Okay,
This is Hammer's bandage-wrapped version of THE TERMINATOR, with a British Hammer-sixties budget.And I'm prepared to bet that a pre-teen viewing of this movie (and others) was part of the cocktail that led horror movie fans/turned directors like James Cameron into making the bigger budget versions.(Right down to the new MUMMY movies).
There are horror movie/Mummy movie fans who have been disappointed with the movie. I'm the first to admit that there are certain problems with it - particularly that bloody long prologue, and the flashback high-school play Egyptian scenario.
But as a long-term fan, and anonymous supernatural/thriller author of international standing - let me tell you that I've argued this movie at length with an author of the same standing.
He hates it - I LOVE it.
Let me tell you why.
There's a RELENTLESNESS to the Mummy attacks in this picture that are truly scary. That blank, unemotional mask of a face just seems to make the violence - when it happens - utterly terrible. (The mask was based on a real Mummy, in the British Museum. All credit to the Costume Designer. I've been there, seen the Mummy. Same face. Visitors to the Museum - make your way to the Egyptian section. There it is, under glass.)
When The Mummy is summoned - Don Banks' superb music creates a real sense of anxiety when you see its shadow stalking the streets, on its way to the next victim. And when it attacks, we're treated to what I've always loved about Hammer: Full-on physical confrontations and fights. This is a NASTY Mummy!
Special mention to a sequence where it attacks a victim, knocks him to the ground and grabs a big jar of acid, deliberately crushing it over him - in the knowledge that it's own long dead and mummified hands won't be affected - and then it strides away UTTERLY unemotionally, leaving the guy writhing and screaming. Who then CATCHES FIRE, as it leaves.
Nasty, nasty, nasty.
A previous reviewer refers to the serious playing of the cast as a bonus, and I couldn't agree more.
And yes, Michael Ripper finally gets a chance after years of working for Hammer to finally register EMOTIONALLY as a character. Throughout, he's treated terribly by the John Phillips character, but puts up with it. When the Mummy appears to kill him, it's quite upsetting.
Yes, he was present when the tomb was opened, on his bosses instructions. But that's all. And - in his bedroom -when he kneals on and breaks his spectacles, reaching his lowest miserable ebb, the Mummy appears - killing him horribly for his 'transgression'.
There's a terrible SADNESS in that killing.
And lastly, the best part of the picture.
The final confrontation with the Mummy. A great hands-on fight in a Museum, with the hero brandishing an axe (hey, what's an axe in the neck to THIS mummy?)and the heroine desperately enancting the 'Words of Death' from The Mummy's Shroud - leading to a great SFX sequence of The Mummy crumbling to pieces
Wish there was a way I could make this review appear first in the listings. But hey, if you perservered - amd made your way down here - take my word for it. You won't be disappointed.
Geisterzug
This is Hammer's bandage-wrapped version of THE TERMINATOR, with a British Hammer-sixties budget.And I'm prepared to bet that a pre-teen viewing of this movie (and others) was part of the cocktail that led horror movie fans/turned directors like James Cameron into making the bigger budget versions.(Right down to the new MUMMY movies).
There are horror movie/Mummy movie fans who have been disappointed with the movie. I'm the first to admit that there are certain problems with it - particularly that bloody long prologue, and the flashback high-school play Egyptian scenario.
But as a long-term fan, and anonymous supernatural/thriller author of international standing - let me tell you that I've argued this movie at length with an author of the same standing.
He hates it - I LOVE it.
Let me tell you why.
There's a RELENTLESNESS to the Mummy attacks in this picture that are truly scary. That blank, unemotional mask of a face just seems to make the violence - when it happens - utterly terrible. (The mask was based on a real Mummy, in the British Museum. All credit to the Costume Designer. I've been there, seen the Mummy. Same face. Visitors to the Museum - make your way to the Egyptian section. There it is, under glass.)
When The Mummy is summoned - Don Banks' superb music creates a real sense of anxiety when you see its shadow stalking the streets, on its way to the next victim. And when it attacks, we're treated to what I've always loved about Hammer: Full-on physical confrontations and fights. This is a NASTY Mummy!
Special mention to a sequence where it attacks a victim, knocks him to the ground and grabs a big jar of acid, deliberately crushing it over him - in the knowledge that it's own long dead and mummified hands won't be affected - and then it strides away UTTERLY unemotionally, leaving the guy writhing and screaming. Who then CATCHES FIRE, as it leaves.
Nasty, nasty, nasty.
A previous reviewer refers to the serious playing of the cast as a bonus, and I couldn't agree more.
And yes, Michael Ripper finally gets a chance after years of working for Hammer to finally register EMOTIONALLY as a character. Throughout, he's treated terribly by the John Phillips character, but puts up with it. When the Mummy appears to kill him, it's quite upsetting.
Yes, he was present when the tomb was opened, on his bosses instructions. But that's all. And - in his bedroom -when he kneals on and breaks his spectacles, reaching his lowest miserable ebb, the Mummy appears - killing him horribly for his 'transgression'.
There's a terrible SADNESS in that killing.
And lastly, the best part of the picture.
The final confrontation with the Mummy. A great hands-on fight in a Museum, with the hero brandishing an axe (hey, what's an axe in the neck to THIS mummy?)and the heroine desperately enancting the 'Words of Death' from The Mummy's Shroud - leading to a great SFX sequence of The Mummy crumbling to pieces
Wish there was a way I could make this review appear first in the listings. But hey, if you perservered - amd made your way down here - take my word for it. You won't be disappointed.
Geisterzug