This German silent film is not about mummies, so the title is misleading. In German it is DIE AUGEN DER MUMIE MA, which translated is THE EYES OF THE MUMMY MA, Ma being the name of a girl who is alive and very much not a mummy. The story begins in Egypt early in the 20th century. An unscrupulous Egyptian rogue has kidnapped an Egyptian girl whom he saw fetching water from the Nile. His name is Radu and he is played by Emil Jannings. The girl is called Ma and is played by Pola Negri. The director of the film was Ernst Lubitsch. All three of them had been making films for four years and were highly experienced. So one might have thought with their talent and experience the film would be good, but it isn't. Jannings take Negri to live in the ruins of an Egyptian temple, where they are camping in a rudimentary fashion, which in fact ordinary people had been doing for thousands of years. Radu has discovered a trick he and Negri can play to get money out of tourists. There is a concealed door leading to an inner chamber, which has a face carved in it, with two eye holes. He gets Negri to stand behind it when he brings a tourist in, she looks through the eye holes and moves her eyes and he tells the tourist that those are 'the eyes of the mummy'; hence the film's title. I watched this film with German titles only, and as they were visible only briefly, just for seconds in fact, I did not manage to grasp all of the dialogue, but it was not really necessary, because the story is so obvious and, frankly, banal. There were two German men, one being Herr Wendtland, played by Harry Liedtke, who is bewitched by Pola Negri and manages to abduct and 'save' her, and takes her back to Germany with him. This is very unconvincing because Pola Negri in this film at least is very far from being bewitching, and in fact I cannot imagine anybody getting excited about her in any way, but then tastes change, and she was popular then. The other man is an older German named Prince Hohenfels, played by Max Laurence. Radu manages to make his way to Europe and there finds Negri and tries to take her back. It is only then that we realize he has had a hypnotic Svengali-like power over her. So the question arises, will his spell be strong enough to reclaim her, or will Wendtland be able to save her? This film is mediocre and does no credit to the reputations of Lubitsch, Negri, Jannings, or the others.
Review of The Eyes of the Mummy
