Review of The Mummy (1959) by Paul S — 22 Jun 2005

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee team up again. Although the score is not by James Bernard, it is perfect. Terence Fisher directs, of course, and the script is by Jimmy Sangster, this time with some help.

This film borrows the best elements from each of the Universal films and blends them into one superior film. Peter Cushing is John Banning, an archeologist and the son of another archeologist, Steve Banning. John's dad loses his crackers after discovering the tomb of an egyptian princess. Ten years later, the old man is murdered in the asylum where he was sent. Shortly after, the Bannings' associate Joseph Whemple is also murdered, but this time John sees the killer; the undead avenger, Kharis, the living mummy. Unable to convince the police that the legends are true, John must take matters into his own hands. By the way, for those who don't know, Christopher Lee plays Kharis.

Once again, I enjoyed this film more than Horror Of Dracula, and almost as much as The Curse Of Frankenstein. It's a shame that all of the other mummy movies by Hammer are so bad. Maybe it's because they got this first one so right that they knew they could never equal it.