The Mummy (1959)

 The Mummy (1959)

From the mid 1950's-the 1970's Hammer Film Productions released a series of films featuring the famous monsters popularized by Universal in the 1930's-1940's.  These films were more violent upping the blood, gore, and graphic nudity that was lacking from their more atmospheric Universal Pictures predecessors.   These films featured a new generation of horror film legends such as Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee.   

In 1959, Hammer Film Productions released The Mummy, directed by Terence Fisher, with a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster.  The film was produced by Hammer, and distributed by Rank Film Distributors (UK), and Universal-International (International).  This like all of the Hammer horror films was made in the UK, where Hammy Film Productions was located.  The Mummy was both a box office and critical success, receiving generally positive reviews from the critics, and to this day still holds a high score on online film review sites.

The Mummy stars Peter Cushing as John Banning, Yvonne Furneaux plays both his wife Isobel Banning as the Princess Ananka, Felix Aylmer plays his father Stephen Banning, and Raymond Huntley plays his uncle Joseph Whemple.  Christopher Lee plays Kharis/The Mummy, George Pastell plays Mehemet Bey who controls the Mummy, and Eddie Byrne plays Inspector Mulrooney.   

The Mummy isn't exactly original at all, matter of fact if you have watched the entire Universal The Mummy franchise, then watching this film will really feel a bit like a colourized recap of the franchise.  I don't think originality is necessary in the case of this film, because what it does is stays faithful to the classic Universal films in both tone and plot.   To say that it is unoriginal is not to insult the greatness of this film, because it is a great effective classic monster film.  My biggest complaint with this film is definitely the pacing, it feels like the film is incredibly slow and long, even though it is only 88 minutes in length.   I feel like the pacing is what makes me not as drawn to this film, as I am to the classic Universal films, I feel like picking up the pace a bit would have made this a much greater film, and much more enjoyable.

If you have not yet seen this film, I do highly recommend it, it is a great version of The Mummy with, some great classic horror actors in their prime.  I don't know if this is really a must-see, maybe if you have not seen The Mummy franchise in its entirety from Universal, then I think that this might come across as a more fun film, but for me being a huge fan of the classic Universal films, it really just felt like a rerun and it lost some magic with me.  Definitely worth watching, an effective classic monster movie, but definitely doesn't rank among my top films by any means.  Great film in all, but the pacing being slower than pouring frozen honey, I kept finding my mind wandering.   Definitely has a place in every horror movie collectors library, though just not one that I will return to as often as others.