My Review of The Mummy (1932)

Written by John L. Balderston And Nina Wilcox Putnam And Richard Schayer

Directed by Karl Freund

Sir Joseph: ""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: "Well, let's see what's inside!"

Earlier this month, I reviewed the 1959 version of this movie and I really enjoyed. Now it's the turn of the Universal Monsters era and it's a very interesting take.

As expected, the movie started in Egypt with a group of archaeologists led by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron), Ralph Norton (Bramwel Fletcher) and Dr. Sid Muller (Edward Van Sloan). They disturb the tomb of Imhotep (Boris Karloff). Quickly, enough Imhotep came to life and poor Ralph ended up laughing hysterically.

Then the movie jumped a decade later and Imhotep managed to integrate himself into Egyptian society and ended up coming into contact with Whemple's son, Frank (David Manners) and Professor Pearson (Leonard Mudie). Of course, Imhotep didn't meet them by chance.

Imhotep was looking for scrolls needed for a spell to help resurrect his lover, Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon. The latter also happened to look like Frank's lover, Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann). Of course that wasn't unnoticed by Imhotep himself.

In fact, it was the whole point of the movie. He knew the resemblance that Helen had to Ankh-es-en-Amon and he went out of his way to show Helen memories of their past life together when he wasn't killing Frank's father or trying to kill Frank himself. 

The last few minutes of the movie have the attempted resurrection in question with Imhotep trying to bring his lover back while also vocalising Imhotep's resentment for being sacrificed in the first. The love story between Helen and Frank seemed to be the thing that saved Helen in the end and doomed Imhotep.

- Both Boris Karloff and David Manners were previously Dracula and Jonathan Harker the year before in Dracula (1931). Talk about typecasting for both. 

- The movie spawned a reimagining such as The Mummy's Hand (1940) and various sequels it. 

- Dog lovers will not love what happened offscreen to Helen's dog. Oh and there's a white cat.

- Chronology: Both 1921 and 1931 in Egypt as well as flashbacks to 3700 years before for Imhotep's backstory.

While it's not as instant a classic as some of the others, there's no denying that this version of The Mummy (1931) set a high standard. Boris Karloff played Imhotep with such ease. He gave an excellent performance and so did Zita Johann and David Manners.

Rating: 8 out of 10