ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - December 22nd
"THE MUMMY" released in 1932
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An ancient Egyptian priest called Imhotep (Boris Karloff) is revived when an archaeological expedition in 1921, led by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron), finds Imhotep's mummy. Imhotep had been mummified alive for attempting to resurrect his forbidden lover, the princess Ankh-es-en-amon. Whemple's friend, Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan) inspects the mummy and exclaims "The viscera were not removed. The usual scar made by the embalmers knife is not there." Sir Joseph Wimple responds, "I guessed as much." Muller then deduces that Imhotep was buried alive for sacrilege. Despite Muller's warning, Sir Joseph's assistant Ralph Norton (Bramwell Fletcher) reads aloud an ancient life-giving scroll – the Scroll of Thoth. Imhotep escapes from the archaeologists, taking the Scroll of Thoth, and prowls Cairo seeking the modern reincarnation of Ankh-es-en-amon.
10 years later, Imhotep is masquerading as a modern Egyptian named Ardath Bey. He calls upon Sir Joseph's son, Frank (David Manners) and Prof. Pearson (Leonard Mudie). He shows them where to dig to find Ankh-es-en-amon's tomb. The archaeologists find the tomb, give the mummy and the treasures to the Cairo Museum, and thank Ardath Bey for the information.
Imhotep encounters Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann), a woman bearing a striking resemblance to the Princess. Believing her to be Ankh-es-en-amon's reincarnation, he attempts to kill her, with the intention of mummifying her, resurrecting her, and making her his bride. She is saved when she remembers her past life and prays to the goddess Isis to save her. The statue of Isis raises its arm and emits a beam of light that sets the Scroll of Thoth on fire. This breaks the spell that had given Imhotep his immortality, causing him to age rapidly and then crumble to dust. At the urging of Dr. Muller, Frank calls Helen back to the world of the living while the Scroll of Thoth continues to burn.
10 years later, Imhotep is masquerading as a modern Egyptian named Ardath Bey. He calls upon Sir Joseph's son, Frank (David Manners) and Prof. Pearson (Leonard Mudie). He shows them where to dig to find Ankh-es-en-amon's tomb. The archaeologists find the tomb, give the mummy and the treasures to the Cairo Museum, and thank Ardath Bey for the information.
Imhotep encounters Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann), a woman bearing a striking resemblance to the Princess. Believing her to be Ankh-es-en-amon's reincarnation, he attempts to kill her, with the intention of mummifying her, resurrecting her, and making her his bride. She is saved when she remembers her past life and prays to the goddess Isis to save her. The statue of Isis raises its arm and emits a beam of light that sets the Scroll of Thoth on fire. This breaks the spell that had given Imhotep his immortality, causing him to age rapidly and then crumble to dust. At the urging of Dr. Muller, Frank calls Helen back to the world of the living while the Scroll of Thoth continues to burn.
Doctor Muller: Look - the sacred spells which protect the soul in its journey to the underworld have been chipped off the coffin. So Imhotep was sentenced to death not only in this world, but in the next.
Assistant: Maybe he got too gay with the vestal virgins in the temple.
Doctor Muller: Possibly.
Top: The immortal villain Imhotep (Boris Karloff);
Above: Egyptologist Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) with his assistant
Ralph Norton (Bramwell Fletcher)
Ralph Norton (Bramwell Fletcher)
Inspired by the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and the Curse of the Pharaohs, producer Carl Laemmle Jr. commissioned story editor Richard Schayer to find a literary novel to form a basis for an Egyptian-themed horror film, just as the novels Dracula and Frankenstein informed their 1931 films Dracula and Frankenstein. Schayer eventually found none, but were inspired by another figure from histort, famed occultist Alessandro Cagliostro, and wrote a nine-page treatment with writer Nina Wilcox Putnam entitled Cagliostro - set in San Francisco, the story was about a 3,000-year-old magician who survives by injecting nitrates instead of via supernatural cause like with Imhotep's case. Laemmle was pleased with these ideas, and he hired John L. Balderston to write the script (having contributed to the screenplays for Dracula and Frankenstein). Ironically, Balderston, a history enthusiast, was actually present at the opening of Pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb as a foreign correspondent for New York World, and was inspired him to change the setting and plot of the film to feature an Egyptian mummy.
Karl Freund, the cinematographer on Dracula, was hired to direct, making this his first film in the United States as a director, with Universal casting it's latest star Boris Karloff as the title character, Imhotep. Cast as Imhotep's long lost love, Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon, was contract star Zita Johann. Having already garnered a reputation for being a "difficult" actress during her tenure at both MGM and RKO, Universal later signed Johann to star in Laughing Boy (based on the 1929 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Oliver La Farge). However, when no suitable leading man could be found (even with Johann ironically suggesting Humphrey Bogart for the part!), the film went into turnaround, with Johann still owing Universal a picture - she agreed to fulfill her contractual obligation with The Mummy.
Karl Freund, the cinematographer on Dracula, was hired to direct, making this his first film in the United States as a director, with Universal casting it's latest star Boris Karloff as the title character, Imhotep. Cast as Imhotep's long lost love, Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon, was contract star Zita Johann. Having already garnered a reputation for being a "difficult" actress during her tenure at both MGM and RKO, Universal later signed Johann to star in Laughing Boy (based on the 1929 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Oliver La Farge). However, when no suitable leading man could be found (even with Johann ironically suggesting Humphrey Bogart for the part!), the film went into turnaround, with Johann still owing Universal a picture - she agreed to fulfill her contractual obligation with The Mummy.
Sir Joseph Whemple: [translating inscription on box] "Death... eternal punishment... for... anyone... who... opens... this... casket. In the name... of Amon-Ra... the king of the gods." Good heavens, what a terrible curse!
Ralph Norton: [eagerly] Well, let's see what's inside!
Top: The reincarnation of Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon, Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann);
Above: Helen's love interest, the dashing Frank Whemple (David Manners)
Throughout the film's production, there was great tension between Johann and director Freund, who disliked each other immensely. According to Johann, on the first day of filming Freund attempted to portray her to the producers as a temperamental actress who was very hard to work with. Johann further recalled Freund's treatment of her years later, stating, Karl Freund made life very unpleasant. It was his first picture as a director, and he felt he needed a scapegoat in case he didn't come in on schedule, 23 days, I believe. Well I was cast as the scapegoat--and I saw through it right away! Before shooting started, I asked Freund and his wife over for dinner. He told me for one scene, I would have to appear nude from the waist up. He expected me to say, 'The hell I will!' Instead I said, 'Well, it's all right with me if you can get it past the censors'--knowing very well that the censors of that time were very strict. So, I had him there." Freund would put his actress through numerous other indignities however, including putting Johann in an arena with lions while he and the crew were protected inside cages - the scene was eventually cut from the film - and for two days he had her stand against a board so there wouldn't be a crease in her dress!
Make-up artist Jack Pierce had studied photos of Seti I's mummy to design Imhotep; however, Karloff looked nothing like the mummy of Seti I in the film, instead bearing a resemblance to the mummy of Ramesses III. Pierce began transforming Karloff at 11 a.m., applying cotton, collodion and spirit gum to his face; clay to his hair; and wrapping him in linen bandages treated with acid and burnt in an oven, finishing the job at 7 p.m. Karloff finished his scenes at 2 a.m., and another two hours were spent removing the make-up. Karloff found the removal of gum from his face painful, and overall found the day "the most trying ordeal I [had] ever endured". In fact, so many layers of cotton were glued to Karloff's face to create the wrinkled visage of Imhotep as a mummy that he was unable to move his facial muscles enough even to speak. But most importantly, Karloff once stated to Pierce about his work on The Mummy, "Well, you've done a wonderful job... but you forgot to give me a fly!"
Make-up artist Jack Pierce had studied photos of Seti I's mummy to design Imhotep; however, Karloff looked nothing like the mummy of Seti I in the film, instead bearing a resemblance to the mummy of Ramesses III. Pierce began transforming Karloff at 11 a.m., applying cotton, collodion and spirit gum to his face; clay to his hair; and wrapping him in linen bandages treated with acid and burnt in an oven, finishing the job at 7 p.m. Karloff finished his scenes at 2 a.m., and another two hours were spent removing the make-up. Karloff found the removal of gum from his face painful, and overall found the day "the most trying ordeal I [had] ever endured". In fact, so many layers of cotton were glued to Karloff's face to create the wrinkled visage of Imhotep as a mummy that he was unable to move his facial muscles enough even to speak. But most importantly, Karloff once stated to Pierce about his work on The Mummy, "Well, you've done a wonderful job... but you forgot to give me a fly!"
Above: The Mummy captures Helen, planning to mummify her, resurrect her, and making her his bride!
A lengthy and detailed flashback sequence showing the various forms Anck-es-en-Amon was reincarnated in over the centuries, was cut down considerably in editing, a move that upset Johann who (being a firm believer in the occult, reincarnation, and the ability to communicate with the dead) believed the longer sequence was crucial to the story of the film. Later when Johann declined to have her option picked up by Universal because of the unpleasantness during filming, her billing was demoted from co-star to the top of the supporting players. Karloff, who was virtually unknown when he appeared as the creature in Frankenstein, created such a sensation that when this was made, only a year later, Universal only had to advertise "KARLOFF . . . 'The Mummy'."
Despite the difficulties, The Mummy was another huge success in Universal's emerging Monster franchise. Dave Kehr for the Chicago Reader reviewed The Mummy in 2007, calling the film a "creditable 1932 entry in the Universal horror cycle. The drama may be clumsy, but Freund's lighting is a wonder. The charmingly egregious Boris Karloff stars, with support from Zita Johann, a first-rate actress who never really made it in the movies, thanks mainly to roles like this one." Unlike Frankenstein and Dracula, and other Universal horror films, this film had no official sequels, but rather was semi-remade in The Mummy's Hand (1940); and its sequels: The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), and The Mummy's Curse (1944). These were later followed up in the spoof Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). These films focus on the mummy named Kharis. The Mummy's Hand recycled footage from the original film for use in the telling of Kharis' origins; Karloff is clearly visible in several of these recycled scenes, but he is not credited.
Despite the difficulties, The Mummy was another huge success in Universal's emerging Monster franchise. Dave Kehr for the Chicago Reader reviewed The Mummy in 2007, calling the film a "creditable 1932 entry in the Universal horror cycle. The drama may be clumsy, but Freund's lighting is a wonder. The charmingly egregious Boris Karloff stars, with support from Zita Johann, a first-rate actress who never really made it in the movies, thanks mainly to roles like this one." Unlike Frankenstein and Dracula, and other Universal horror films, this film had no official sequels, but rather was semi-remade in The Mummy's Hand (1940); and its sequels: The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), and The Mummy's Curse (1944). These were later followed up in the spoof Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). These films focus on the mummy named Kharis. The Mummy's Hand recycled footage from the original film for use in the telling of Kharis' origins; Karloff is clearly visible in several of these recycled scenes, but he is not credited.
TRIVIA: The film's poster holds the record for the most money paid for a movie poster at auction: more than $453,500.
Top and Above: Boris Karloff on set with make-up designer Jack Pierce
In 1999, Universal rebooted The Mummy, directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, with Arnold Vosloo in the titular role as the reanimated mummy, Imhotep. Although it is suggested as a remake of the 1932 original, it has a very different story line. However, in common with most postmodern remakes of classic horror and science-fiction films, it may be considered as such in that its titular character is again named Imhotep, resurrected from the dead by the Book of the Dead, and out to find the present-day embodiment of the soul of his beloved Anck-su-namun, and features an Egyptian named Ardeth Bay (in this case, a guard of the city and of Imhotep's tomb). This film spawned two sequels with The Mummy Returns (2001) and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), as well as a spin off film, The Scorpion King (2002). In 2015, Universal announced another forthcoming remake of the film, with screenwriter Alex Kurtzman making his directoral debut, starring Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, and Sofia Boutella as Princess Ahmanet / The Mummy. Set for a June 9th, 2017 release, the new Mummy movie is expected to be the first in a new Universal Monsters shared universe, to later include the movies The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Bride of Frankenstein, and Van Helsing.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 93%
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