The pairing of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee is one of the great success stories of British cinema – perhaps our equivalent of the box office dynamite of the on-screen chemistry between Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff during the Golden Age of Hollywood some decades earlier. Their contribution to the long-running and prolific Hammer Film Productions was not inconsiderable, and their names on the credits bring with them a certain expectation as well as a comforting familiarity for audiences.
Back in 1959, they starred together in one of the most highly-revered Hammer horror productions in their long and illustrious history, ‘The Mummy’. The title, along with 1974’s ‘Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell‘, from the dying days of the franchise, are about to receive limited edition Blu-ray treatment from Second Sight Films. The titles will be released with a host of extra features and packaged in a card slipcase. They include a booklet with comprehensive essays about the making of the movies embellished by publicity photographs, as well as a set of five colour production stills including Graham Humphreys’ striking cover art printed on high-quality card.
‘The Mummy’ is from the early days of Hammer’s success and features many of its most iconic ingredients, including a host of talented British character actors, a period setting and a classic monster borrowed from Victorian Gothic fiction. It plays on the nation’s long-standing interest in Egyptology that followed Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.
Peter Cushing plays archeologist John Banning. Along with his father and uncle, he discovers and opens the tomb of Princess Ananka who served the god Karnak. Unbeknown to any of them, Ananka was buried along with her high priest Kharis, who was entombed alive for violating her grave. Fiercely loyal to the princess he loved, Kharis will protect her, even from beyond the grave after one of the archeologists accidentally awakens him. When a modern day worshipper of Karnak brings Kharis’ mummified remains back to England to exact a revenge for violating the tomb, those involved in the expedition find themselves in mortal danger from the stalking and super-strong bandage-clad horror. Only the chance resemblance of Banning’s wife to Princess Ananka stands between them and a gruesome death.
Running to eighty-five minutes, the story of ‘The Mummy’ is told at breakneck speed even for cinema of the era. Peter Cushing is one of those actors who had monumental talent, though seldom the opportunity to star in something worthy enough to fully test his ability. Hammer films must be taken for what they are – highly entertaining Gothic horror films – but their construction is often mechanical. An actor of Cushing’s calibre makes even expositional lines of dialogue believable and interesting. The ‘showier’ part certainly belongs to Christopher Lee, who is large, tall and menacing in grimy bandages. We see him without the extravagant make-up and costume job in flashback sequences, as the events that led up to Kharis’ fate are retold. As his tongue is cut out, Lee is left with few lines of dialogue, but his silent screen presence is nevertheless memorable. Yvonne Furneaux has a duel-role of Banning’s wife Isobel as well as Princess Ananka. She distinguishes between the two with consummate skill, and is equally credible as an Egyptian princess and a loyal Victorian wife. An actress with a fascinating career, only a year later she would appear in Fellini’s most lauded work, ‘La Dolce Vita’.
Among the rest of the cast you will find familiar actors with celebrated résumés. Playing Peter Cushing’s father is veteran actor Felix Aylmer, who had played Polonius in Laurence Olivier’s Oscar-winning 1948 film version of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. In ‘The Mummy’, Aylmer gets to play mad and has a memorable final scene. The modern day Egyptian worshipper of Karnak is George Pastell, a Cypriot actor who appeared in a lot of classic British television and film, notably in the James Bond movie ‘From Russian With Love’ and as the villainous Eric Klieg in the Patrick Troughton ‘Doctor Who’ classic ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’. Hammer regular Michael Ripper also has a small role as a poacher. There is an experience of sheer joy in watching a cast as legendary as these actors assemble for a Hammer production of considerable panache. There are so many classic moments there are too many to mention, but Cushing protecting himself from Lee in his office using whatever weapons he can find to hand before he is cornered and throttled is brilliantly tense. It is surely the part that terrified contemporary viewers the most.
‘The Mummy’ is undoubtedly up there with the all-time best of the Hammer Film Productions. All of their titles were shot quickly and on a limited budget. None of the stars were paid a fortune. Yet what they achieved in terms of quality entertainment is almost miraculous, and ‘The Mummy’ stands up today as a thoroughly entertaining horror film with more than its share of classic sequences. Terence Fisher’s direction is light of touch but thoughtful, and with a view for keeping the pace high. The set design is excellent (if one is willing to suspend disbelief over Twentieth Century wardrobe handles on MDF sheets representing the doors of Princess Ananka’s tomb) and, along with the costumes, it captures the period setting with an unerring eye for detail.
This release by Second Sight Films presents ‘The Mummy’ in high definition Blu-ray, but this is the ultimate collector’s edition, coming with a whole host of extra features. There is the choice between watching the film in original UK theatrical ratio 1.66:1 or in full-frame 1.37:1. There is a new audio commentary with academic Kelly Robinson as well as archive commentary by Marcus Hearn and Jonathan Rigby. No fewer than five featurettes give viewers plenty of insights into the making of the film and its historical significance, especially in its relationship to other Hammer Film Productions. All of it is encased in limited edition card slipcase and comes with a forty-eight page colour booklet and five lobby art production stills reproduced on card. This is a must-have for all Hammer fans. Over six decades since its original release, it’s time for ‘The Mummy’ to be torn from the tomb to terrify the world all over again!
Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux, Felix Aylmer, Raymond Huntley, George Pastell, Michael Ripper Director: Terence Fisher Writer: Jimmy Sangster Certificate: 15 Duration: 85 mins Released by: Second Sight Films Release date: 29th August 2022 Buy ‘The Mummy’
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