This movie begins with an archaeological expedition headed by a man named "Stephen Banning" (Felix Aylmer) who is looking for the tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess by the name of "Ananka" (played by Yvonne Furneaux). To his great delight they end up finding it and while his associate, "Joseph Whimple" (Raymond Huntley) leaves the tomb to tell Stephen's son "John Banning" (Peter Cushing) the news Stephen continues searching for other items of interest. It's during this search that he finds an ancient manuscript known as "the Scroll of Life" and upon reading it aloud wakes up the mummified body of the high-priest of Karnak named "Kharis" (Christopher Lee) who has been placed there to guard the sanctity of the tomb. Kharis immediately attacks Stephen but is stopped by an Egyptian devotee of Karnak named "Mehemet Bey" (George Pastell) who has appeared out of nowhere and immediately orders Kharis back into his hidden chamber. Needless to say, Stephen is severely traumatized by these events and suffers from a stroke which leaves him in a comatose state as a result. The film then fast-forwards to three years later in England with the sarcophagus of Ananka being put on display in the British Museum of London and Stephen being confined to a nursing home due to the effects of the stroke. What none of the archaeologists know is that Mehemet Bey has recently arrived in London with a crate containing the mummy of Kharis with the intention of killing all three of the people responsible for desecrating the tomb of Ananka. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film is not a remake of the movie produced in 1932 known as "The Mummy". Instead, this movie incorporates bits and pieces from the original 1932 movie and combines scenes from several sequels that followed it ("The Mummy's Hand", "The Mummy's Tomb" and "The Mummy's Ghost"). As a result, there really is no comparison between the 1932 film and this particular picture. At least I don't think so. Be that as it may, this movie is certainly entertaining enough and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

I know there is a Boris Karloff original, and of course there was the Brendan Fraser film followed by two sequels, I was interested to see this offering from Hammer (Horror) Studios, directed by Terence Fisher (The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Hound of the Baskervilles). Basically in Egypt in 1895, archaeologists John Banning (Peter Cushing), his father Stephen (Felix Aylmer) and his uncle Joseph Whemple (Raymond Huntley) are searching for the tomb of Princess Ananka, the high priestess of the god Karnak, John has a broken leg so cannot accompany his father and uncle when the tomb is opened. An Egyptian named Mehemet Bey (George Pastell) warns them not to enter, or face the fatal consequences of the curse against desecrators, they ignore him and discover Ananka's sarcophagus, Joseph leaves to tell John the good news, while Stephen finds and reads from the Scroll of Life, he is heard by the others screaming and is found in a catatonic state. Three years later, in England, Stephen is in Engerfield Nursing Home for the Mentally Disordered and out of his catatonia calls for his son, he tells him that reading the Scroll of Life he unintentionally brought back to life Kharis (Sir Christopher Lee), the mummified high priest of Karnak. In flashback we see that Kharis had a forbidden love with Princess Ananka, and following her death he attempted to use the Scroll of Life to bring her back to life, but he was arrested before being able to complete the reading, he was punished to be mummified and entombed alive to serve forever as the guardian of Princess Ananka's tomb, in the present day Stephen warns his disbelieving son that Kharis will hunt down and kill all who desecrated Anaka's tomb. Mehemet Bey is revealed to be a devoted worshipper of Karnak, he comes to England to wreak revenge on the three archaeologists who disturbed the Egyptian tomb, he hires drunken carters Pat (Harold Goodwin) and Mike (Denis Shaw) to transport the slumbering Kharisin a crate to his rented home, but their drunken driving causes the crate to sink into a bog. Later though Mehemet reads from the Scroll of Life to summon Kharis to rise from the dead and out of the mud, he sends the Mummy to murder Stephen Banning, and the following night the Mummy is sent to murder Joseph Whemple, right before John's eyes, he shoots the walking corpse at close range with a revolver, but to no effect. Police Inspector Mulrooney (Eddie Byrne) is assigned to solve the murders, being skeptical he deals is cold hard facts and does not believe John's story about the killer mummy, even being told he may be Kharis's third victim, while the investigation goes on John notices his wife Isobel (Yvonne Furneaux) bares a striking resemblance to Princess Ananka, meanwhile gathering testimonial evidence from others in the community Mulrooney slowly gathers that the mummy may in fact be real. Mehemet Bey sends the mummy to kill his final victim, but when Isobel rushes into the room to help John, Kharis sees her, releasing John and soon leaves, Mehemet mistakenly thinks the mummy has completed his task and prepares to return to Egypt, John suspects Mehemet of being responsible for the resurrection and controlling of the mummy, and to the Egyptian's surprise he pays him a visit. After John leaves Mehemet Bey sends Kharis for a second attempt to kill him, while Mehemet deals with other police officers guarding the house, Mulrooney is knocked unconscious, Kharis finds John in the study and starts choking him, Isobel runs in to help again, but the mummy only recognises him with her hair down, and he releases John. Mehemet comes in and orders the mummy to kill Isobel, he refuses, Mehemet attempts to murder Isobel himself but Kharis kills him, unconscious Isobel is carried by the mummy to the swamp, John, Mulrooney and other policemen follow, John shouts for Isobel to wake and tell him to put her down, she reluctantly obeys, he moves away and the policemen open fire, the mummy sinks into the ooze, taking the Scroll of Life with him. Also starring Worzel Gummidge's Michael Ripper as Poacher and Willoughby Gray as Dr. Reilly. Cushing is crisp and charming as the archaeologist who goes against the threat from Ancient Egypt, and Lee is creepy both in the flashback pharaoh look and bandaged up and limping around, it is a simple enough story, you can tell the 1999 remake borrowed elements of the same storyline, there are only mildly bloody moments and the good old fashioned talkative scenes, it may not be as great as the other Hammer films, but it is a worthwhile classic horror. Good!

Another enjoyable foray by Hammer into horror, getting round to updating the Universal Mummy series which Abbott & Costello had only finally concluded four years prior to this one. Maybe finally interred would be truer though, the journey from Karloff's classic in 1932 to 1955 was all downward. With this the franchise was given a new lease of life, reanimated and reactivated.Victorian archaeological dig in Egypt opens up an untouched ancient tomb and its can of worms, in the shape of an ancient mummy buried with the ancient Princess he fancied. Along with uncle Raymond Huntley, Felix Aylmer and Peter Cushing play the rather demonstrative father and son scientists responsible for the desecration of the tomb all of whom the rather energetic mummy Christopher Lee is programmed to kill. For saying the mummy was speechless, motionless and presumably thinking the way of the transgressor was hard for two thousand years he looked as if he was ready to cut a rug with gusto. But he'd had the means to learn English in that cupboard because he reacted badly - and with some vim - to Aylmer bringing him back to life in English which is how all the modern trouble began. Hammer reprised Universal's interminable idea to show a flashback explanation of how the ancient trouble had begun, except it was taken far more leisurely with Hammer; like we'd got all night. Michael Ripper was especially twitchy in this one. The modern English are shown to be natural desecrators of human tombs but Johnny Foreigner and their ancestors are as usual shown to be natural desecrators of human lives. There's nice economy scale production values with an atmospheric use of colour and brooding ancient Egyptian music to go with the mainly convincing serious acting and dialogue; and no cgi cartoonery taking it all over.It's an excellent and engrossing fantasy for all kinds of reasons and I thoroughly enjoyed it yet again (maybe the tenth time now) and recommend it - although for perspective I better own up and state here I preferred the Karloff original and thought the four sequels to it pretty good too while Fraser's sterile updatings were all watchable but far too mechanical.

It is 1895. British archaeologists John Banning (Peter Cushing), his father and his uncle discover the tomb of Princess Ananka. John stays in his tent after injuring his leg. Egyptian Mehemet Bey warns them not to go in. Once inside, his father finds the Scroll of Life, reads from it and gets struck down in a catatonic state. Mehemet is able to steal the Scroll. Three years later back in London, his father revives to tell John that the mummified high priest of Karnak, Kharis (Christopher Lee), was reanimated. John doesn't believe him and then Mehemet unleashes the mummy on his father using the Scroll.This is B-horror done relatively well, which means that this is still a minor bore. The dialog and the staging is stiff but the acting is better than most. It's helped by some good British actors starting with Cushing. The mummy emergence from the mud is a good idea. He looks much better dirty and muddy. The kills are done off screen. It's still the old way but it's done well.