The Mummy (1932)

Film: The Mummy (1932)
Stars: Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward van Sloan, Bramwell Fletcher
Director: Karl Freund
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

We are double-dipping today with our classic monster movies (like most of my blog projects, real life got in the way a bit of me actually accomplishing some of these, but my hope is we'll have at least one review a day until Halloween so it will have maintained its marathon-esque size).  For our evening article, we're going with one of the more intriguing Universal Movies' monsters: the Mummy.  The Karloff creation weirdly never had any proper sequels, instead being reimagined with 1940's The Mummy's Hand, and despite mummies themselves being high on the list of traditional monsters, it's one of the lesser-known of the "Big 8" Universal Horror monsters.  As a result, I knew the least about this film of all of the major monster movies we're going to encounter in our marathon, and was excited to see Boris Karloff in a role that wasn't Frankenstein.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film centers around the unearthing of an Egyptian tomb (the public was still very much in awe of the unveiling of the tomb of King Tut a decade earlier, so this played well into the general audience's fascination).  The movie begins on an expedition that is run by Dr. Edward Whimple (van Sloan, who was also in Dracula and Frankenstein, making him the Unofficial Mascot of TMROJ this month, plays this role, essentially the same one he had in Dracula).  He discovers that the mummy Imhotep (Karloff) was not mummified at all, but instead buried alive.  After his assistant Ralph (Fletcher) opens a cursed box (going mad in the process), Imhotep is brought back to life and we are quickly transitioned to ten years later.  Imhotep is now living as a regular man with an odd skin condition (Karloff's casting as an Egyptian is, well, not great by modern expectations), and believes that a young woman named Helen (Johann) is in fact the reincarnation of the princess he loved and was murdered for so many years earlier.  Helen is in love with Frank (Manners), who is like so many (honorable) men in these films a handsome dolt, but manages to save her from the curse that Imhotep puts her under in order to resurrect her as his bride.  The film ends with the scroll that brought Imhotep back to life being burned, thus sentencing him to actual death rather than his mummified stupor.

The film is striking in that the monster here is a well-spoken, smart man.  The only similarity Imhotep has with Frankenstein's monster is they both lumber around, but otherwise Karloff's posh British accent and deep bass is on full display here, and he's mesmerizing as Imhotep, by far the best part of the movie.  The film is at its absolute best when we're seduced by his plan, and the cameraman knows just how to light him.  There's a recurring effect (seen in the photo) of Karloff's eyes being lit up and staring off as he's using his magic to either seduce or kill, and it works.  The movie's center is strong, as we learn his backstory, and it's a darn shame that the film cut the sequence with Henry Victor as a Saxon Warrior (who proves that Helen has, indeed, lived through multiple lifetimes between the present and her time as a princess), as this was the best part of the movie.

Because while this is another monster film I enjoyed, it's diminishing returns when it comes to the supporting cast.  There's no moral message here in the same way as Frankenstein or Creature from the Black Lagoon, and while Karloff is terrific, no supporting player is saving this picture and Johann & Manners as the other legs of the triangle aren't really up-to-snuff.  Manners is terrible, falling in love at the drop of a hat and it seems preposterous that someone so dumb could stop Imhotep's 3000-year-old plan while Johann's only real goal here is to look beautiful, which she does...but shouldn't we demand more from women in these films?  One of the bigger issues I'm starting to have watching these back-to-back is that I want to see better parts for women, but I suspect that like even modern horror (save for Laurie Strode), there just aren't that many fleshed-out roles for the ladies of these films (at least with male directors behind the scenes).  As a result, this is fine but hardly special and I see why it gets lower-billing on the Universal Studios' scale.

This Month We Are Seeing As Many Classic Horror Movies from the Pre-1970 Era as Possible.  If you want to check out some of our past reviews, here they are:

Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, Mad Love, Son of Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon