Review of The Mummy (1959) by Joe B — 30 Mar 2008

You won't believe how hard I worked to see this movie (it took three tries from Netflix before I got a disc that actually worked, and the last time still required me to scrub the disc before my player would recognize it).

I'm still a Hammer newbie, but The Mummy is one of my favorite Universal monster films, so I thought this might be a good place to start. I love Lee's characterization of the titular role, and Cushing is, as usual, a fine nemesis to ol' Christopher's embodiment of evil.

But the colors looked garish, the dialogue struck me as stilted, and the sets looked like... well, sets. I never believed that I was anywhere other than on a soundstage. The ending is satisfying, but I still haven't seen the "jaw dropping on the floor" Hammer movie I eventually hope to find.