Hi all, this tumblr mainly exists as a way of tracking all the movies I've been watching and some of the initial thoughts, and general feelings, I've had about them.
5/5 - Fantastic movies; movies which need to be seen and enjoyed by everyone.
4/5 - Movies which are very good but don’t have that spark which compels you to make others watch them as well.
3/5 - Average movies; watchable and enjoyable, but nothing which elevates them higher. The baseline all movies are given before watching.
2/5 - Can be watched but really bland and forgettable.
1/5 - Minimal to no reason to watch these films. It may have some redeeming factors e.g. it’s so bad it’s good or there’s one character that’s awesome enough to make it not a total waste of time.
0/5- Total waste of time. Nothing redeemable about these films.
As with every review blog/site, this is all my own personal opinion so feel free to take everything with a grain of salt.
Also I'm Scottish so all reviews will be in UK English. Get used to theatre, colour and words ending in -ised.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
#115 The Mummy (1932)
After uncovering an ancient scroll next to some mummified remains, the archaeologist (Arthur Byron) reads it only to have the mummy reanimate itself and escape. Several years later the archaeologist’s son (David Manners) is led by a mysterious man (Boris Karloff) to another tomb. As the site is excavated it becomes clear the man, the tomb and a young girl (Zita Johann) bearing a striking resemblance to the tombs inhabitant all have some sort of connection to one another.
This was another enjoyable flick from the universal monster era. This film isn’t quite what you expect in terms of a mummy movie however. Karloff is only really in the bandages at the very beginning of the film while the rest of the time dressing in normal clothing.
Karloff was probably more interesting in this role than that of the monster in Frankenstein but I imagine that’s because he gets to talk more in this one. All the other actors play their parts well and the story is interesting enough to keep you entertained.
This film seemed to be somewhat linked to Dracula for some reason. The opening credits use the same classical score and two of the lead actors (Manners and Edward Van Sloan) plays some what similar roles in both films. It’s also quite slow paced, like Dracula was, and has the same problem of dragging along just a bit.
A couple of interesting facts about this film are that it’s one of the only universal monster movies not to have a direct sequel. 3 other mummy movies would be made after it but they all centred around a different mummy which portrayed the slow shambling mummy we are more familiar with.
Also the 1999 film staring Rachel Wiesz and Brendan Fraser is loosely based on this version, rather than the others. This can be seen in the desire of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) to kill a living person to reincarnate his former lover in much the same way Karloff’s Imhotep does.
Better than Dracula but not as good as Frankenstein 3/5
