Mummy, The - 1932
William Henry Pratt or Boris Karloff as he is better known is most certainly the star of this 1932 Mummy Movie, Steve Peto takes a look at this classic film to see how it measures up today.
The Mummy 1932:
It is 1921 and a group of archaeologists from the British Museum are cataloguing the finds of a recently exposed tomb of the High Priest Im-ho-tep (Boris Karloff), one of the party reads from a scroll which brings back Im-ho-tep’s Mummy to life, the man goes mad and Im-ho-tep walks out into the night with the scroll that brings the dead back to life.
Ten years later and there is another team from the British Museum, they with the help of a stranger called Ardeth Bay (Boris Karloff) find the tomb of Ankh-es-en-Amon (Zita Johann). Ardeth Bay which is the Pseudonym of the Mummy that escaped ten years previously has directed the team to the tomb so that once uncovered he may resurrect the body of the woman he loved, however when he discovers that Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann) a local socialite is Ankh-es-en-Amon reincarnated he wants to use the scroll to merge the soul of the mummified princess with Helen so that they may rekindle their love. The only people around to try and thwart him are Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan) and the man who falls for Helen, Frank Whemple (David Manners).
I always knew that the 1999 movie starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz was in some ways a remake of the 1932 film starring Boris Karloff and having seen some stills of Karloff in that fantastic make-up I had decided that I must get to watch the film, so when it came through the letter box the other day I was eager to put it in the DVD player.
Come the credits I was actually in two minds, I felt guilty in some ways because I felt that it was not as good as I had hoped it would be, but at the same time I recognised that the film did have some great elements within it, those elements mainly revolving around Karloff who did look extremely creepy. But even with the excellent makeup that Jack Pierce created the film is very tame by today’s standards, so much so that I would not say it was a horror movie at all, more a love story with some suspense. In fact when listening to the extras and hearing that the director had shown quite some restraint in the film I totally agreed, and actually think that too much restraint was shown especially finding out how long Karloff took to get into his make up and what was actually shown on screen.
I have also read that the film is a masterpiece because the director Karl Freund who was a cinematographer on other horror film knew how to use the camera and lighting to breathe suspense into the scenes, and whilst there is some good camera work and some excellent mood invoking lighting there are also a few scenes were you can visibly see the camera shake, this is particularly apparent when Ardeth Bay is in the museum trying to resurrect the mummy, the camera pans to where he is behind her sarcophagus and the camera movement is extremely jerky.
But with the negatives aside there are positives to the movie. Karloff is superb. We never really see him much as the Mummy, but as Ardeth Bay his slow movements and the make-up that makes him look really old is phenomenal, he really raises the picture well above the level of how the film would have turned out if he had not been in it. And the unusual looking Zita Johann is great in her duel role as princess Ankh-es-en-Amon and Helen Grosvenor. She was a dramatic actress of the time and really gets into her role. And although there is a lack of real horror in the film there is bucket loads of suspense. In fact to only real acting that lets the film down (for me) is that of David Manners who plays Frank Whemple, he seems particularly over the top even for an old movie like this where over the top was more the norm than it is today, and his part as the love of Helen Grosvenor seem to have been put in more as a plot mechanic.
The 1999 film does indeed share the basic story to this 1932 version, the princesses name has been changed slightly as was the reason behind her death, but the main change is the Ardeth bay character. In the 1999 film he is played by Oded Fehr and he is part of a tribe that try to ensure that the mummy is never resurrected, where as in this 1932 Ardeth Bay is essentially the Mummy, who is trying to bring his princess back to life.
Picture:
Oh dear, you would have thought that if Universal truly thought that this was a classic film then they would have spend a fair bit of cash in tidying up the picture, lots of grain, damaged frames, flickering contrast and blacks sometimes so dark they lose detail. There is no “restoration” extra on the disc so I have no idea how bad the original material was so perhaps this was the best they could do
Sound:
Mono sound track was sufficient, there are never really any loud noises and the dialogue rarely gets above normal speech level so there is nothing there that is going to even remotely test your speakers in any way, shape or form.
The Extras
Mummy Dearest:
Coming in at just under 30 minutes and hosted by Rudy Behlmer, we delve deeper into the making of this film as well as looking at some of the other horror films of the time. We are told additional information about Boris Karlof and Zita Johann whom are the two main stars of the production. Interestingly we discover that the director Karl Freund had an intense dislike to Zita, and expressed that hatred by initially simple method such as not providing her with a chair with her name on it, all the way through to making her act a scene with un-tethered lions, a scene that never even made it to the final cut of the film. This was an interesting extra, that went outside of the bounds of the actual film.
Commentary
A modern commentary on the 1932 version of the film. A film historian called Paul M. Iensen gives us the commentary and whilst there is some nice information throughout that draws our attention to certain aspects the whole commentary is delivered in a fairly stiff, monotone way.
Posters and Stills:
A scrolling series of posters stills taken from the film, runs for about 6 minutes.
Trailer:
A single trailer for the film.
Disc 2:
He who made monsters: The life and art of Jack Pierce:
Jack Pierce was the guy who created the fantastic make-up that Boris Karloff wore in the Mummy, however this was not his first outing in creating some fantastic characters. He also created Frankenstein, Wolf-Man and Bride of Frankenstein amongst others. This documentary is about him and his work. I found it an endearing extra to watch. Around 24 minutes in length.
Unravelling the legacy of the Mummy:
A 7 and a half minute look into the history of mummy movies. Including a look at the newer version of the film starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.
Universal Horror:
Narrated by Kenneth Brannagh we get a 93 minute long documentary about the history of universal studios. A great extra that really gives you a look into the studio and the early films that they produced.
Overall:
The 2 discs are pretty good in terms of bonus materials and the film that we get although I feel that there are issues with the quality of the restoration, but as I say I am not sure of the state of the original material. The film is very light on horror and is more of a suspense film, regardless of this Boris Karloff was undoubtedly the star of the feature, at the price you can get this for I have to recommend.
This page has been read:
4647
times