mummy | Monster Zone

Prem, the mummified manservant of Pharaoh Kah-To-Bey, is brought back to life in the Cairo Museum by the Bedouin Hasmid (Roger Delgado, who’d go on to play ‘The Master’ in many series of DOCTOR WHO), who chants a sacred oath on a shroud. The mummy then goes on a rampage, killing the members of the team of archaeologists who had discovered the lost tomb of Kah-To-Bey.

The third Hammer mummy-out-for-vengeance movie is passable, with regular character actor Michael Ripper given a decent supporting role as the obsequious Longbarrow. This was the last of Hammer’s mummy films to actually feature a bandaged mummy (the next movie would focus on the shapely form of Valerie Leon) – though it’s certainly the least effective mummy costume of the lot, with wicker-like wrappings around its forearms and an especially cheap-looking face mask.

Jeeeez... this close-up model of the mummy opening its eyes ain't very good! — Jeeeez… this close-up model of the mummy opening its eyes ain’t very good!

However, what this mummy lacks in looks it makes up with brutality: murdering victims via strangulation, head-crushing, tossing them from windows, bashing a head into a wall and even throwing photographic acid into a character’s face. Nasty!

André (THE GIANT BEHEMOTH) Morell delivers a decent performance, as he always does, and the finale features the axe-wielding mummy finally crumbling to dust, but this cheap production dwells too long on a lengthy prologue set in Ancient Egypt and fails to reach the stylish heights of Hammer’s original THE MUMMY (1959).

Axe-wielding mummy! I repeat: axe-wielding mummy!

The film has a decent crumbling-to-dust scene — The film has a decent crumbling-to-dust sequence

John Gilling, who directed and co-wrote THE MUMMY’S SHROUD, also made the far better Hammer movies THE REPTILE and THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES.

The mummy chillin' in his sarcophagus — The mummy chillin’ in his sarcophagus

"I predict you will become a popular villain in Doctor Who..." — “I predict you will become a popular villain on Doctor Who…”

After the mummy of Ra-Antef is discovered in 1900 by three Egyptologists (Ronald Howard, Jack Gwillim and Bernard Rebel), all the mummy’s artefacts are taken to London by the expedition’s backer – brash American showman Alexander King (Fred Clark) – who intends to exploit the discovery as a travelling road show.

The mummy, of course, comes back to life and starts killing off various members of the expedition. Meanwhile, Annette, the daughter of one of the Egyptologists, finally discovers the mysterious origin of rich arts patron Adam Beauchamp (Terence Morgan)…

...lurking in the sewer — …lurking in the sewer

THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB was directed by Michael Carreras, who also wrote it under the pseudonym ‘Henry Younger’, and was originally released in a double bill with THE GORGON. It was the second of Hammer’s four Mummy movies.

You'd have the same expression if a big-boned mummy was looming over you! — You’d have the same expression if a big-boned mummy was looming over you!

If only the mummy was as huge as it is depicted in this poster!

This Hammer yarn features a rather chunky mummy (played by stunt man Dickie Owen) that comes back to life fairly late in the movie. I prefer the lithe, mud-caked look of Christopher Lee’s mummy in 1959’s THE MUMMY, but this is a colourful, watchable production with Michael Ripper as Achmed, a cool scene where a bunch of coppers with a net take on the mummy, a plot twist concerning an immortal character and a finale set in the sewers.

A rather stout mummy... — A rather stout mummy…

The film has a preoccupation with hand-severing, featuring three different scenes of hands getting cut off. At one point there’s a flashback where we see the Egyptian prince (who will become the mummy) getting his hand chopped off. Now, surely this would mean that the roaming mummy in this movie should have a stump? Or was the hand reattached to Ra-Antef when he was mummified, perhaps?

The second hand-lopping seen in the film

Yet another hand gets chopped off in the film!

Definitely not a classic Hammer film, this production passes the time, however, and does boast a lively performance by Fred Clark as the showy, profit-obsessed Alexander King.