Cheap The Mummy - The Legacy Collection (The Mummy/Mummy's Hand/Mummy's Tomb/Mummy's Ghost/Mummy's Curse) (DVD) (Christy Cabanne, Harold Young, Leslie Goodwins) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Mummy - The Legacy Collection (The Mummy/Mummy's Hand/Mummy's Tomb/Mummy's Ghost/Mummy's Curse)

He went for a little walk....75 years ago. And he's still walking.
By 1932, Universal had established itself as Hollywood's premiere house of horror with films like Dracula and the cinematic masterpiece Frankenstein. So, on December 22nd, The Mummy was released to waiting public. Featuring the studio's biggest name, Boris Karloff, The Mummy also reunited veteran actor Edward Van Sloan and David Manners in Universal's latest monster outing, along with Dracula cinematographer Karl Freund, now in the director's chair. <
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>The movie opens at the end of the British Museum's Egyptian expedition of 1921, where renowned archeologist Sir Joseph Whemple, played by Arthur Byron, and his team have unearthed a 3,700 year old mummy along with a large box buried with it. Upon consulting his friend Dr Muller, played by Edward Van Sloan in a similar manner to his role as Dracula's Van Helsing, an expert in the occult, Sir Joseph learns that the mummy, having been identified as Imhotep, a high priest in the Pharaoh's service, was buried alive, presumably for crimes of sacrilege. The mummy is inadvertently resurrected by Sir Joseph's over-eager assistant, played by Bramwell Fletcher, who instantly goes mad at the sight of a 3,700 year old corpse walking away with the Scroll of Thoth, on which the spell that brought him back to life was written. <
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>We flash forward to the British Museum's Egyptian expedition of 1932, where Sir Joseph's son, Frank Whemple, played by David Manners in the same dorky, love-struck schoolboy performance he gave in Dracula, is just preparing to wrap up the year's tour when a strange, heavily wrinkled and very tall Egyptian man, Ardath Bey, played in a superbly deadpan, yet eerie manner by the master, Boris Karloff, bring him a piece of pottery that he claims to have come from the undisturbed tomb of the princess Anck es en Amon, which has been lost for 3,700 years. Frank jumps at the chance to bring something sensational back, so he puts his crew to work digging where Ardath Bey tells him to, and recovers the princess and all the personal effects buried with her. Due to a contract with the Cairo Museum, the entire find must be turned over to the Egyptians for display there. <
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>Meanwhile, Dr. Muller has returned to Egypt with a patient of his, Helen Grosvenor, played in a very dramatic performance by Hungarian Zita Johann. After the museum closes, Ardath Bey is found mumbling a strange incantation next to the body of the princess, which Helen hears all the way across town, causing her to fall into a trance. She blindly heads for the museum where Sir Joseph and Frank see her trying to get in after the museum is closed. When she collapses at Frank's feet, they take her to their house for medical attention, where they are met by Dr. Muller. Sir Joseph and Dr. Muller retreat to the study where Sir Joseph tells the doctor that Helen has been mumbling the name Imhotep. He is alarmed by this, since no one other than the three men who dug the mummy up have ever heard the name. Two of the men being Sir Joseph and the Dr. Muller, and the third man being dead. While the two colleagues are in the study, Ardath Bey comes to the house on previous invitation from Sir Joseph to find that Helen was at the museum earlier. After Dr. Muller questions Ardath Bey, he determines that Ardath Bey and Imhotep are the same person, and it is the undead priest's intention to kill Helen, whom he believes is Anck es en Amon reincarnated, and revive the long dead princess's soul in Helen's body. <
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>The basic story behind The Mummy was not one of evil, but one of sadness. Anck es en Amon had died, leaving her lover, the high priest Imhotep, heartbroken and grief stricken. His plan to read the forbidden text and resurrect her was not out of evil, but out of love. He only wanted a life with the woman he loved, but was buried alive for his crimes and his coffin desecrated so he would be condemned in the after-life as well. In his own words, "No man has ever suffered as I have for you." And it was true. <
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>Eight years later, in 1940, the Mummy was dug up again. This time there were no Scrolls or powerful undead priests. The entire story was begun anew, with Imhotep being replaced by the mummy Kharis, kept alive for 3,000 years by the Priests of Karnak with tana leaf fluid. The Priests of Karnak were led by the high priest Professor Andoheb, played, in a strong creepy performance, by George Zucco, who was also director of Egyptology at the Cairo Museum. The sole purpose of the Priests of Karnak was to guard the tomb of the princess Ananka, who had died in a similar manner as Anck es en Amon in the 1932 classic. In a flashback at the beginning of the movie, it is explained that Kharis was in love with Ananka, just as Imhotep was with Anck es en Amon and tried to raise her from the dead with tana leaves instead of an ancient scroll. Scenes in the flashback were directly cannibalized from the first film, with close ups of Boris Karloff replaced with shots of stuntman Tom Tyler, who plodded along as Kharis, killing all who dared enter Ananka's tomb. <
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>Americans Steve Banning and Babe Jenson, played by Dick Foran and Wallace Ford respectively, stumbled across the legend and, hoping for a sensational find to bring back to New York, enlisted the financial aid of American magician The Great Solvani, played by Cecil Kelloway, to unearth the princess's tomb. Solvani's daughter Marta, played by Peggy Moran, was none too happy about her father giving all their money to two strangers and insisted on going with them. <
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>After the group found the tomb of Kharis, Prof. Andoheb revived the mummy and from then on, Kharis was little more than a supernatural hit man, killing where ever he found tana fluid, placed by the professor's lackey, known only as the beggar. Kharis kidnaps Marta, whom Andoheb tries to make immortal along with himself, but is foiled by Steve and Babe. <
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>In addition to the star of the feature being little more than a priest's enforcer, none of the other performances were all that great. Foran played the standard 1940's tough guy, Ford played the lovable, if goofy sidekick and Moran played the formulaic damsel in distress. There were scared locals who believed in the curse and in the end, the good guys won. This was probably one of the first examples of a studio throwing money into visual effects instead of good acting. The set used for the tomb was very elaborate and Tom Tyler's eyes were blacked out frame by frame to give Kharis a more horrifying look. But when you have a cookie-cutter script, and half decent acting at best, you can only go so far. The Mummy's Hand didn't have a very far reach. <
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>After the dismal venture of the Mummy's Hand, two years later in 1942, The Mummy's Tomb was opened. This one picked up where Hand left off with mostly the same characters played by the same people, with the exception of Kharis, now played by Universal's new golden boy Lon Chaney Jr., fresh off the Wolf Man. The Mummy's Tomb even ripped off the Wolf Man's opening music. Good to see they put time and effort into this one. <
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>Tomb starts out with a much older Steve Banning, reprised by Dick Foran, recounting the story of the last movie to his older sister Jane, played by Mary Gordon, his grown son John, Played by John Hubbard, and John's fiancee Isabel, played by Elyse Knox, in their Massachusetts home. Twelve minutes into the hour long movie, we see some new material with George Zucco reprising, however briefly, his role as Andoheb, passing the mantle of high priest on to Mehemet Bey, played by Turhan Bey, and instructing him to take Kharis to America and kill all the surviving members of the group that took Ananka's mummy back to New York in the last film. Kharis is once again a glorified hit man, and the high priest sets his sights on the film's heroine and plans to make her immortal, along with himself, to stop the Banning bloodline. Wallace Ford returns for a time as Babe Hanson, renamed from Babe Jenson from the last film. Glad to see the production crew was concerned with continuity here. The story of Tomb goes pretty much the same as Hand. The only difference in the tow movies, acting wise, is Lon Chaney Jr. He isn't given much in the way of projecting his character since the mummy is pretty much a secondary villain, but his shuffling gait is a little lass animated than Tom Tyler's was, making Kharis more believable as being an undead creature. The production quality here was almost nonexistent, with the film stealing the Wolf Man's music, and scenes from Hand as well as angry mob scenes from Frankenstein. I wonder if anybody besides Chaney put any effort into this picture at all. The main cast was just as dull as the previous movie, mostly because, with few exceptions, they were the same people. One good point was a very well done, spooky cemetery set. The Mummy's Tomb should have stayed buried. <
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>In 1944, continuing the reign of foolishness, The Mummy's Ghost came to haunt us. And not in the good way. This time the priests of Arkhan, not Karnak, send new leader Yousef Bey, played by John Carradine, to America to find Kharis and return to Egypt with him and the body of Ananka. George Zucco simply can't die, because he's back again as the high priest who passes the mantle of leadership on to Yousef Bey. Does ANYBODY care about continuity at all? <
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>Yousef Bey arrives in Mapleton Massachusetts and finds Kharis, or rather Kharis finds him, after the priest boils tana leaves in the woods. His first victim is local university teacher, Professor Norman, played by Frank Reicher, who was the town coroner in the last film. In his class is Tom Hervey, played by Robert Lowery, who is dating an Egyptian girl named Amina, played by a very lovely Ramsay Ames. Everything happens as it did in the first two movies, except this time Ananka's soul is reborn in Amina who, Yousef Bey intends to make immortal along with himself, but this time it is Kharis who stops him, carrying Amina's rapidly aging body into the swamp where it is presumed the both perished. <
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>Same story as before. The acting was terrible, they ripped of the Wolf Man's music again, apparently, no one could be bothered to watch the previous two films for continuity, and it was the same story with different players. I really didn't like the ending, since they couldn't save the girl. The Mummy's Ghost should have stayed dead. <
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>Alas, the very same year, 1944, The Mummy's Curse was unleashed on fright fans. This one really was a curse. <
>Somehow, Both Kharis and Ananka were relocated from Massachusetts to THE BAYOU! How that happened is anyone's guess. A group of local Cajun workers are working to develop the swamp where the mummies are buried, and the foreman, Pat Walsh, played by Addison Richards, isn't having any nonsense about mummies slow down his work. He is visited by a man named Halsey, played by Dennis Moore, and his assistant Ilzor, played by Peter Coe, from the Scripps Museum to recover and bring back the two mummies if he can. Walsh's secretary, who is also his niece Betty, played by Kay Harding, is quite taken with Halsey and, while on a date, they find a young woman lying by the road and bring her back to camp. The woman is the princess Ananka, having woken from the swamp and wandered the countryside. The girl has a case of amnesia, and can't remember who she is, but she does know a great deal about the legend of Kharis, though even she isn't sure how. In addition to being Halsey's assistant, Ilzor is also this movie's high priest. He has an underling in the form of Ragheb, played by a mildly sinister Martin Kosleck, who becomes enamored with Betty. This time the priests are planning to bring the two mummies back to Egypt to be re-entombed in the Valley of the Seven Jackals. Kharis is sent to find the princess and he does, while Ragheb sets his sights on Betty. All the bad guys die, all the good guys live and that's it for the mummy franchise. Even Chaney didn't care enough about this piece of junk to really get into it. The rest of the acting was as bad as the other three Kharis movies. The Mummy's Curse really was a curse. <
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>As is often the case, the first film is the best. The rest of them were blatant attempts to cash in on a proven thing, but were all done so badly, it's a wonder they made any money at all. There's an interesting documentary, Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed, on the first disc the tells a lot of interesting facts about the original Karloff movie, and mentions the other four out of politeness. So, with one tale of eternal tragedy and suffering, and four poorly made do-overs, the Mummy set is still worth a buy if you're a fan of old classic Universal horror, or Boris Karloff, who conveyed such suffering as he proved that true love lasts forever. So do living mummies.

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The Mummy (1932)
NOTE: This is only a review of the first original film. <
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>Directed by German cinematographer Freund, who lensed Lang's "Metropolis," this eerie, dread-inducing monster movie was a triumph for all involved in the 1932 production, and remains totally absorbing today. Karloff had become a sensation with "Frankenstein" the year before, and his role as Im-Ho-Tep merely solidified the lisping English actor's fame. Bringing pathos and humanity to his portrayal of the undead cleric, Karloff is mesmerizing throughout--especially in an unforgettably horrifying flashback scene--and striking stage actress Johann holds her own as his slinky object of desire. Made by the same team as "Dracula," this brilliant horror flick has aged as well as its titular character.

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A great collection
I love these old Universal Classic Horror movies, Frankenstein being my number one pick, followed by The Mummy and Creature from the Black Lagoon, but I love them all. The Mummy is a favorite because he was featured in so many movies, some great B-movie material. The Mummy's Hand was a great sequel and probably the most fun. I dont see how anyone can think it was bad. But again I saw that before I did the original mummy when I was six years old. Great stuff people, you will enjoy it.