The Mummy
00:34:55
About
Grab your bandages and have a good sarcophagus - we’re watching Universal’s original 1932 version of “The Mummy”. A film in which Zita Johann attempts to break the record for the number of 6’s you can put on your forehead; Edward Van Sloan returns as Van Helsing… er… plays the entirely new character of Dr Muller; and Jack Pierce bakes Boris Karloff for 8 hours at Gas Mark 5. Having hit gold with their adaptations of Dracula and Frankenstein, Universal decided to add another monster to their roster, and turned to Egypt for inspiration. Returning star Karloff cements his reputation with his baleful portrayal of Imhotep/Ardath Bey, searching for his lost love from beyond the grave. He is ably matched by Zita Johann’s portrayal of Helen and, later, the long dead Anck-es-en-Amon. Makeup maestro Jack P Pierce once again makes a memorable monster, in both his forms. Although this in many ways retreads the story beats of Dracula, it still has its own iconic moments, and it may also surprise new viewers that the shambling figure in bandages they may expect is almost entirely absent. Whilst there are aspects and attitudes of the film that may not sit well with modern sensibilities; it is product of nearly a century ago, and should be taken as such. And as a key film of Universal’s original horror run, it really deserves to be seen. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid 93 year old spoilers and join us.
Well, let's see what's inside!
Famous lines
- "Burn the scroll, man. Burn it!"— Doctor Muller
- "I loved you once, but now you belong with the dead."— Helen Grosvenor
- "Do you have to open graves to find girls to fall in love with?"— Frank Whemple
- "He went for a little walk! You should have seen his face!"— Ralph Norton
Quotes verified against Wikiquote.
Adam's research
Verbatim lifts from Adam's own words in the episode. Click a timestamp to hear him say it.
- Original script concept and Egyptology influence
This yes, this was this was based on. This wasn't original story. I can't remember, I wish I'd I wish I'd jotted it down because I meant to, it was something I was going to look into anyway, there was apparently originally the script was about a guy, a a genuine figure who was basically a a cultist slash con man. Um and I think they were going with the the myth rather than the truth of this guy. And uh so originally the two people who who wrote the story, that's how that's what they were originally going for. And then because of the interest in Egyptology sort of resonating from from the expedition to uh for Tutankhamun, like Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun was. Or Tutankhamun, I don't know. Judge me either way. But um yeah, so Egyptology was like a big thing and they kind of married that into a similar sort of thing. But effectively, yeah, it is it's like they've rewritten Dracula, but gone, right, we can we'll move the camera around a bit more and Boris Karloff's playing Dracula now not Bela Lugosi.
- Universal's horror film history and Karloff's rise
And you know, because by then also by then sort of because this is this is literally the third of the Universal sort of. Well, the Universal um no, sorry, is the third sort of talkie of Universals horrors. Of like them because obviously they've got the sort of Pantheon for one of a better word of Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman. The Mummy, Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera and so on. And so yes, they've done Dracula, huge success, done Frankenstein, but Bela Lugosi famously doesn't want to do to play the monster in Frankenstein, so Boris Karloff plays it, massive success and at this point Karloff becomes their go-to guy for their monsters, essentially. And so it's. Yeah, it's essentially Boris Karloff playing the Dracula role rather than Bela Lugosi. And everything else is kind of similar in you know, you know, in a way.
- Boris Karloff's mummy makeup process
Um and I think that that is that's that's definitely the that's the most horrific part of the film in the in that sort of sense. Cuz you've got Karloff obviously in the full makeup, which was like that was eight hours apparently. They they literally sort of baked him into like clay and bandages to make him like that. And they like so he's that was his first day was in the full mummy like gear. Um but most of the shots are actually a dummy that they'd done the same process on. So. So it's only really so it's only Karloff particularly when it's the eyes for the actual coming alive. So the other parts of it, that's a dummy of Karloff made up into the into the mummy gear. Which does seem it's like. And then you spent eight hours in makeup to open your eyes.
- Zita Johann's unusual contract and film career
But um, I mean, I don't mean I think the weird thing is cuz she didn't she didn't do a lot of films, she was mostly like a theater actress. And um, she I think she did like about seven or so films cuz basically she was a theater actor, got um, got no like sort of recognized in the theater and then MGM. I think it was MGM bought her like contracted her, but she had a clause and this is how this was unusual for the time, she had a clause that she had script refusal, so if she didn't like the script, she could say, no, I'm not doing that film and basically they kept offering her scripts and in the end they let her out of the contract because she just wasn't doing any of the films. And apparently it was along the lines of like they were saying, why won't you do any the films? She's like, well, why why don't you make any good ones? So. A very good argument, I think, you know. … And so she sort of um, yes, so she was um released from that contract and then she did seven films including The Mummy between 1931 and 34. And then just did a one-off appearance in 1986 in a film called Raiders of the Living Dead that I've never seen, but she came out of retirement did that. And I I'm assuming on the basis of on the basis of being attached to The Mummy because I don't think any of the other films were particularly sort of I think they were big at the time, but I don't think they're sort of ones that have survived. Well, been studied since, you know.
- Zita Johann's beliefs, director conflict, and cut scenes
But yeah, she was um and apparently she was quite she described herself as a mystic and was sort of into occultism and spirituality and reincarnation and that was one of the things she liked about the film. Was because there was um the reincarnation aspect of it. Um and apparently there was meant to be more there was meant to be more um sequences of like her past lives. Um but her and Karl Freund, the director, apparently didn't get on. She said, she basically said that they were filming they did film all this stuff, but end up getting cut out of the film of her character's past lives. And there was a bit where they're like, I think it was like meant to be in Rome and she was acting with lions. The rest of the crew were behind screens and walls and shit like that and the director just sent her out and said, right, you've got to go and play with the lions. Essentially. And then also apparently at one point he said, well, there's a scene we're going to do it and you'll you'll have to be nude for the scene. And she basically called she was like, well, I knew I knew that censorship at the time, there was no way I was going to appear nude, so I just called his bluff and said, yeah, fine, I'll I'll do that and then suddenly mysteriously this scene never appeared and was never filmed and so on and so forth.
- Universal's Mummy sequels list
I think cuz they then I mean they did do um how many more Mummy films did they do? I think they did. Um, so you've got so I'm just I'm just looking at my my universal list here that I printed out for myself. … So you've got The Mummy's Hand in 1940, then The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Curse and Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy.
- Screenwriter John L. Balderston's background and other works
Um, but the actual screenplay was written by a guy called John L. Balderston, um, who was actually present at one of the openings, it was the opening of Tutankhamun's sarcophagus in 1925. He was there on he was a journal he was act not acting as, he was working as a journalist for the paper called the New York New York World, which is I'm assuming kind of where the Daily Planet got his name from, but. … Um, but yeah, so he was actually present during one of those things, so he sort of like was and he brought he also was the script screen writer of Dracula, Dracula's daughter, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Mark of the Vampire and Mad Love with with Peter Lorre. Peter Lorre, fucking great film, I love that. Um which which incidentally was also Carl Freund, who directed this was also um also directed Mad Love, who was mostly a cinematographer, who was like on Metropolis and Dracula and things like that.
- Director Karl Freund's career and multi-camera sitcom pioneering
But weirdly enough, he also is the guy who pioneered the multi-camera studio filming before an audience for sitcoms. Yeah, because before they were but yeah, so he was the guy who sort of came up with the idea of like, right, we can cover this with cameras, still film it in front of the studio audience, so you get the reactions, you get the laughs as if it's live, but it was he basically worked out how to shoot a play. Essentially, like doing the multi-camera technique because he actually did 152 episodes of I Love Lucy. Which is where he developed it from, you know.
- Historical figure Imhotep
But speaking of names that passed out, did you know Imhotep's real? He was an Egyptian architect from around the 27th century BC. Who was the high priest of Ra and Chancellor of Pharaoh Zoser, who also possibly the architect of his pyramid and he was one of the few non-royal ancient Egyptians to be deified and ended up being worshiped as a god of healing and medicine around 2,000 years after his death. So is Imhotep a real figure that they've just sort of nabbed.
- Mummy character in sequels (Karis) vs. original (Imhotep)
So they've moved away from so technically this is a stand-alone story and the other mummy films are a different story. It's not like Dracula or Frankenstein where the original is then the continuing stories the rest of them. So the subsequent Universal Mummy films are a different mummy, but it's the same one all through them. Um so it's not Imhotep. Um and Ankhesenamun was named after Tutankhamun's wife.
Highlights
Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeGood evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we're here again for a film that we keep apologizing for the fact that we haven't covered it yet, somehow in 230 episodes or thereabouts, we haven't covered one of the staple trilogy of the original Hammer series. So here we are this evening for 1932's The Mummy.
AdamYep.
LeeSo before Adam and I discuss our past with this film and how we feel about it.
LeeThere will be spoilers and swearing. I mean, it's nearly 100 years old. I mean how much are we going to spoil it. But yes, so let's throw it over to Chris. I assume this is your first viewing, Chris.
AdamBricks.
ChrisIt is, but wait, just take me back again a second. Have I watched the wrong one?
ChrisDid you just said this is Hammer?
LeeOh, no, it's Universal.
LeeUniversal, sorry, that was my fault.
LeeYeah.
ChrisOh, okay.
ChrisThe Hammer one Christopher Lee, which I did, I did nearly watch that and I was like, no, I'm sure they said it was older and it had Boris Karloff and that doesn't add up, so.
ChrisI was confused, but.
LeeThat's me, my Hammer poster and talking and confusing.
ChrisI'm just fucking Hammer. Okay.
ChrisSo good stuff. Yeah.
Chrisso, this this was this was very good on a on a hot Father's Day, the end of the weekend. This was a nice, fairly fairly sedate kind of a horror to watch.
AdamNot.
ChrisNot over the top action, but some excellent atmospheric and, you know, like for being 1932, was it? you know, excellent production, realistic in many respects.
ChrisAnd I loved the the the opening sequence definitely sits the scene with seeing the mummy.
ChrisAppearing.
LeeOh yeah, for a minute I thought you meant that model right at the beginning because I love that, you know, when you get the title and it's the revolving thing where it's got the Sphinx and the pyramid and it's all turned it's got the mummy carved on the front.
LeeIt's just looks fantastic. I thought you were on about that for a minute.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisWhen and and they show the what was it, the the script, the words that he speaks, which I did say somewhere, but.
Chrisyes, that's it. Yeah.
Chrisand and so I learned also where the name Imhotep came from.
ChrisWhich I didn't realize.
ChrisI'd heard that over the years in different places, never realized he was.
AdamHe just look around you, obviously.
AdamHe obviously, yeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamNo, he's the Imhotep.
LeeYes.
Adamokay.
AdamBecause because I take it, Chris, have you did you have you seen the Brendan Fraser The Mummy?
ChrisLike I've seen definitely seen the trailers for that, but I don't think I ever watched the film.
ChrisI don't remember seeing the entire film.
AdamCuz I've I've never seen.
ChrisSo does does that follow?
ChrisOkay.
AdamNo, no, what it is is basically weirdly I'll take it you've seen it Lee, have you seen the.
LeeI I have seen all of the 90s Mummy, yeah, it was the 90s, wasn't it?
AdamIt was. It was the 90s.
AdamAnd yeah, so they basically do credit this film on there.
AdamNo, I don't think it's from what I gather, I don't think it's particularly.
UnknownNothing like it.
AdamYeah. Oh, thank you. The other viewer of the Mummy Claire has just gone, nothing like it.
AdamSo.
ChrisRight.
AdamI think they just they they sort of wanted not wanted the cachet, but they they were like taking right, we'll take the name Imhotep and we'll, you know, that'll go in there and everything and.
LeeOther than other than that it's a crossover between the Universal The Mummy and Indiana Jones effectively.
AdamYeah.
AdamThat's what I thought it was in much more adventurous base.
AdamWhich actually I think probably suits Mummy better.
LeeYeah, it is it is in a weird way, you know.
LeeIt was yeah, it was a it was I mean, I I've watched it a few times. It isn't something I would bring to the table to cover in this show because it is a bit a little bit low brow, but I mean, it's a fun film, like if you're, you know, Saturday afternoon, you want something a bit fun and a bit of action. Yeah, it's it's fine.
LeeIt's not as dry as this, thankfully.
Leebut yes, sorry, anyway, Chris, yes.
Chrisand then the other thing that I didn't realize was that this was a a a romance, a love story.
ChrisI did not realize that and it also has a bit of a supernatural power hypnotic sort of vibe points.
ChrisWhich, you know, may not be so good nowadays, but.
LeeI mean, this is effectively Dracula with a mummy instead of the Dracula.
ChrisYeah.
LeeIt's effectively the same story, he has the same powers, just different makeup.
AdamIt's romancing, it's romancing the reincarnated figure of his love.
AdamIt's and yeah, cuz I saw a lot of people saying that online, you know, like sort of reviews of it and a lot of people say, oh yeah, it's basically.
AdamThe Mummy sorry, it's basically Dracula and you've even got the same the same guy who plays Van Helsing's Dr. Müller in this.
LeeThat's right, yeah, yeah.
AdamPlaying effectively the same role in the story of the of, you know, the the knowledgeable man who who knows what what is actually going on. but yeah, it's.
ChrisAnd so, so is this story was it written by Universal or.
AdamThis yes, this was this was based on.
AdamThis wasn't original story.
AdamI can't remember, I wish I'd I wish I'd jotted it down because I meant to, it was something I was going to look into anyway, there was apparently originally the script was about a guy, a a genuine figure who was basically a a cultist slash con man.
LeeOkay.
Adamand I think they were going with the the myth rather than the truth of this guy.
AdamAnd so originally the two people who who wrote the story, that's how that's what they were originally going for.
AdamAnd then because of the interest in Egyptology sort of resonating from from the expedition to for Tutankhamun, like Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun was.
AdamOr Tutankhamun, I don't know.
AdamJudge me either way.
AdamBut yeah, so Egyptology was like a big thing and they kind of married that into a similar sort of thing.
AdamBut effectively, yeah, it is it's like they've rewritten Dracula, but gone, right, we can we'll move the camera around a bit more and Boris Karloff's playing Dracula now not Bela Lugosi.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd you know, because by then also by then sort of because this is this is literally the third of the Universal sort of.
AdamWell, the Universal no, sorry, is the third sort of talkie of Universals horrors.
AdamOf like them because obviously they've got the sort of Pantheon for one of a better word of Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman.
LeeYeah.
AdamThe Mummy, Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera and so on. And so yes, they've done Dracula, huge success, done Frankenstein, but Bela Lugosi famously doesn't want to do to play the monster in Frankenstein, so Boris Karloff plays it, massive success and at this point Karloff becomes their go-to guy for their monsters, essentially.
AdamAnd so it's.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, it's essentially Boris Karloff playing the Dracula role rather than Bela Lugosi.
AdamAnd everything else is kind of similar in you know, you know, in a way.
LeeI think one of the things that has to be brought up and I know we always mention it when we mention Universal, but it is a travesty to me again having watched it, especially, so I watched it on its lovely Blu-ray release, which looks stunning.
Leeand you can see Jack Pierce's makeup is absolutely incredible. He's such an underrated part of the whole of horror really, I mean, our.
AdamI think he's a name.
AdamHe is definitely a name that is getting forgotten.
LeeYeah.
AdamWhich is a real shame because he is I mean, without him you do not he literally creates the definitive version of Frankenstein's monster.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt's the one that kids still weirdly, the kids still know the design, they probably just don't know it comes from Jack Pierce, but it's that thing of flathead bolts in the neck.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, scars, that's that's him entirely.
AdamAnd.
LeeHe knocks it out the park again with this as well. It's both both when it's Boris Karloff just being aged up and the actual when he is a mummy, they just look incredible.
AdamBecause the mummy stuff, I mean, I was that's the one thing I always find with this is I'm always I'm always disappointed that cuz I go to a mummy film to see a mummy.
LeeYeah.
AdamIn the sense of a bandaged corpse chasing people around. Essentially, essentially a slasher movie sort of vibe, you know, with with curse and sort of.
ChrisMummy styling and.
AdamYeah, and basically ancient Egypt as a backdrop and a slasher film around the curse is what I sort of go to with mummy films.
AdamSo I'm always a bit disappointed that he's not bandaged apart from that opening bit, and I think that opening bit is really effective because I love.
ChrisYeah.
AdamWhen when the guy just breaks and is just laughing.
AdamAs it moves as he sees and you don't you see you he sees the hand, we don't see any more of the mummy, but it's just him in hysterics.
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause of it's just broken him.
AdamAnd that's you know.
ChrisYeah.
Adamand I think that that is that's that's definitely the that's the most horrific part of the film in the in that sort of sense. Cuz you've got Karloff obviously in the full makeup, which was like that was eight hours apparently.
AdamThey they literally sort of baked him into like clay and bandages to make him like that.
Chris
AdamAnd they like so he's that was his first day was in the full mummy like gear.
LeeYeah.
Adambut most of the shots are actually a dummy that they'd done the same process on.
AdamSo.
AdamSo it's only really so it's only Karloff particularly when it's the eyes for the actual coming alive. So the other parts of it, that's a dummy of Karloff made up into the into the mummy gear.
LeeYeah.
AdamWhich does seem it's like.
Chris
AdamAnd then you spent eight hours in makeup to open your eyes.
LeeYeah.
LeeJesus Christ, mate.
LeeI get it, but.
ChrisBut it's.
AdamYeah, it's so I I'm always slightly because.
AdamThere's one there's one other bit in this though, there's in one of the flashbacks there is a spear through someone that is actually pretty gruesome. Yeah, cuz every time I sort of by that point I'm getting a bit drowsy with it as it were because you sort of get as you say, you get lulled.
LeeYes, I saw that it was torn through.
AdamIt sort of gets it's it can be quite slow, it can be quite dry.
AdamAnd yeah, suddenly in the middle of it you're like, hang on, that blows got a spear through him.
AdamJesus fucking Christ, that's not.
LeeYeah, it's.
AdamBut yeah, I think
AdamYeah, so it's again, it's a weird one because the the subsequent mummy films in Universal series and most subsequent mummy movies it it is the figure in bandages, the essentially a zombie.
AdamYou know.
Adam
ChrisI guess they realized that's perhaps what what people want.
AdamYeah, I mean.
AdamPossibly that's the reason I didn't watch The Mummy, the 90s sort of action adventure version is cuz again, I was like, well, you mean the Mummy's not covered in bandages? That's not proper mummy.
AdamAnd he is he is a mummy, obviously, he is the mummy.
AdamAnd there's the the sort of but
AdamBut yeah, I mean and again, I mean, certainly from a point of view of if you sort of I mean coming to it, coming to it with with a purely modern sensibility.
AdamYou've obviously got Boris Karloff from playing an Egyptian.
AdamZita Johann playing a half Egyptian.
AdamAnd as Claire said, the only Egyptian thing about us are bedsheets.
LeeYes, and she just looks like Drew Barrymore.
LeeI realize watching, she really looks like Drew Barrymore.
AdamShe does actually.
AdamYes, she does.
AdamBut I mean she she's just strikingly 1930s.
LeeOh yeah, yeah, you know, she really.
AdamBut I mean, I don't mean I think the weird thing is cuz she didn't she didn't do a lot of films, she was mostly like a theater actress.
AdamAnd she I think she did like about seven or so films cuz basically she was a theater actor, got got no like sort of recognized in the theater and then MGM.
AdamI think it was MGM bought her like contracted her, but she had a clause and this is how this was unusual for the time, she had a clause that she had script refusal, so if she didn't like the script, she could say, no, I'm not doing that film and basically they kept offering her scripts and in the end they let her out of the contract because she just wasn't doing any of the films.
AdamAnd apparently it was along the lines of like they were saying, why won't you do any the films? She's like, well, why why don't you make any good ones?
AdamSo.
LeeI mean that's a good argument.
LeeI I would.
AdamA very good argument, I think, you know.
AdamAnd so she sort of yes, so she was released from that contract and then she did seven films including The Mummy between 1931 and 34.
AdamAnd then just did a one-off appearance in 1986 in a film called Raiders of the Living Dead that I've never seen, but she came out of retirement did that.
AdamAnd I I'm assuming on the basis of on the basis of being attached to The Mummy because I don't think any of the other films were particularly sort of I think they were big at the time, but I don't think they're sort of ones that have survived.
LeeNo.
AdamWell, been studied since, you know.
AdamAnd
AdamBut yeah, she was and apparently she was quite she described herself as a mystic and was sort of into occultism and spirituality and reincarnation and that was one of the things she liked about the film.
AdamWas because there was the reincarnation aspect of it.
LeeYeah.
Adamand apparently there was meant to be more there was meant to be more sequences of like her past lives.
Lee
Adambut her and Karl Freund, the director, apparently didn't get on.
AdamShe said, she basically said that they were filming they did film all this stuff, but end up getting cut out of the film of her character's past lives.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd there was a bit where they're like, I think it was like meant to be in Rome and she was acting with lions. The rest of the crew were behind screens and walls and shit like that and the director just sent her out and said, right, you've got to go and play with the lions.
LeeYeah.
AdamEssentially.
AdamAnd then also apparently at one point he said, well, there's a scene we're going to do it and you'll you'll have to be nude for the scene.
AdamAnd she basically called she was like, well, I knew I knew that censorship at the time, there was no way I was going to appear nude, so I just called his bluff and said, yeah, fine, I'll I'll do that and then suddenly mysteriously this scene never appeared and was never filmed and so on and so forth.
LeeI think she's surprisingly close to nude in this.
ChrisOh yeah.
AdamYes, I mean, you know, he's not when she's in the Egyptian garb.
AdamBut also I think that's the bit when she's sort of channeling acts and Amon.
AdamAmon?
AdamAmon.
ChrisAnkhesenamun.
AdamAnkhesenamun, thank you.
Adamyeah, when when she's channeling her.
AdamI think.
LeeAnkhesenamun.
AdamAnkhesenamun, thank you.
Christhat's it, that's it.
AdamAnd but I think you get the that's when she cuz she gets to play at Boris's level at that point.
Lee
AdamDo you know what I mean, cuz everyone else is sort of being everyday and ordinary.
AdamI mean, admittedly, it seems very stilted to us, but it's 1932 as 1932, so it was present day.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd everyone sort of conversation and everything and then obviously Boris Karloff gets to come in and be absolutely fucking strange. And I think she she really is great when she gets that opportunity to sort of match his performance.
Lee
AdamAs opposed to everyone.
AdamShe's really good in it anyway, but I think that.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, when she's when she's gets to that point and it's like yeah, her and Carl for at that point, they're they're completely different to everyone else in the film.
LeeYeah.
Adambut.
LeeIt is good to see her see her character change.
LeeYou know, the fact that originally she's obviously very skeptical and he keeps saying don't you remember and isn't this sparking anything and then her yeah, her sort of sudden realization after he gives her those visions.
Leeyeah, I I thought it worked it worked really well. Yeah, and she did do a really good job.
LeeShe's
LeeYeah.
LeeFantastic.
LeeAnd again to be opposite Karloff, who obviously was one of the biggest names in Hollywood at the time having just come out of Frankenstein the year before. yeah, yeah, I thought they did she did a really good job.
AdamYeah.
AdamWell again, they were selling him on just one name cuz at this point it was Karloff in The Mummy.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, so that's.
ChrisSo so you say so he done Frankenstein before this, what else had he done anything else or was that big enough?
AdamI mean, there was there was a lot of stuff, I'm just having a look at my my roll call, so.
AdamFrom Universal's point of view, they they did Dracula in 31, Frankenstein in 31.
AdamAnd then The Mummy.
AdamThen the next next in 33 they do The Invisible Man and then 35 is when Karloff comes back to play the monster for Bride of Frankenstein.
Adambut I mean Karloff was just in tons and tons and tons of stuff.
AdamI mean, I'm sure we've you know, obviously we've we've sort of talked about him on other episodes and stuff.
AdamAnd yeah, if you other we've covered him, obviously episode 22, Bride of Frankenstein.
AdamEpisode 102, The Curse of the Crimson Altar and episode 126, The Raven.
AdamNot as many as I thought.
AdamI thought he.
LeeNo, I thought we'd have done more than that.
AdamYeah.
AdamSo that's something that we need to.
LeeHang on a minute, hang on, if that's the case, does that mean we've not covered comedy of terrors yet?
AdamNo, we've never done Comedy of Terrors.
AdamShould we do Comedy of Terrors?
LeeYes. I keep I keep thinking we've done it and it keeps coming to me and I keep going, we need to no, we've definitely done that. But we didn't done Tales of Terror.
LeeYes, we did, yes.
AdamWhich plays a min, unfortunately.
AdamIt's what's his name, Basil Rathbone.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo, but yes, no, we we haven't done a comedy of terrors, as yet.
LeeRight.
LeeThat's it, that's locked in then, that's
ChrisThat's that's the one.
AdamOkay.
LeeI love that film. That that is a film that comes out every six months or so from me, it's just a a solid piece of comedy horror.
LeeYes.
LeeSo so this film again again, what I like about it is the fact that Universal obviously played it safe with Dracula.
LeeTaking an adaptation of a book that had been really big, it done really well on the stage and then they brought it to the cinema.
Leeso then Frankenstein obviously again a big literary piece, they knew it'd have a large following.
LeeSo I do like the fact that they took a bit of a gamble with The Mummy and basically said, we're going to do our own we're going to write our own story and try and keep.
LeeI mean, as we said, you know, of the big three or four, I mean, I would say Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and Wolfman are the four big ones.
LeeI know that Phantom of the Opera is in there and The Invisible Man, but I I think.
AdamAnd the creature as in the Creature from the Black Lagoon, they're all part of that Pantheon, but yeah.
AdamNo, I think it's it always was the ranking in my head as a child. He's like, it's like, yeah, it was Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Mummy.
LeeYeah.
AdamThat's they're the ones in all the cartoons.
LeeYeah, exactly, yeah.
LeeThey're the ones they bring back for the Monster Squad and
AdamYeah.
AdamWhich is actually I think the only time we The Mummy that was the only time that we've actually had a pre previously had a Mummy on the show.
LeeYes, yeah.
LeeYou're right.
AdamI mean, apart from when player's been again.
ChrisSo they did a good enough job to to make it iconic.
ChrisEven if part of this film doesn't necessarily stand up quite as much as it may have done at the time when it was released.
AdamWell, I think.
AdamI think it was because.
ChrisI only cuz you don't see so much of the mummy.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut I mean.
AdamI think cuz they then I mean they did do how many more Mummy films did they do?
AdamI think they did.
Adamso you've got so I'm just I'm just looking at my my universal list here that I printed out for myself.
AdamSo you've got The Mummy's Hand in 1940, then The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Curse and Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy.
LeeGreat film.
AdamSo I've, you know, I've never seen it.
LeeOh, I've.
LeeI've never seen me the Mummy.
LeeI've got it because I've got that and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, I think on a on a dual disc with both of them on.
AdamOh, I might I might have it as well then.
LeeOh, there you go.
AdamI've just I've just never actually watched it.
AdamI'll have to.
AdamI'll have to check it out.
Leebut yeah, and it again, I like this is a slower film, but it is a nice short film. It doesn't it doesn't drag the story out anymore than it has to.
LeeAnd as you say, I think the reason it landed so well is because it was Egyptology it was such a massive thing at the time.
LeeThis is where they were doing the Mummy unwrapping in London, in Leicester Square and stuff in the theaters where you'd basically go and watch them get an actual Egyptian mummy that they've brought all the way from Egypt and just unwrap it on stage and you would just pay to see it unboxed basically, which is weird, I don't know why, but I mean that was a thing.
AdamWell, like I say, I mean the two the two people who wrote the story, Nina Wilcox Putnam was a novelist and comic writer as well as a screen writer.
AdamAnd Richard who had worked on the Frankenstein script.
AdamSo.
AdamYou know, but they they were the ones who came up with the concept with the story and quite frankly, to a certain extent, they were the ones who obviously watched Dracula and went, you could probably do that again.
LeeYeah.
AdamTo a certain extent, you know.
Adambut the actual screenplay was written by a guy called John L. Balderston, who was actually present at one of the openings, it was the opening of Tutankhamun's sarcophagus in 1925.
LeeWow.
AdamHe was there on he was a journal he was act not acting as, he was working as a journalist for the paper called the New York New York World, which is I'm assuming kind of where the Daily Planet got his name from, but.
Adambut yeah, so he was actually present during one of those things, so he sort of like was and he brought he also was the script screen writer of Dracula, Dracula's daughter, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Mark of the Vampire and Mad Love with with Peter Lorre.
LeeOh, Peter Lorre.
AdamPeter Lorre, fucking great film, I love that.
Adamwhich which incidentally was also Carl Freund, who directed this was also also directed Mad Love, who was mostly a cinematographer, who was like on Metropolis and Dracula and things like that.
LeeYes, I saw that.
AdamBut weirdly enough, he also is the guy who pioneered the multi-camera studio filming before an audience for sitcoms.
LeeOh, really?
AdamYeah, because before they were but yeah, so he was the guy who sort of came up with the idea of like, right, we can cover this with cameras, still film it in front of the studio audience, so you get the reactions, you get the laughs as if it's live, but it was he basically worked out how to shoot a play.
LeeYeah.
AdamEssentially, like doing the multi-camera technique because he actually did 152 episodes of I Love Lucy.
LeeOh God, that's a lot.
AdamWhich is where he developed it from, you know.
LeeYeah.
Adamand
AdamWhat weirdly enough speaking of sitcoms, I was going through the list of Jack Pierce's credits.
Adamthey include 104 episodes of Mr. Ed and I'm now thinking was that the fucking best makeup?
AdamDid he make the guy up to look like a fucking horse to get that gag because I mean at that point the man's surpassed himself.
AdamDo you know what I mean?
LeeI mean, Jack Pierce is just.
LeeI mean, it's one of those we could almost do an episode just talking about the things that that man has has done.
LeeAnd yeah, as you say, and nobody really talks about him, you know, everyone talks about the actors and stuff and the directors, but nobody talks about Jack Pierce and as you say, he's just given so much and he's his work is still in the zeitgeist now, 100 years later.
Leeand he's absolutely fashioned the way that we see all of these creatures, yeah, so for nobody to know who he is really, you know, within reason, it's yeah, it's a travesty really.
AdamCuz I heard about Jack Pierce through other makeup artists talking about.
LeeYeah, me too.
AdamYou know, it's the it's that sort of thing of, you know, people like Tom Savini and stuff because they were they knew they knew who to look for and what they'd but yeah, as you say, it's like a sort of it's a name that's kind of passed out.
AdamBut speaking of names that passed out, did you know Imhotep's real?
AdamHe was an Egyptian architect from around the 27th century BC.
AdamWho was the high priest of Ra and Chancellor of Pharaoh Zoser, who also possibly the architect of his pyramid and he was one of the few non-royal ancient Egyptians to be deified and ended up being worshiped as a god of healing and medicine around 2,000 years after his death.
AdamSo is Imhotep a real figure that they've just sort of nabbed.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisThey've sort of turned him into the opposite of who he really was.
LeeBut yeah, so they they had him in this day and said he was he was from the Temple at Karnak, which I am very glad to say I've been to.
Chris
LeeSo yeah, it's it's it's it's exciting when I was there.
LeeSo if I remember correctly, there's a temple at Luxor and the temple at Karnak, they are miles apart.
LeeIt was like 20 minutes on the bus to get from one to the other. and they had just discovered that there is a direct line from Karnak to Luxor and it's it's lined with Sphinxes the whole way and the whole thing is buried under sand and they just discovered it and we're trying to unearth it, so it's a whole straight road lined with Sphinxes for like 20 miles or something and they've just they'd only just discovered it about 16 years ago, I think.
Leeyeah, so yeah, it's incredible.
AdamBut yeah, but so yeah and the follow-up films are all the the Mummy is Karis.
AdamSo they've moved away from so technically this is a stand-alone story and the other mummy films are a different story. It's not like Dracula or Frankenstein where the original is then the continuing stories the rest of them.
AdamSo the subsequent Universal Mummy films are a different mummy, but it's the same one all through them.
Adamso it's not Imhotep.
Adamand Ankhesenamun was named after Tutankhamun's wife.
Lee
Adamoh yeah, that was the other thing, you know, I said that they had stuff cut out where they were doing her reincarnated lives.
LeeYeah.
Adamyeah, there was stuff cut out there, but they were there was two people are still in the credits from them.
LeeOh, really?
AdamSo there's lots of uncredited people that you see on the screen, but there's two people you don't see who get credit, which is quite.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisIt's ridiculous.
AdamBut I mean, I mean, I would say certainly anyone coming to it, it's like yeah, you're going to see you're going to see some dodginess there.
AdamI mean, I love the bit where it's like the guy going, I mean, what a dirty rotten trick that we've got to keep the the stuff we've dug up out of the Egyptian museum.
LeeYes.
AdamYes, you fucking thieving bitch. about science, my ass. You cheeky bastard, yes, you do keep it there. So.
AdamBecause there's there's you know, and there's a lot sort of that there's a lot there's a lot of problems in that sort of sense, but they are literally the problems of 1932.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, this is this is something so old that it's like, well, of course the heroes are the.
AdamBecause you know, you know there's that thing about they said the only way they should do a sequel for Indiana Jones now is that it's his son going back or his grandson rather going back and giving back all the treasures that he's nicked from various places.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIt'd be the right way to do the hero story at that point.
AdamBut because let's face it, Imhotep, despite his sort of undying love and I mean, let's let's face it, quite creepy.
LeeYeah.
LeeVery.
AdamYou know, it's very creepy, it's like, let it go, mate, you know, it's been a while.
LeeOld dude after this woman who's probably in her early 20s doesn't doesn't bode well.
AdamWho who reminds him of her, you remind me of her, boy.
AdamAnd
AdamYeah, it's so.
AdamThere's there's about essential dodginess as well.
AdamBut I think that he does have a very good point about well what the fuck are you doing picking shit out of.
AdamOut of our tombs.
AdamAnd that's what I like with Müller when he comes in and he's like, you're not going to open that, that's sealed, you know, that's that's sealed under curse.
ChrisYeah.
AdamWhat are you fucking mental?
ChrisYeah.
LeeSee that's the thing, I think all the stuff should be given back.
LeeBut what's even worse is the stuff before the British started going and taking it, where just random people would break into the tombs and then just flog it to somebody with some money.
LeeAnd all that stuff has obviously never resurfaced.
LeeSo it's all stuff.
AdamOh.
LeeAbsolutely.
LeeSome of it was sold stuff and brought it over here and we definitely need to give it back.
LeeBut if they hadn't.
LeeWe'd never see any of this stuff because it'd just be flogged on the black market as a coffee table or fuck knows what.
LeeAnd it.
AdamYeah.
LeeIt would.
LeeBe long gone.
AdamOh, absolutely.
AdamGrave robbing is grave robbing, no matter which way you look at it.
AdamSo it's
AdamNo, there's a lot there's a lot to be seen, I mean, I I get the thing, it's.
AdamYou know, but again, it's like, yeah, we're we're we're here from a scientific point of view.
AdamAnd it's like, yeah, your backers aren't though, aren't they?
LeeNo, exactly, yeah.
AdamYou know, and it's but anyway.
AdamI mean this is.
AdamLet's face it, there was no way that a film from 1932 starring a white man as an Egyptian was not going to have a certain level of problematic, shall we say.
ChrisYeah.
Leebut yeah, as I said, it doesn't it it yeah, it is a bit its age.
LeeBut I think it's a great film and it's definitely one to to check out as part of that that very early again, it's the first first time we see a character who has lasted and is still in the in the pantheon of creatures 100 years later.
Lee
LeeSo, for our next episode, as we've just discussed it, we are going to cover Comedy of Terrors.
AdamYes.
LeeSo back with Basil Rathbone, Peter Lorre, it's incredible.
ChrisYeah, I've just looked up the cast. That is a a full cast.
AdamIt's it's a it's a bloody good.
LeeYeah.
AdamWe we're obviously we're obviously feeling our age and embracing our the the the the the.
ChrisAnd it's a comedy.
AdamThe elder statesman of horror, shall we say.
LeeYes.
LeeYeah, yeah, such a such a fantastic film.
LeeBut I shall save all that for the next episode.
LeeRight, thanks ever so much for listening everybody.
Leego and check out all of our previous episodes.
Leego and listen to not for everyone podcast and Eric and all that other fun stuff that we we devour ourselves.
LeeAnd we'll be back in a Fortnight's time for Comedy of Terrors.
LeeThanks very much. Good night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
