Meanwhile, in Cairo, lofty socialite Helen Grosvenor (Johann) feels a frisson of something mystical whilst at a party with Muller. As he mutters the incantation, the crumbling corpse of Imhotep flickers into life and silently crosses the tomb to retrieve the sacred scroll, leaving Norton a half-crazed laughing madman.įast-forward eleven years to ‘present day’, where Whemple’s son and heir Frank (Manners) is on the verge of packing up his expedition when he receives a visitation from wizened Egyptian Ardath Bey (Karloff), who leads him to the buried tomb of Princess Anck-es-en-Amon. He opens the casket and finds the Scroll of Thoth, the life-giving parchment by which Isis raised Osiris from the dead. The curse’s mettle is soon tested as Whemple discusses the stern moral issues with Dr Muller (Van Sloan), assistant Ralph Norton (Fletcher), left alone with the booty, can’t resist a good old plunder. In the name of Amon-Ra, the King of the Gods”.Īs Imhotep’s alter-ego, Ardath Bey, Karloff gives what is undoubtedly one of his finest performances, in The Mummy (Universal 1932) Buried with the mummy is an ancient box bearing the awful prophetic warning, “Death – eternal punishment for anyone who opens this casket. The action begins in 1921, just north of the Valley of the Kings, where Egyptologist Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) has made the discovery of a lifetime the tomb of the high priest of the Temple of the Sun at Karnak, Imhotep (Karloff). A competent cast including Edward Van Sloan, Bramwell Fletcher, Zita Johann and David Manners help to infuse this inspired story of Egyptian mysticism with as much life as the titular character itself. Karloff in a classic but short-lived moment as the title character in The Mummy (Universal 1932)ĭue in no small measure to the visionary brilliance of director Karl Freund, The Mummy remains a masterpiece of cinema even today. In this most gruelling of all the Jack Pierce make-ups he would wear, the star spent eight hours being wrapped in claustrophobic bandages before being caked in fuller’s earth. Turning to the much-publicised curse of the boy king Tutankhamen, young Carl commissioned a treatment from Nina Wilcox Putnam and Richard Schayer which would eventually end up as The Mummy.īeginning life as Cagliostro, a story of pseudo-scientific Egyptian alchemy, the story which progressed through The King of the Dead to Im-Ho-Tep under the pen of John L Balderston was not given its immortal title of The Mummy until half-way through shooting.Īlready their A-lister monster, Karloff was billed by surname only as ‘Karloff the Uncanny’ and took on the ‘dual’ role of the bandaged, mummified priest Imhotep and his more urbane incarnation Ardath Bey. His shiny new horror duo had both moved on to successful follow-ups in the genre, Lugosi Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) and Karloff The Old Dark House (1932), but their roles had been wayward misfits rather than staples of horror lore. Some stills survive and Henry Victor still gets credit as "The Saxon Warrior".The resounding success of both Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931) was a natural catalyst to encourage Junior Laemmle to invoke another prime time monster.
![the order the mummy movies 1932 the order the mummy movies 1932](https://midnitereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/The-Mummy-1932-4.jpg)
Sadly, Universal cut the flashback short before the mummy had a chance to tell about chasing the re-incarnated princess throughout time. Finally, the flashback scene is one of the best, done in "silent film" style with music and Karloff supplying a morbid voiceover. No, he just reaches out with his mind, killing people from miles away.
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![the order the mummy movies 1932 the order the mummy movies 1932](https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/0b6f8271-b5c8-4d8c-846f-ff22a1728c1d.eddee0df80596bf74abcefadbd6fe5c2.jpeg)
Never does the mummy stroll up to someone, working them into a corner to strangle them. Employing the "less is more" theory of film-making, he keeps the mummy a very mysterious and deadly creature. Karl Freund, the director, was one of Germany's finest cameramen and this was his first film as a director. Without fancy effects or CGI, without an $80,000,000 budget, with little more than dry-looking make-up, a doleful stare, and that wonderful, lisping voice, Karloff created a monster that will endure long after the rental copies of the remake have shed their metal oxide coatings. Having recently seen the 1999 remake, I realized just how powerful Karloff's portrayal of Imhotep/Ardath Bey truly is.