Unrequited Love Comes Back from the Dead

There have been several incarnations of films about Mummies and Egyptian lore, but the first one that started it all was The Mummy in 1932, staring the legendary Boris Karloff. The script was written by John L. Balderston who contributed to the scripts of Dracula and Frankenstein, and was directed by Karl Freund, the Dracula cinematographer. One of the Monster Movie elite, Karloff was Bela Lugosi's main rival for the title of Horror King after the death of Lon Chaney, Sr. The movie is also in the pantheon of great horror films that overall add to our pop culture imagery of certain horror stereotypes. I found a version the film online that you can watch here, for those of you that are interested.

The premise of the movie is that Ancient Egyptian priest Imhotep (Karloff) is accidentally revived by an archaeological expedition, lead by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) that uncovers his mummy. Imhotep escapes from the archaeologists and goes through Cairo, looking for the reincarnation of his long-lost lover, the Princess Ankh-hes-en-amon (Zita Johann). Imhotep was mummified alive after trying to resurrect the dead princess and when he finds her, he intends to mummify her, make her his bride, and the two of them will live forever in a sort of Corpse Bride bliss. Ten years after Whemple originally set the mummy loose on an unsuspecting Egypt, he returns with son Frank in tow (David Manners) and use the help of Ardath Bay (Karloff) to help them locate the mummy's whereabouts. Bay abducts the beautiful Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann) and it is up to Frank and Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan) to uncover the mystery of the mummy and save the day.

Karloff's Mummy isn't you're average last minute Halloween costume where you wrap yourself up in a bunch of toilet paper. His mummy is actually pretty convincing as a the revived soul of an ancient Egyptian priest. Again, make up magician Jack Pierce helped Karloff create his creature's iconic costume. Cotton, collodion, and spirit gum were attached to Karloff's face and clay into his hair. The linen bandages that create the long-staying image of the Mummy were previously treated with acid and burned in an oven before being wrapped around Karloff. The make up took eight hours to apply and only two to take off. The removal of the gum was painful to Karloff and he was quoted as saying putting on and taking off the Mummy costume was "the most trying ordeal I ever endured".

The success of the first Mummy movie spawned a good dozen or so sequels and spin-offs, most b movies such as The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, and The Mummy's Curse. Comedic duo Abbott and Costello also poked fun of The Mummy and these b-sequels in the spectacular comedy Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. Recent versions of The Mummy have been made in the past ten years or so, little of the original scripts and characters surviving. These new Mummy movies are more action/thriller films than actual horror films, as the original The Mummy was intended to be.