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I recommend this film made in black and white which was made about 90 years ago and is still a capturing story. It is well worth watching. The picture is a bit grainy in places but not bad considering the age of the material. Special effects are good for the era. Boris Karloff is superb as the Mummy.
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Classic black and white horror
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The monsters unleashed by Universal Pictures across the screens of America in the 1930s left an indelible impression on the American psyche that will never be forgotten, and The Mummy stands among the most memorable of all those classic monster movies. Boris Karloff simply is The Mummy, defining the role for all generations to come. Don't think he's just sleepwalking around in bandages, either; no, while he may be the prototypical mummy, he is not the hunk of animated flesh that his successors all seemed to turn into. Karloff in fact gives an impressive dramatic performance in this role. The action begins in 1922, when British Egyptologists Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan) and Dr. Whemple (Arthur Byron) make a potentially incredible discovery underneath the sands of Egypt. They soon identify a mummy they have recovered intact as Imhotep, but they know this is no ordinary mummy because he was not embalmed, there is evidence of his having struggled within his all-encompassing bandages, and the blessings designed to protect his voyage to the afterlife were removed before he was buried. Along with Imhotep the explorers find an intriguing box, one that carries a dire message for those who would open it. While Dr. Muller tries to convince Dr. Whemple to heed the curse and leave the box unopened, their younger associate gives in to his temptation, discovers a scroll inside, and reads from it. Hereby is Imhotep brought back to life, and the mummy shuffles off into the desert. There is no news of Imhotep for years, and Dr. Whemple returns home vowing never to return or to speak of what he knows. Ten years later, though, his son (with a little help from a mysterious Egyptian named Ardath Bey) makes a fabulous find of his own underneath the sands, the grave and mummy of the Egyptian princess Anckesen-Amon, and so the elder Egyptologist returns to Egypt. As luck would have it, the young Dr. Whemple falls in love with Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann) a half-Egyptian girl who turns out to have a strong connection to the newly discovered mummified princess who, it turns out, just so happens to have been the object of Imhotep's love and sacrifice. The mummy, completely human in appearance now, works to raise his love from the dead with the aid of the Scroll of Thoth, and it is up to young Dr. Whemple and Dr. Muller to safeguard Helen from a fate seemingly ordained millennia ago. The most interesting thing about this movie is the fact that the mummy only appears in the traditional, caricatured apparel of rotting old bandages at the very beginning, after which point he takes the form of a man – an eccentric one with captivatingly powerful eyes and supernatural powers, but a man nonetheless. After a spooky beginning, the movie eventually takes a detour into romance and melodrama and never fully recovers its steam. While Karloff could appear quite menacing and malevolent, he is hardly the stuff nightmares are made of. I think the story is a little weak in the last stages, but this is still a five-star film based on its fame, its immense influence on the genre, and its overall quality; for a film from 1932, this print is simply amazing in both its audio and visual quality. And, though I need not say this again, Boris Karloff gives a subtle, captivating performance as Imhotep.Read full review
Excellent Hammer Horror film.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned