When your mummy’s head fossilizes?
The classic The Mummy (1959) endures for its connection to the primal animal which forms the core of each and every human.
No matter how much they wish to deny it.
Let’s take a deconstructed / reconstructed approach to this plot. Two or three thousand years ago, Princess Ananka of Egypt, on a trip to honor the god Karnak, dies of an illness. A high priest to Karnak, Kharis, will, for his love of Ananka, dare to sin a great sin and read from the Scroll of Life in an effort to revive the Princess. Caught in the act, Kharis becomes the bodyguard of Ananka … or whatever it’s called … sentenced to guard her mortal remains for eternity.
And then comes the middle stages of the archaeological uncovering of Egypt’s past, the mid-1950s in modern lingo, in which artifacts are valued not for the knowledge to which they hint so much as their physicality. They are prizes, to make short work of it. Three archaeologists, Stephen Banning, his son, John, and John’s uncle Joseph Wemple, have discovered the cave tomb of the Princess. John, laid up with a badly broken leg, can only absorb reports from their hired help. As Stephen and Joseph explore, Stephen happens to find the Scroll of Life, and, perusing it, goes mad.
Stark, raving bonkers.
Years later, Banning recovers his senses. The three men are in England now, and Banning warns them that he can tell that something is coming to avenge the desecration of the Princess’ tomb. Yes, it’s Kharis, who has been shipped to England by Karnak adherent Mehemet Bey, and soon enough Stephen Banning is dead, and the next night Uncle Joseph also cannot resist the clutching hands of the rag-clad guard, whose lack of life shields him from the weapons of today. And now it’ll be young John’s turn, isn’t it?
Yep.
But there’s one small detail: John’s wife, Isobel. Catching Kharis in the act of squeezing the life out of her husband, her mere appearance stops the avenging creature, and the mummy, confused by the appearance of a beautiful woman, loses focus to the rush of hormones and retreats.
Bey, unaware of the failure of Kharis, prepares to leave, but covers up his surprise admirably when John appears at his front door. But this leads to the next attack by Kharis, and he does appear to be unstoppable by conventional means.
But Isobel’s influence, while hardly unique, is an unconventional weapon, and soon we’re striding through the English swamps as Kharis’ primal need causes him to abandon his sacred duty, the third time his animal side has made him a disappointment to Karnak, and sweep Isobel up as a prize. She escapes him through sheer force of will, and he ends up falling over and sinking into the swamp, presumably lost forever.
The pace of this story is not as quick-footed as today’s popular stories, and requires a bit of patience, yet there is a strange satisfaction to it. Given the usual granting of a miracle or two to the plot, the story hangs together rather well, and there’s little feeling that new supernatural powers and creatures are being summoned to stuff into the plot holes. Instead, there’s a certain logic to the whole thing that’s really quite believable.
And that’s what makes this thing work. That, and the excellent acting and sets. While I shan’t recommend it, if you’re in the mood for an old-fashioned monster movie, this certainly fills the bill.
