New Respect for The Mummy (1 Viewer)

[Johnny Angell]

The original Boris Karlof version, that is. I just finished watching the DVD of the original and the 4 sequels included. The 4 seque;s are a waste of space on the extra disc. A festival of Ed Woods would have been an improvement.

After watching the sequels I have an increased appreciation for Zita Johan of the original. The female leads in the sequels were just starlets of the week. Zita brought an air of mystery to her role and you could just believe she was a reincarnated Egyptian princess.

Talk about painful exposition and a lack of imagination. How does Universal go from The Mummy and Frankenstein to the drivel on The Mummy sequels? Once the first one was done, the rest were slavish sequels to the first sequel. Just as well, so they would have little relation to the original.

The comedy relief on the first sequel was terrible, what a terrible idea. Well maybe the idea is not terrible, but the execution was. When I think of Benny from the modern remake, I realize the idea can work.

I wonder if Boris were to start his career in movies today with a hit like Frankenstein, would he still be so typecast?

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I agree that THE MUMMY is great, but I also like the comedy in THE MUMMY'S HAND. It makes the flatout horror aspects of the films last third that much more effective.

 

[Andy Sheets]

I think the Karloff Mummy is great but I have to admit that I think the Kharis sequels are good fun. I particularly like - I think it's the third one - in which the Mummy actually wins and drags the pretty heroine down under the swamp with him while the ineffectual hero can only look on in pain

 

[Johnny Angell]

Well, what can I say? I totally disagree about the sequels. They have no redeeming values, in my mind. It's not the comedy relief shouldn't have been there, but that it didn't work and seemed very hackneyed.

The scriptwriters for the sequels didn't spend much overtime on them, they were all pretty much identical. Why did the mummy get turned into nearly a mindless slave?