The Mummy (1932 film)
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| Directed by | Karl Freund |
| Produced by | Carl Laemmle Jr. |
| Written by | John L. Balderston |
| Starring | Boris Karloff Zita Johann David Manners Edward van Sloan |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  December 22, 1932 |
| Running time | 73 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | The Mummy's Hand (1940) |
The Mummy is a 1932 horror classic from Universal Pictures directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff as a revived ancient Egyptian priest. The movie also features Zita Johann, David Manners and Edward van Sloan.
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Plot
An Ancient Egyptian priest called Imhotep is revived when an archaeological expedition finds Imhotep's mummy and one of the archaeologists accidentally reads an ancient life-giving spell. Imhotep escapes from the archaeologists and prowls Cairo seeking the reincarnation of the soul of his ancient lover, Princess Ankh-es-en-amon. Imhotep was once mummified alive for attempting to resurrect her, and, upon finding her reincarnated, attempts to mummify her and make her his bride. In the end, she is saved when she remembers her past life and prays to the goddess Isis to save her. The young woman utters a prayer and the scroll containing the resurrection spell is burned, and Imhotep dissolved.
Cast
- Boris Karloff as Imhotep/Ardath Bey
- Zita Johann as Helen Grosvenor/Princess Ankh-es-en-amon
- David Manners as Frank Whemple
- Arthur Byron as Sir Joseph Whemple
- Edward Van Sloan as Doctor Muller
- Bramwell Fletcher as Ralph Norton
- Noble Johnson as the Nubian
- Kathryn Byron as Frau Muller
- Leonard Mudie as Professor Pearson
- James Crane as the Pharoh
- Henry Victor as the Saxon Warrior
Production
Inspired by the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and the Curse of the Pharaohs, producer Carl Laemmle Jr. commissioned story editor Richard Shayer to find a literary novel to form a basis for an Egyptian-themed horror film, just as Dracula and Frankenstein informed their previous hits. Shayer found none, but he and writer Nina Wilox Putnam learned about Alessandro Cagliostro and wrote a nine-page treatment entitled Cagliostro. The story, set in San Francisco, was about a 3000-year old magician who survives by injecting nitrates. Laemmle was pleased, and he hired John L. Balderston to write the script. Balderston contributed to Dracula and Frankenstein, and had covered the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb for New York World when he was a journalist. He moved the story to Egypt and renamed the film and its title character Imhotep, after the historical architect.[1]
Karl Freund, the cinematographer on Dracula, was hired to direct two days before filming. The film was retitled The Mummy. He cast Zita Johann, who believed in reincarnation. Filming was scheduled for three weeks. Karloff's first day was spent shooting the Mummy's awakening from his sarcophagus. Make-up artist Jack Pierce began transforming Karloff at 11:00 am, applying cotton, collodion and spirit gum to his face; clay to his hair; and wrapping him in linen bandages treated with acid and burnt in an oven. Pierce had studied photos of Seti II's mummy to design Imhotep, and finished the job at 7:00 pm. Karloff finished his scenes at 2:00 am, and another two hours were spent removing the make-up. Karloff found the removal of gum from his face painful, and overall found the day "the most trying ordeal I [had] ever endured".[1]
A lengthy and detailed flashback sequence was filmed but ultimately cut out of the film. This sequence showed the various forms Anck-es-en-Amon was reincarnated over the centuries. Stills exist of the flashbacks, but complete footage has yet to be found.[citation needed]
Sequels and remakes
Unlike Frankenstein and Dracula, and other, later Universal horror films, this film had no sequels, but rather was semi-remade in the 1940's b-film The Mummy's Hand (1940), and its sequels, The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), The Mummy's Curse (1944), which were later spoofed in 1950's Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. These focus on the mummy Kharis.
In the late 1950s British Hammer Film Productions took up the Mummy theme, beginning with The Mummy (1959), which, rather than being a remake of the 1932 Karloff film, is based on Universal's The Mummy's Hand (1940) and The Mummy's Tomb (1942). Hammer's follow-ups — The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964), The Mummy's Shroud (1966) and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) — are unrelated to the earlier film or to each other.
The 1999 film The Mummy also suggests that it is a remake of the 1932 movie, and may be considered as such in that its titular character is Imhotep, resurrected from the dead by the Scroll of Thoth and out to find the present-day embodiment of the soul of his beloved Anck-su-namun, but develops there from a different story line, in common with most postmodern remakes of classic horror and science-fiction films. It spawned a sequel in 2001, The Mummy Returns, and a spin-off of that sequel, The Scorpion King, in 2002. A third sequel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, was released in 2008.
See also
References
External links
- The Mummy at the Internet Movie Database
- The Mummy at Allmovie
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