The Mummy (1932) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Dracula showed what a curse love can be and if you didn’t pick up on it then, you would for The Mummy. 


PLOT


The 1932 film follows retired archaeologist Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) uncover the tomb of an accent Egyptian high priest Imhotep. When his friend Doctor Muller notices his viscera wasn’t removed, it implies he was buried alive. He and his assistant Ralph Norton (Bramwell Fletcher) then find a scroll, Scroll of Thoth, that they recklessly translate which only resurrects the mummy who leaves with the same scroll. 10 years later, he has assimilated into society as historian Ardath Bey. He meets Joseph’s son Frank and Professor Pearson (Leonard Mudie) to show them the tomb of Princess Ankh-es-en-Amen. When finding its treasures in Cairo Museum, he disappears. The professor does remember however that Norton went insane after seeing the mummy come to life, but went insane and died as no one believed him. Bey then meets Helen Grosvenor who resembles the princess and is currently staying with Muller. As he falls for her, so does Frank but when it is discovered Bey and Imhotep are one and the same, he hypnotizes Joseph’s servant to bring the scroll to him before Frank can destroy it. He then hypnotizes Helen who brings her to him, explaining he was killed for sacrilege and hopes to resurrect the princess, believing she is her reincarnated. The way he intends to convert her to be an immortal bride is to kill, mummify, and then resurrect her. Frank & Muller do reach the mummy’s home to intervene, but are immobilized again by his power. When Helen remembers her ancestral past, her prayers to Isis are able to free the servant who flees in terror and her statue destroys sets the scroll on fire. As this causes Imhotep to crumble to dust, the film ends with Helen being successfully called by Frank back to the world of the living.


THOUGHTS


With all the monsters I’ve seen from the Universal Monsters catalog, it’s quite impressive to see how The Mummy comes off as most grounded. Director Karl Freund who had helmed Dracula the year before, knew he had to make a big difference in how different in forms of terror monsters can be. The idea of mummies are quite scary on their own because they’re real, but there is no proof of them coming back to life a vampire would. So seeing one return just to regain long lost love is quite intimidating. And personally, I think these are the best costumes compared to the rest of the catalog of the Dark Universe because it truly felt like walking into the biggest time warp that was ancient Egypt. Boris Karloff, who had previously played Frankenstein’s Monster, summons a different batch of intimidation because he’s not aiming for the goal of conquest, he just wants to regain something he believes he deserves and chooses to be as manipulative & cunning you expect from antagonists like Dracula. The fact he was buried alive in the first place does imply he didn’t really deserve to be with the princess. In fact, he never explains his love per se and says he does, proving he only loves the idea of her. The fact that he was sealed away in a cruel tradition also tells us the audience the consequence of neglecting any kind of problem and not dealing with it logically/properly. Luckily, there were protagonists that knew better than him you don’t take something because you think it belongs to you. While Edward van Sloan made Muller liable for being fairly skeptic, it’s really David Manners that keeps the excitement going because albeit being an adventurous figure following his father’s footsteps, he’s still a self aware guy who knew when and what to do once he knew what he was up against. Ironically, the unsung hero of this story is the damsel who saves herself. Zita Johann was awesome as Helen because she had her own independence before encountering Imhotep. The fact she prayed for her ancestor’s help proved how far she was willing to be true to herself. It’s right as rain when saying she’s a good match with Frank because they both get that and I don’t doubt they’ll an adventurous life together after defeating such evil. In short, The Mummy is a classic monster mash for being the most unconventional in terms of terror. If you want a dip of fiction to get under your skin, see this now.