Review: Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb

In the early 1900s, American businessman Fred Clark finances an expedition to Egypt where the tomb of a pharaoh is uncovered. Clark, being shameless, plans to show off the finding across the globe and make millions. Unfortunately, something gets lost before Clark can do that. Namely that the damn mummy disappears. Then members of the expedition party start turning up rather dead. Ronald Howard and Jack Gwillim play Egyptologists, with Jeanne Roland playing Howard’s fiancé. Hammer good luck charm Michael Ripper is uncomfortably cast as an Egyptian servant named Achmed, whilst George Pastell plays an Egyptian official who is totally not going to side with the mummy. Terence Morgan turns up as a rich guy crucial to the plot at some point.

 

One of the lowest points in Hammer Films history, this stuffy 1964 mummy film was written and directed by Hammer producer Michael Carreras. Carreras also directed the mostly dull “Maniac”, and partially directed “Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb” (which is terrific) as well as “Shatter” (which is not). There’s a couple of lively turns by Fred Clark and George Pastell, but the rest of the cast is a dud here. Particularly awful is Jeanne Roland, who simply can’t act a lick. Even the normally reliable Jack Gwillim is boring. The film really needed a Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, or even a Patrick Allen in there I think. By far the best thing here is the score by Carlo Martelli who really tries to give this thing a pulse to little avail. It’s a dusty, ancient relic of a film. There’s a nice severed hand at one point but the real highlight here – if there is any – is a scene where the mummy emerges through a window and smashes a bloke’s head with a wine bottle until dead. The mummy suit is pretty decent, I will admit. Otherwise, this one was a chore and a bore.

 

Good-looking but stuffy and stiff with the music, and colourful performances by Fred Clark and George Patell not nearly good enough to save it.

 

Rating: D+

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more