Classic Horror 

 

The Mummy (1932)

After an archeological dig unearths the mummy of Imhotep (Boris Karloff), a scroll brings him back to life.  Years later, Imhotep, now masquerading as a modern Egyptian, attempts to bring back his ancient love while others fight to stop him and save the girl who will be lost if he succeeds.

The weakest of the original Universal monster flicks, The Mummy benefits from Boris Karloff's forceful performance and director Karl Freund's often cited restraint.  The waking of the mummy is one of the best scenes in horror history, showing little besides the movement of a hand and Karloff's slowly opening eyes.  It is frightening and memorable.  Unfortunately, that's not true of all of the film.

For an under 80 minute movie, The Mummy just plods along.  At times I wanted to yell at the screen for someone to do something.  Anything.  Another difficulty is that the story is borrowed from the previous year's Dracula (a cruel, but in many ways sympathetic undead creature seeks his resurrected ancient love, but is thwarted by the modern day girl's lover and an old, wise doctor).  The Mummy shares not only Dracula's plot, but also its problems.  It was made more like a silent film than like a talkie.  The young male lead again lacks personality and the wise doctor is irritating; he is played by Edward Van Sloan, fresh from portraying the irritating Van Helsing in Dracula, so he knew how to be irritating.  Also, like Dracula, the ending is too sudden, which is particularly noticeable after the leisurely pace of the rest of the film.  Still, Karloff and a few good scenes make it worth seeing every ten years or so.

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