All four Mummy films by Hammer I like. Curse with atmospheric scenes does give a quality to it. You have fog bound London to add atmosphere. Sets on film re Egyptian biz are quite good.Story so-so various characters who crop up. Then we have the Mummy itself which looks quite impressive, with scenes with Mummy in like in fog top of steps near embankment etc, scene in study where curtains are concealing it. Another scene in house where Mummy ascending stairs, menacing and quite gripping. Odd comical relief in film re certain characters. Overall film has some merit to it!

In my review of the Hammer version of THE MUMMY from 1959 I stated that it's a very political horror film centering around the Anglo-Franco debacle in the Suez three years before . CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB the first sequel continues the political subtext right from the opening scene where a hostage is cruelly slaughtered by backward violent Arabs . It's no coincidence that the heroine from the film speaks with a French accent or that we have a brash , dumb , philistine American portrayed in a rather bad light and the first half of the film holds the concentration due to its political subtext Of course no one watches a horror film due to politics and once the eponymous title creature makes its appearance things stop being intelligent and becomes clichéd . As in most horror movies there's a complete lack of credibility involved . Having a monster stalking the streets of London gives the impression that it can teleport a few feet away from its victim then materalise back to its lair . Doesn't any passerby notice an eight feet bandaged monster walking about ? Likewise the monster meets with a contrived fate This is a relatively poorly regarded movie from Hammer and shares many of the problems with the next sequel THE MUMMY'S SHROUD in that the Mummy takes too long to make an appearance . But unlike THE MUMMY'S SHROUD this film has a cerebral subtext to hold a thinking audiences interest

I hate to admit it, but I watched an entire evening of mummy movies courtesy of our Turner Classic Movies over the weekend. I hate to admit it because this monster has to be one of the most boring in the pantheon of creatures.Worse, "The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb" spends more time on character development than it does on visits from the title monster. The mummy only makes a couple of appearances and these are fleeting and in the second half of the picture.This entry also suffers from some major pacing issues. The story moves so slowly that I was able to leave the room on several occasions, fix myself a snack, take a stroll around the block, and by my return I hadn't missed a single thing.In short, "The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb" needed a lot more mummy and a lot less interaction between the archaeologists who were trailing him. I do give it points for the plot about the mummy having an evil brother.

After Hammer's first successful stab at a mummy film (THE MUMMY - 1959) it's pretty rough going with their bandaged follow-ups. This one was not quite as unwatchable as I feared, but was still a limp and rather average affair that I don't see myself revisiting any time soon, if ever. A typical group of treasure seekers uncovers another Egyptian carcass which ultimately gets put on public display by a sleazy American showman, but mysteriously disappears and starts killing people. There's a lot of dull filler through most of this, but by the time the mummy starts stomping there was more action than I was lead to believe from others' reviews. This mummy's makeup isn't too bad, and he's more inventive than most with some of his killing techniques.** out of ****