Director: Terence Fisher
Writer: Jimmy Sangster
Stars: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux
1 Hour, 28 Minutes
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Starts in 1895, on an archaeological dig in Egypt. They find a badge of the Karnik Guards, so they know they’re getting close to their goal. John’s leg is broken, and the others want him to go to town to see the doctor or it may not set correctly. John’s father, Dr. Banning, has been searching for decades for this tomb.
The man in the fez insists that they stop digging. He insists they are all in great danger. “He who robs the graves of Egypt, dies!”
They go in and find some bones. They look closer and find the royal seal of Ananka. They open the door and find an undisturbed treasure room. Joseph goes to tell John, while Bannon finds the Scroll of Life. The door closes behind him, and the men outside hear a scream. Banning is alive, but babbling like an insane man.
We skip ahead a few weeks, and John’s leg is mostly healed. The doctors think Banning’s madness is permanent. John has plundered all the treasure and intends to blow up the the tomb with dynamite (That’s standard archaeological practice, right?).
The Fez man swears to his gods that he will get revenge on the men. He has the Scroll of Life.
Three years later, back in London, John goes to see his father in the nursing home. The elder Banning wants to talk about the mummy he brought to life when he read the scroll. The words of the scroll woke it up, and “now it will kill all of us! Someone has found the scroll, and the mummy will be released again!”
We see two drunks talking about carrying in some strange relics for a foreigner in a fez. They get in the wagon and head up the road. Is it legal to drink and drive a horse-drawn cart? Old Bannon seems to sense the Mummy is on the move. The drunks crash their cart and the “box of Egyptian relics” is dropped into the local swamp near the nursing home.
Later that night, Fez man prays to Karnak and reads again from the scroll of life. The Mummy rises from the swamp, ready to destroy those who desecrated the tomb of their long-dead queen.
Banning has been locked up in a padded cell. The mummy homes in on him easily and pulls the bars off the window. He moves pretty fast for a dead man and kills Banning easily.
John reads the book of Ananka to his uncle. We see a flashback of Kharis, the priest and chief follower of Ananka. He prepared Ananka for mummification and burial. The procession entered the tomb and then they killed all the slaves to keep the location a secret. That night, Kharis broke the seal and entered the tomb alone and in secret. He had been having an affair with the queen. Kharis opened the sarcophagus and read from the Scroll of the Life to bring her back. Just then, the other priests come in and they cut his tongue out and bury him alive in a special tomb.
Meanwhile, the Fez man send Kharis out to kill another desecrator. A poacher sees him and tells the other villagers. Kharis breaks in the door and kills John’s uncle. John shoots it several times on the way out.
John then explains the whole story about what happened three years ago in Egypt to the Inspector, except this time we see Kharis in the tomb awaken and attack Banning. We also see Fez-man steal the Scroll. John explains that he’s probably the next to be killed.
And he’s right. The Egyptian sends Kharis out for the third and final assassination.
John notices that his wife, Isobel, looks exactly like Ananka. The Mummy breaks in and John shoots him again, then runs him through with a spear. The Mummy grabs John and is about to kill him when Isobel runs in and shouts for the Mummy to stop. Kharis, seeing “Ananka,” stops and obeys her.
John tracks the Mummy and the Egyptian to the big house on the hill. Kharis is upset and almost doesn’t listen to the Egyptian; the Egyptian doesn’t realize John is still alive. Not only that, but then John rings the doorbell and introduces himself to the Egyptian. The Egyptian wants to discuss the difference between archaeology and grave robbing. John starts insulting the third-rate god Karnak, and it’s now clear that the two are having a very civilized battle of wits.
John leaves, and the Egyptian is furious. He wakes up Kharis and heads for John’s house. He attacks John again, and again, Isobel orders him to stop. The Egyptian orders Kharis to kill her, and he turns on the Egyptian, essentially cracking him in half over his knee. He then lumbers out, carrying Isobel to the swamp. Isobel wakes up, and he releases her. Just then, all the cops in the county shoot Kharis, causing him to fall into the bottomless swamp along with the scroll.
Commentary
“Frankenstein in rags”
This all looks expensive and detailed. The scenes with the burial practice and procession were pretty elaborate, and the props alone looked quite expensive. The Mummy makeup and costume looked excellent, but quite different from the Universal mummy. You can still make out Christopher Lee under there.
The plot wasn’t close to the original Mummy movie, but does have similarities to some of the later Universal Mummy movies.