Universal cleverly held the release of the always planned 'Legacy Series' edition of the Boris Karloff 1932 classic 'The Mummy' to coincide with the soon-to-be-released 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'.
Having released 'Legacy Series' editions of 1931s 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' in 2006, Universal makes the wait well worth it with gorgeous cover art highlighting Jack Pierce's great make-up and a tomb full of special features.
Showing up in a 1903 novel by Bram Stoker, the 'Jewel of the Seven Stars' and a number of silents before Howard Carter’s famous 'Curse of the King Tut's Tomb' in the early 20s, Karl Freund's 1931 effort is still the best mummy monster movie to date.
After the successful run of silents including ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ with Lon Chaney in the 20s, Universal handed the depression era over to Carl Laemmle Jr. who proved massively successful with ‘Dracula’ and ‘Frankenstein’.
‘The Mummy’ was a direct follow-up to those two pictures and while the mythology behind the character is less defined, I consider the pic to be superior to those two efforts in a number of ways.
The film starts off with a prologue set in 1922 that closely mirrors Howard Carter’s real-life find (Carter made a 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamen's sealed tomb where misfortune seemed to befall the crew when the majority of the diggers, archeologists, and guides who entered the tomb died shortly after) as Sir Joseph Whemple discovers an ancient mummy by the name of Imhotep.
A buffoon recites a script from the scroll buried with Imhotep and the man, the myth, the legend rises again. Great make-up f/x from Jack Pierce gives Boris Karloff an outstanding look as ‘The Mummy’ but the irony lies in the fact that most of this appreciation is gathered from stills from the pic and not from actually seeing the mumster in motion.
Director Freund kept our monster admirably and painfully off-screen with only the slightest hint of action – an arm slowly reaching, a single eye open, bandages trailing out a door – this direction is both brilliant and frustrating.
Imhotep, now raised, takes the scroll and focuses his undead attention on raising his love, Ankh-es-en-Amon, from the dead. Ten years later, we find Whemple’s son in the same location and close to giving up when the mummy assumes a new identity by the name of Ardeth Bay and shows up before Whemple with a specific location to dig. With a move to Cairo, we find that Ardeth Bay discovers the spiritual reincarnation of his lost love in the form of young Helen Grosvenor.
With Ankh’s mummified corpse, he can host a ceremony that will reunite the body and soul of his lost love but Helen just also happens to be Whemple’s love. Will he save his love or will Imhotep attain his?
Karloff, as always, is the highlight bringing a gravitas to the character that he also brought to ‘Frankenstein’ the year before. A bit more plodding than the two previous Universal entries, this pic comes off as more atmospheric suspense driven by age-old romance than the horror beats of ‘Dracula’ and ‘Frankenstein’.
As such, its reputation is questioned more often but I find the film a master of restraint and a notably different take on what scares.
The film is presented in a 1.33:1 full frame image and it looks great considering its age. Digitally restored, I’m not seeing any improvements over the ‘Legacy Collection’ release from 2004 but the few faults of the source add to the ambiance of the pic in my opinion.
Most of the special features were carried over from previous releases but we do get a new commentary track from Rick Baker, Scott Essman, Steven Haberman, Bob Burns, and Brent Armstrong and with five participants, the track never provides a dull moment. Another commentary track comes from film historian Paul M. Jensen who provides some nice info on the pic despite a number of dry moments.
We get a half-hour ‘Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed’ featurette which looks at this ‘Mummy’ pic and its numerous sequels of the 30s and 40s. ‘Posters & Stills’ is an almost ten minute slide show of various posters and stills from the pic. ‘Trailer Gallery’ gives us trailers for the first five ‘Mummy’ pics to finish up disc one.
On Disc two, we get ‘He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jake Pierce’ another half hour look at legendary makeup artist Jack Pierce. ‘Unraveling the Legacy of the Mummy’, which also pops up on the Stephen Sommers’ recent ‘The Mummy’ and ‘The Mummy Returns’ DVD releases, is an eight minute look at the franchise as a whole.
The big extra is the hour and a half ‘Universal Horror’ doc from 1998 narrated by Kenneth Branagh. This feature was also on previous releases but for first-time buyers, this is almost worth the price of admission alone. There’s also a free movie ticket to see ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’ valued up to $7.50.
This is no doubt a classic for fans of the original Universal horror pics with classic turns from both Boris Karloff and makeup artist Jack Pierce. If you’re a fan of Stephen Sommers’ take on the franchise and are hoping for more of the same here…you might want to try a rental first as the comparably slow pace might be off-putting at first.
If you have the 2-disc ‘The Mummy: The Legacy Collection’ from 2004 and are wondering if this release justifies a double-dip depends on how important an extra commentary, a half-hour featurette on Jack Pierce and a movie ticket is to you. All in all though, Universal does a great job with this ‘Legacy Series’ release.
The Mummy (Universal Legacy Series) (1932) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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