Film 9: The Mummy (1959)

UK 1959
Directed by Terence Fisher
Production Company Hammer
Running time 88 min
Certificate PG

The Mummy is much more than a straight remake of the classic Boris Karloff version of 1932 – this film in fact bears more of a resemblance to Universal’s 1940 sequel The Mummy’s Hand, in which a mummy is revived to kill off the members of an archaeological expedition. The script was also influenced by the celebrated 1923 Tutankhamen expedition led by Lord Caenarvon and Howard Carter, which ended with Caenarvon’s own mysterious death.