Starring: Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, Wallace Ford, Eduardo Ciannelli, George Zucco, Cecil Kellaway
Director: Christy Cabanne.
This is the end of round two of my Universal classic monster run: the second movie in The Mummy franchise. No Karloff, which is already kind of upsetting. I was hoping to see more of his sympathetic take on the titular monster. But oh, well, let's see what they got for me.
We've got some flashback stuff where an aging priest gives his son a history lesson (which is footage from the original film, with Karloff replaced by another actor), telling the backstory of Imhotep and his attempts to bring his ladyfriend back from the dead. It's footage worth revisiting, since it's quite pretty and has some great prop work. Well, okay, so it's not Imhotep. It's Kharis, and he's apparently hanging around to totally ruin the day of anyone who screws around with tombs. Apparently the son has to maintain Kharis' stuff, and if he screws it up, Kharis is gonna just go run around causing chaos for laughs. Doesn't take a psychic to realize what's gonna happen.
Meanwhile, a couple of dudes in white are having a hard time with their dig harass poor people and street vendors while one of them does silly vaudeville or whatever. If there is one thing I've found about these old Universal films is that the comic relief makes me pretty tense. It's just...too silly. Anyway, the street vendor had something cool on it, and now they know how to find the place the old dude was talking about at the beginning. They apparently they need the aid of Dr.Evil (if his presentation is anything to go by) to get where they need to. Dr.Evil says their little pot is a fake...probably to attempt to steal it for himself so he can find the tomb for himself.
Our lead is unconvinced, and is going to seek financial aid elsewhere...Dr.Evil then "accidentally" drops the pot. Nevertheless, our leads are going ahead with the search for the forbidden temple...and Dr.Evil looks at a medallion and mentions the curse to himself. Ah. So, he was trying to keep them from disturbing the temple.
Okay, so the comic relief guy is a bit of a grifter and is going to con some men into giving them their money...well, instead, he fails because the guy who he's trying to con is apparently a talented stage magician. The guy is a good sport, though, and instead invites our heroes to join him. Apparently the Magician-The Great Solvani-is going to finance the expedition. Dr.Evil is still trying to keep them from succeeding, though, sending his beggar friend to cause a fight. Solvani has a Daughter, who will obviously be our damsel in distress later...
Well, no, maybe not. Marta, the daughter, gives her Dad a bunch of crap about agreeing to the contract. Then she goes, holds up our heroes with a gun-which is awesome-and decides eventually to allow the men to go ahead with the expedition in order to protect their investment. Marta is awesome. I love these Universal girls. They just kick ass.
Well, they disturbed the tomb. It's not the Princess they were looking for, though, it's probably that Kharis guy. Our characters seem disappointed, save for the comic relief guy, who rightly asserts that finding anything at all is a positive thing. His misnaming of Jackals as Jackasses is actually kind of funny, too. He's growing on me a little.
The Mummy is alive and poor Dr.Petrie is about to get it. The Mummy looks pretty good, and Dr.Evil (who also showed up and is responsible for the Mummy's resurrection) says nobody will leave the valley alive. Our heroes don't hear this, though...but now they're going to have a problem. Oh, Dr.Evil apparently controls The Mummy, which is kind of bad news for our heroes. It won't end well for the guy, though, that's for sure.
Marta is wonderful! She just figured out something that the rest of the idiots didn't. She's not too hard on the eyes, either. They have some really beautiful Women back in the day. But, she's a great character.
The movie is pretty run-of-the-mill thus far. It's pretty simple plot-wise (guys go to desert, dig up mummy, mummy comes alive and kills people), the sets (while certainly not poor by any means) don't quite live up to other Universal entries, and nobody but Marta is particularly interesting. The comic relief guy and the magician ain't so bad, but they aren't providing an awful lot. The Mummy does look pretty good (it's important to remember that the cliches didn't quite exist yet) and has a pretty interesting eye and mouth effect. His eyes look like black water. It's kind of interesting...well, I will say that the character relationships are kinda nice, too. Marta asks the comic relief guy to make sure Steve doesn't get hurt, and he says "Like having around, huh? Yeah...me, too." That was kinda nice.
Aww, The Great Solvani bites it and The Mummy kidnaps Marta, leading our heroes to another cave to rescue her. The comic relief character turns out to be braver than meets the eye. He really is kind of growing on me. The Mummy takes Marta to a temple with two giant jackal heads...now, here we go with some solid set design. This chamber looks pretty damned fantastic. These Universal movies really knew how to build standing sets. Amazing what could be done with comparatively little money...well, okay, if you look at it proportionately, it's probably all the same thing. $200,000 isn't as much but today's standards but then...well, I don't really know what I'm talking about anyway.
So, Dr.Evil wants to make Marta his immortal babe. I can't fault him. As evil plans go, making Marta beautiful and immortal for all eternity makes an awful lot of sense. Probably would have been nice of him to ask her how she felt about it beforehand, though...
Oh, shit, the comic relief guy just plugged Dr.Evil! That was amazing! "I'm gonna give you to the count of three to tell me where she is." He counts to three, ignores the villain saying "if you kill me the Mummy runs amok and shooting me in cold blood would be bad" and then plugs him. Awesome. That just made me really, really like him now. Steve is less effective in handling the Mummy. I guess we know who the real talent is, don't we Steve? Oh, snap, comic relief guy just handled the Mummy, too. I guess his name is...Babe. Okay. Well, anyway, he was the hero. Good on you, Babe. You have a special place in my heart. You and Marta.
Oh, The Great Solvani lived. And our heroes go back to America prosperous...Babe should have taken Marta and left the others to rot.
Final Thoughts: A couple of great characters and a good looking Mummy buoy an otherwise fairly underwhelming story. Some bright spots are there, though, especially in the last act. I always have a soft spot for comic relief characters who actually end up worth a damn when push comes to shove, and this movie gave me that in spades by the end. And Marta...oh, Marta...
Final Rating: Three Stars.
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