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"Don't you think I've had enough excitement for one evening
without the additional thrill of a strange man making love to
me?"
In 1921,
and archeological expedition unearths the mummy of Im-ho-tep,
an Egyptian who was buried alive for the sacrilege of trying
to bring his beloved princess Ancksenemen back to life by
reading the spell from the scroll of Toth. (which was buried
with him). When one of the archeologists translates the scroll
and reads it aloud, he inadvertently brings the mummy back
to life.
Ten years
later Im-ho-tep, no calling himself Ardath Bey, shows up at
another dig and leads the archeologists (one of whom is Frank
Whemple, the son of the leader of the first expedition) to
the tomb of the princess, in hopes that once she's been unearthed,
he can bring her back to life. But there are more complications.
Once the proceeds of the archeological dig have been transported
back to Cairo, Frank falls in love with a beautiful Egyptian
woman, Helen Grosvenor. Unfortunately, it just so happens
that she is the reincarnation of the princess Anck-es-en-Amon,
and Ardath Bey sets out to win her soul and destroy his opponents.
The Mummy
is more than just a brooding, atmospheric horror movie, filled
with moody mysticism: it's a story of love that not only spans
the centuries, it reaches out beyond the grave. It contains
some astonishingly sophisticated camera work (director Freund
had been a cinematographer), and truly effective lighting
and settings.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
The picture
is an improvement over the LD incarnation (or reincarnation,
in this case). A superior print appears to have been used
for this edition, with surprisingly few blips and blotches.
However, it does show signs of its age: there is some occasional
overlaid mottling, and at least one place late in the film
there is a prominent, thin white vertical line down the screen,
but only for about a minute. But given the age of the film,
it is in surprisingly good shape. A side by side comparison
with the LD was startling: the picture on the DVD, though
a bit darker, is very natural and made the LD look overly
bright and overly sharp in comparison. One thing, though:
the aforementioned sophisticated camera work poses some problems
of its own, particularly where the camera swoops over the
heads of the actors and then down into a smokey pool. The
idea was more sophisticated than the equipment, and the camera
is quite noticeably shaky. This shakiness is not a defect
on the disc.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
The two
channel mono doesn't fare nearly as well. Although relatively
free of the pops and hisses of the LD, there is a heaviness
to the sound on the DVD as if it was recorded with treble
and bass radically out of balance (the treble too low, the
bass way too high). The nearest I can come to describing it
is to have you imagine watching a movie with blankets draped
over your speakers. Really a shame.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? There are
some nice extras, starting with a new half-hour documentary
called "Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition" (ha ha),
which was quite interesting. There are bios and filmographies
for most of the cast and director Karl Freund, and production
notes that unfortunately do little more than repeat information
from the documentary. The cast bios are interesting, but someone
really should tell Universal that David Manners died almost
a year ago.
Also included
is a set of still photos and lobby cards that are presented
in a way that I found very appealing. Instead of having you
advance step by step through them, they play out one after
the other at a leisurely pace accompanied by music from the
film. Additionally there is the original theatrical trailer,
and a feature length commentary by film historian Paul M.
Jensen.
Parting Thoughts
This is
really a hard one for me. The extras are plentiful (if repetitious),
but I still think $29.95 is steep for a film in this condition.
With all of Universal's boasting about the importance of this
film, I would much rather they spent less time and money on
supplements and more on a first class restoration, particularly
the sound. After all, bells and whistles are nice, but the
movie is the important thing.
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