impressive sets, beautiful lighting and for 1932, an original idea. The story is about a resurrected priest named Imhotep who tries to resurrect the soul of his love, Princess Anck-es-en-amon, who has been reincarnated into a modern woman. A lot of the ideas and even names that were in this film would later be used in the Brendan Fraser and, by extension, Tom Cruise movies.

This film represents a lot of firsts for the Universal Classic Monsters; it was the first film to use a musical score whereas the last two films had none. It was their first film that didn’t originally exist as a book like Dracula and Frankenstein. It was the first movie that dealt with something topical and the first to have Boris Karloff speak.

Speaking of Karloff, he is absolutely amazing in this film. His tall stature and intense gaze makes him command every scene. Like Bela Lugosi, Karloff has this slow hypnotic voice that draws you in. His slow movements contradict the times he just appears in the scenes adding to the supernatural sense of the character.

One of the best scenes is when Imhotep comes back to life. It’s so slow and unnerving because the archaeologist doesn’t see what’s happening behind him. This unfortunate victim isn’t strangled to death by the mummy, but instead driven mad at the sight of him moving and grabbing the scroll of Thoth. What is absolutely unnerving about it is the laughter the archaeologist has upon seeing the mummy, it starts out small then builds up to full blown maniacal. This was 1932 and vocal direction still wasn’t perfected, so this was quite a small achievement.

Jack Pierce who did the make up for the Monster in Frankenstein returns for this film and really outdid himself. Karloff looks like an actual mummy, but the drawback was that it was so heavy that Karloff could barely move in it. That’s why he doesn’t appear in bandages for the rest of the movie and the make up is more lighter.

It runs about the same time as Frankenstein, yet it there is so much packed into it that it feels like a standard 90 minute film and has a clear 3 Act Structure. The Mummy is a well made film because it learned from the mistakes and successes of the previous films and smoothed out the rough edges. It’s become one of my favorite classics.