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The Mummy (1999 film)

The Mummy is a 1999 American action-adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. It is a remake of the 1932 film of the same name. The film follows adventurer Rick O'Connell as he travels to Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, with librarian Evelyn Carnahan and her older brother Jonathan, where they accidentally awaken Imhotep, a cursed high priest with supernatural powers.

Development took years, with multiple screenplays and directors attached. In 1997, Sommers successfully pitched his version of a more adventurous and romantic take on the source material. Filming took place in Morocco and the United Kingdom; the crew endured dehydration, sandstorms and snakes shooting on location in the Sahara Desert. Industrial Light & Magic provided many of the visual effects, blending live-action footage and computer-generated imagery to create the titular monster. Jerry Goldsmith provided the orchestral score.

The Mummy was theatrically released on May 7, 1999. Despite mixed critical reviews, it was a commercial success and grossed over $416.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $80 million. The film's success spawned two direct sequels, The Mummy Returns (2001) and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008). It also led to spinoffs such as an animated series and the prequel The Scorpion King (2002), which generated its own sequels. Attempts to reboot the property and kickstart a new media franchise led to a 2017 film.

Plot
In Thebes, Egypt, 1290 BC, high priest Imhotep has an affair with Anck-su-namun, the mistress and future bride of Pharaoh Seti I. They kill the Pharaoh, after he discovers their relationship. Imhotep flees, while Anck-su-namun kills herself. Believing he can resurrect her, Imhotep and his priests steal her corpse and travel to Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead. The resurrection ritual is stopped by Pharaoh's bodyguards, the Medjai. Imhotep's priests are mummified alive, while Imhotep himself is tortured, cursed and buried alive with flesh-eating scarabs at the feet of a statue of the god Anubis. The Medjai are sworn to prevent Imhotep's return.

In 1926 AD Cairo, Jonathan Carnahan presents his sister, Evelyn—a librarian and aspiring Egyptologist working for museum curator Dr. Terence Bey—with an intricate box and map that lead to Hamunaptra. Jonathan reveals he stole the box from an American adventurer, Rick O'Connell, who discovered the city while in the French Foreign Legion three years earlier. Evelyn and Jonathan find Rick in a local prison and make a deal with him to lead them to the city, bribing prison warden Gad Hassan to free him.

Rick guides Evelyn and her party to the city, encountering a band of American treasure hunters led by Rick's cowardly acquaintance Beni Gabor. Despite being warned to leave by Ardeth Bay, leader of the Medjai, the two expeditions continue their excavations. A flesh-eating scarab hatches from a decorative shell embedded in an artifact Warden Hassan is looting and burrows inside his body, killing him. Meanwhile, several diggers working with the Americans are killed by triggering a cloud of pressurized salt acid during the excavation. Evelyn searches for the Book of Amun-Ra, made of pure gold. Instead of finding it, she stumbles upon Imhotep's remains. The team of Americans, meanwhile, discover the black Book of the Dead, accompanied by canopic jars carrying Anck-su-namun's preserved organs.

At night, Evelyn reads from the Book of the Dead aloud, accidentally awakening the mummified Imhotep, who seems to briefly confuse Evelyn with Anck-su-namun. The expeditions flee back to Cairo, and Imhotep follows them with the help of Beni, who has agreed to serve him. He regenerates his full strength and human form by killing the members of the American expedition and brings the Ten Plagues back to Egypt. Meanwhile, Evelyn learns that Terence is also working with the Medjai.

Rick, Evelyn, Jonathan, and Terence meet Ardeth at the museum, who hypothesizes that Imhotep wants to resurrect Anck-su-namun by sacrificing Evelyn. She believes that if the Book of the Dead brought Imhotep back to life, the Book of Amun-Ra can kill him again and deduces the book's whereabouts in Hamunaptra. Imhotep corners the group with an army of slaves. Evelyn agrees to accompany him if he spares the rest of the group. Although Imhotep does not honor his word, Rick and the others fight their way to safety, with Terence sacrificing himself to ensure their escape.

Rick, Jonathan, and Ardeth recruit Captain Winston Havelock, a member of the Royal Air Force with a death wish, to fly them back to Hamunaptra in pursuit of Imhotep. However, Imhotep magically conjures a sandstorm, crashing their plane and killing Havelock. Rick, Jonathan, and Ardeth locate the Book of Amun-Ra in Hamunaptra while Imhotep prepares to sacrifice Evelyn, also bringing Anck-su-namun's mummified remains to life as part of the ritual. Rick manages to rescue her after a brutal fight with Imhotep's mummified priests and mummified soldiers; Anck-su-namun's mummy is also slain during the melee. Evelyn reads from the Book of Amun-Ra, making Imhotep mortal, and he is fatally wounded by Rick. Imhotep degenerates back into his mummified form and descends into the pool of souls, vowing revenge.

Beni accidentally sets off a booby trap while looting the city of its riches and is killed by a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs as Hamunaptra collapses into the sand. Ardeth bids Rick, Evelyn, and Jonathan goodbye, and the trio rides away on a pair of camels, not realizing it is laden with Beni's stolen treasure.

Cast

 * Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell
 * Rachel Weisz as Evelyn Carnahan
 * John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan
 * Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep
 * Kevin J. O'Connor as Beni Gabor
 * Jonathan Hyde as Dr. Allen Chamberlain
 * Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bay
 * Erick Avari as Dr. Terence Bey
 * Stephen Dunham as Isaac Henderson
 * Corey Johnson as David Daniels
 * Tuc Watkins as Bernard Burns
 * Omid Djalili as Warden Gad Hassan
 * Aharon Ipalé as Pharaoh Seti I
 * Bernard Fox as Captain Winston Havelock
 * Patricia Velásquez as Anck-su-namun

Development
In the late 1980s, the producers James Jacks and Sean Daniel decided to update the original 1932 Mummy film for the modern era. Universal gave them the go-ahead, but only if they kept the budget around $10 million. Jacks remembers that the studio "essentially wanted a low-budget horror franchise". In 1987, George A. Romero wrote a film treatment, and was attached to direct. Screenwriter Abbie Bernstein recalled that Universal wanted an unstoppable Mummy akin to the Terminator. Bernstein's story took place in the present; scientists inadvertently bring a mummy to life, who wants to use an ancient device to destroy all life on earth. "[The Mummy] had no more social interaction than the Tyrannosaurus did in Jurassic Park," Bernstein recalled. Romero drifted away from the project and the script was abandoned.

Next, Jacks and Daniel recruited horror filmmaker/writer Clive Barker to direct after his success with Hellraiser. Barker's 1990 treatment and a successive 1991 screenplay by Mick Garris were dark and violent with the story revolving around an art museum that rebuilds an entire Egyptian tomb in Beverly Hills. Jacks recalls that Barker's take was "dark, sexual and filled with mysticism", and that, "it would have been a great low-budget movie". Barker recalled the concept was too weird for the studio, and that his vision treated the Mummy as a jumping-off point for the film instead of the central character. The studio considered the film being “too perverted” to be made.

Alan Ormsby, unaware of previous efforts to launch the film, was brought on next. He pitched a more straightforward update to the 1932 film, again focusing on the Mummy as a relentless Terminator-like character. Joe Dante was attached as director, increasing the budget for his idea of Daniel Day-Lewis as a brooding Mummy. This version's draft was later re-written by John Sayles. It was set in contemporary times and focused on reincarnation with elements of a love story. It came close to being made—with some elements like the flesh-eating scarabs making it to the final product —but Universal balked at the higher price tag.

Romero returned to the project 7 years later in 1994 with a vision of a zombie-style horror film similar to Night of the Living Dead, but which also relied heavily upon elements of tragic romance and ambivalence of identity. Romero completed a draft in October 1994, co-written with Ormsby and Sayles, that revolved around a female archaeologist named Helen Grover and her discovery of the tomb of Imhotep, an Egyptian general who lived in the time of Ramesses II. Unfolding in a nameless American city in modern times, events are set into motion when Imhotep inadvertently awakens as a result of his body having been exposed to rays from an MRI scan in a high-tech forensic archaeology lab. Helen finds herself drawn into a tentative relationship with Imhotep while also experiencing clairvoyant flashbacks to a previous life in the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt as a priestess of Isis. Summoning mystical powers through incantation, Imhotep later resurrects the mummy of Karis, a loyal slave. Karis embarks on a vengeful rampage against the grave robbers of his tomb. Romero's script was considered too dark and violent by Jacks and the studio, who wanted a more accessible picture. Romero was unable to extricate himself from another contract he had in negotiation with MGM and so his involvement with the film was severed and the development of an entirely new script was commissioned.

Garris returned in 1995, developing a script that combined elements of the 1932 film and 1942's The Mummy's Tomb. This draft was a period piece awash in Egyptian art-inspired Art Deco, but the vision once again proved too expensive for the studio and was discarded for a modern setting. While the project came close to entering production, Universal was sold to Seagram. Sheinberg chose to produce The Mummy through his independent company and write a new script. Unable to find a suitable high-profile writer and director (Wes Craven was offered, but he turned it down ) the project unraveled again and Garris left the project for the second time.

Still determined to create a new Mummy film, Universal hired Kevin Jarre in 1996 to write a new screenplay. According to Jacks, the executives were now convinced the film should be a larger-budget period piece. Stephen Sommers called Jacks and Daniel in 1997 with his vision of The Mummy "as a kind of Indiana Jones or Jason and the Argonauts with the mummy as the creature giving the hero a hard time". Sommers had seen the original film when he was 8 and wanted to recreate the things he liked about it on a bigger scale. Discussing other classic horror characters, Sommers recalled that "Frankenstein made me sad—I always felt sorry for him. Dracula was kind of cool and sexy. But The Mummy just plain scared me." He had wanted to make a Mummy film, but other writers or directors were always attached.

After the box office failure of Babe: Pig in the City, among others, Universal needed a hit film. At the time, Universal's management had changed in response to the box office failures, and the losses led the studio to revisit its successful franchises from the 1930s. New chair Stacey Snider distributed packets detailing the studio's holdings—including nearly 5,000 old scripts and films. Sommers received his window of opportunity and pitched his Mummy to Universal with an 18-page treatment.

Sommers did not want to remake the original film; instead of making another straightforward horror film, he wanted to turn it into a romantic action-adventure epic with a few horror elements. Conscious of how the shambling, bandaged Mummy of the old films had become something of a punchline, he wanted a faster, meaner, and scarier monster. Sommers incorporated his own research and the services of a UCLA archaeology professor to make the ancient Egyptian language accurate. Snider recalled that Sommers' treatment was unique in that it took place in the 1920s, rather than a contemporary setting. Universal liked the treatment so much that they approved the concept and increased the budget, and Sommers spent a year working on the screenplay.

Casting
Jacks offered the role of Rick O'Connell to Tom Cruise (who was later cast in the reboot film), Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, but the actors were not interested or could not fit the role into their respective schedules. Jacks and Sommers were impressed with George of the Jungle's box office earnings and cast Brendan Fraser as a result; Sommers also commented that he felt Fraser fit the Errol Flynn swashbuckling character he had envisioned for Rick perfectly. Fraser's turn in George bolstered his perceived star power, yet he remained far cheaper than the biggest actors working. Fraser understood that his character "doesn't take himself too seriously, otherwise the audience can't go on that journey with him."

Evelyn Carnahan was named in tribute to Lady Evelyn Herbert, the daughter of amateur Egyptologist Lord Carnarvon, both present at the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. The studio originally considered American actresses, and Rachel Weisz auditioned multiple times before getting the part. Weisz was not a big fan of horror films, but saw the movie as more of a "hokum" comic book. John Hannah was picked for the role of Jonathan Carnahan, despite the fact that Hannah felt he was not a comedic actor, with Sommers saying that, "He had no idea why we cast him."

Jacks had previously produced Hard Target with Arnold Vosloo. The South African actor liked the Mummy script but told Sommers he wanted to play the role "absolutely straight. From Imhotep's point of view, this is a skewed version of Romeo and Juliet." He was offered the role after a single audition. Carrying some extra weight and conscious of it because of Imhotep's skimpy costume, Vosloo lost 10 to 15 pounds for the role by eschewing alcohol and sugar.

Filming
Principal photography began on May 4, 1998, and lasted 17 weeks. The crew was unable to shoot in Egypt due to unstable political conditions, so filming began in Marrakech, Morocco. Marrakech had the extra advantage of being much less modern than Cairo, making it easier to dress like the 1920s. The production set up two weeks before filming, taking down telephone wires and cables and shipping in period cars and camels. Locals served as extras for crowd scenes. After shooting in Marrakech, filming moved to the Sahara desert outside the small town of Erfoud. Production designer Allan Cameron found a geologic feature, Gara Medouar, where the exteriors for Hamunaptra could be constructed.

A concrete ramp was built to allow access into the horseshoe-shaped formation, where the city was built from prefabricated parts shipped from England. A survey of the area was conducted so that an accurate model and scale models of the columns and statues could be replicated back at Shepperton Studios, where all of the scenes involving the underground passageways of the City of the Dead were shot. These sets took 16 weeks to build and included fiberglass columns rigged with special effects for the movie's final scenes.

To avoid dehydration in the scorching heat of the Sahara, the production's medical team created a drink that the cast and crew had to consume every two hours. Sandstorms were daily inconveniences, and wildlife were a major problem, with many crew members having to be airlifted to medical care after being bitten or stung. Fraser nearly died during a scene where his character is hanged. The production had the official support of the Royal Moroccan Army, and the cast members had kidnapping insurance taken out on them.

After shooting in North Africa, production moved back to the United Kingdom before completion on August 29, 1998. Here, the dockyards at Chatham doubled for the Giza Port on the Nile River. This set was 600 ft in length and featured "a steam train, an Ajax traction engine, three cranes, an open two-horse carriage, four horse-drawn carts, five dressing horses and grooms, nine pack donkeys and mules, as well as market stalls, Arab-clad vendors and room for 300 costumed extras".

Special effects
The filmmakers reportedly spent $15 million of the budget on special effects alone. The Mummy features hundreds of shots that required optical or digital special effects in post-production. Effects house Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) contributed more than 140 shots, with additional work done by Cinesite (60 shots) and Pacific Title/Mirage (45 shots, and the film's title sequences.)

Sommers engaged ILM while still developing the script, having previously worked with ILM effects supervisor John Andrew Berton, Jr. on Deep Rising. ILM was eager for the challenge the film provided and produced a proof of concept for The Mummy's effects in late 1997 to demonstrate the feasibility of Sommers' vision to executives.

The filmmakers sought to make something faster and scarier for the title creature, using cutting-edge techniques to create something never before seen. ILM started developing the look of the Mummy three months before filming started. "We wanted to create a photorealistic corpse that was obviously not a man in a suit, obviously not an animatronic, and obviously alive," he recalled.

Over a months-long period, the designers worked on developing four distinct stages for the Mummy. Stage one was the mummy at its most decayed, with tattered bits of clothing, skin, and sinew hanging over a skeleton. Stage two added areas of regenerated skin, with stages three and four having the Mummy almost fully regenerated with only small areas of its innards showing through. The artists developed black-and-white sketches, then moved on to color treatments before building the creature in the computer; models were also made to use as reference for the digital artists.

The initial states of the Mummy were created entirely by computer, while later stages combined live-action performance. To supplement prosthetics and makeups applied on set, LED lights and pieces of tape served as tracking points so that digital "cutouts" could be applied to Vosloo's face and body in postproduction; Vosloo remarked that walking around the set he felt like a Christmas tree.

The final creature was created with a combination of live-action acting with prosthetics and digital imagery. A digital representation of the Mummy was created in Alias, featuring simulated muscles for much of the body attached to a skeleton. The animators controlled parts of the Mummy via procedural animation; animating the underlying bones in turn controlled the stretch and movement of the overlaid muscles. Finally, layered on top of the procedural animation and motion capture was additional animation to tweak the performance; given the limitations of the technology, subtle movements like facial or hand animations had to be done by hand. Shots that featured Vosloo with overlaid computer-generated prosthetics were the most difficult for the effects team, requiring careful match moving.

Rather than using a stunt performer, Vosloo performed the motion capture for the character himself. Scenes were blocked out and performed on set during principal photography (first with Vosloo in the scene, then without). The shots were then replicated in the motion capture studio, with Vosloo's performance recorded by eight cameras from different angles.

In addition to the Mummy, the script called for numerous effects shots to magnify the sweeping adventure of the film. Vistas like a flashback shot of the ancient city of Thebes combined location footage shot in the desert with composited actors shot on green screen, model miniatures, matte paintings, and computer-generated effects. The plagues Imhotep unleashes were accomplished using particle-based computer graphics, with ILM designers swapping out models of different qualities depending on how far from the camera the swarming "insects" were. While the film made extensive use of computer-generated imagery, many scenes, including ones where Rachel Weisz's character is covered with rats and locusts, were shot using live animals.

Another close-up shot used footage of anesthetized locusts attached to a stunt performer combined with extra computer-generated pests. Sandstorms used procedural graphics based on programs used to create tornados in Twister, while the masses of flesh-eating scarabs used techniques developed for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. A shot of a firestorm engulfing Cairo combined real palm trees, physical models, and matte paintings with computer-generated hail, fire, and rubble. Pacific Title/Mirage also enhanced shots with digital camera shake.

The finale involves an army of mummies coming to Imhotep's defense. Many of these mummies were created by Make-Up Effects Supervisor Nick Dudman, who produced makeup, prosthetics, and animatronic effects in the film. Each suit came with variations for stunt moves or pyrotechnics. After principal photography, the suits were sent to ILM to scan and be modeled in the computer. Using parts of the Imhotep mummy to save time, ILM recreated the underlings digitally to add into the scenes and used motion capture to animate them. The animators credited Fraser's ability to consistently re-enact his movements in multiple takes as saving time when it came to match the motion-captured digital mummies to the live-action fight scenes.

Music
The score for The Mummy was composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith, with orchestrations provided by Alexander Courage. Goldsmith had previously scored Deep Rising for Sommers. As he reached the final few years of his career, Goldsmith was coming off a number of action and adventure films in the 1990s, from multiple Star Trek films to Air Force One. Goldsmith provided The Mummy with suitably bombastic music, with the traditional European orchestra supplemented with regional instruments such as the bouzouki.

The opening of the film contains nearly all of Goldsmith's major themes for the score, with what music critic Jeff Bond calls an "Egyptian theme" reused in different configurations throughout to establish the epic settings and sense of place for Hamunaptra; a theme for Imhotep/the Mummy that is performed in an understated manner early in the film, before repeating in more forceful, brassy renditions after the Mummy has regenerated; a love theme used for both Imhotep/Anck-su-namun and Rick/Evelyn; and a heroic theme for Rick. In addition to the extensive brass and percussion elements, the score uses sparing amounts of vocals, unusual for much of Goldsmith's work.

The soundtrack was released by Decca Records on May 4, 1999. Overall, Goldsmith's score was well received. AllMusic described it as a "grand, melodramatic score" which delivered the expected highlights. Other reviews positively noted the dark, percussive sound meshed well with the plot, as well as the raw power of the music. The limited but masterful use of the chorus was also lauded, and most critics found the final track on the CD to be the best overall. On the other hand, some critics found the score lacked cohesion, and that the constant heavy action lent itself to annoying repetition. Roderick Scott off CineMusic.net summed up the score as "representative of both Goldsmith's absolute best and his most mediocre. Thankfully […] his favourable work on this release wins out."

Release
Test audiences reacted poorly to the film's title, which conjured up negative impressions of an old horror film, but domestic marketing president Marc Shmuger recalled that they decided "we would redefine the myth with the film" rather than change the title. Enthusiasm for the film was low, but Universal took out a television spot for the Super Bowl (reportedly costing $1.6 million) that Sommers recalled immediately reversed the discussion of the film's prospects. The producers were concerned that the imminent release of The Phantom Menace would sink the film's box office fortunes, resulting in them moving the release date from May 21 to 7.

The Mummy was the number one film in the United States and Canada on its opening weekend, grossing $43 million in 3,210 theaters. Its weekend take was the highest non-holiday May opening, and ninth-biggest opening of all time. The film later fell to second place behind The Phantom Menace. The Mummy grossed over $155.4 million in the United States and Canada and $261 million internationally, grossing over $416.4 million worldwide.

Reception
The Mummy received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 62% based on 104 reviews, and an average rating of 5.9/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 48 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a positive review, writing, "There is hardly a thing I can say in its favor, except that I was cheered by nearly every minute of it. I cannot argue for the script, the direction, the acting or even the mummy, but I can say that I was not bored and sometimes I was unreasonably pleased." Critics such as Entertainment Weeklys Owen Gleiberman and The New York Times Stephen Holden concurred with the sentiment of the film as a breezy crowd-pleaser.

Less positively, Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club wrote that the film's attempt to create a big, Indiana Jones-inspired action film felt "forced" and the result was unsatisfying. Other reviews complained of an overstuffed plot or recycled elements from better movies. Reviewers comparing the film to the 1932 original sometimes favored the original's focus on atmosphere and dread, though others welcomed the change to a more energetic Indiana Jones-type film.

The effects were generally praised, especially the title creature. Ernest Larson's review for Jump Cut felt that the effects were too similar to ILM's other work, and that the effects alone could not support the weight of the rest of the movie. Bob Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle and Hal Hinson from the Dallas Observer agreed that the effects never overshadowed the human aspects of the film. Gleiberman said that the horrors of the effects were undercut by the lightheartedness of the film, while the BBC's Almar Haflidason felt that the effects were occasionally unconvincing, and the heavy reliance on cutting-edge computer-generated imagery would likely date the film heavily as time passed.

Critics generally praised the acting, with Haflidason writing that the efforts of the cast sold material that would otherwise have been cheesy. David Hunter of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that all the actors managed to hold their own amid the special effects, although he felt Vosloo was largely wasted after Imhotep regenerates and the screenplay gives him little to do. Reviews from USA Today, the British Film Institute, and The A.V. Club said the film featured questionable casting of ethnic roles and occasionally traded in stereotypes of Arabs.

Writing to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the film's release, writer Maria Lewis said that on paper, The Mummy should not have been a success, as yet another period adventure film coming after a decade of failed period adventure films. Its connection with audiences, if not critics, was down to its successful blend of "heart, humor, [heroics], and horror." She declared it the "pivotal blockbuster of the nineties." Emma Stefansky, writing for Thrillist, said it was "the beginning of the end" for action-adventure films, as superhero films would soon supplant it in the coming years. Rotten Tomatoes called the film "Indiana Jones for a new generation." Reviewers felt Fraser's portrayal of Rick set a new mold for action heroes that more films would follow in the years after, while also considering Evelyn a character allowed to break free from a traditional damsel in distress role. The movie is considered as a classic in the adventure genre,  generating retrospective praise for Brendan Fraser's portrayal of Rick O'Connell.

Home media
The Mummy was released on home video in VHS and DVD formats on September 28, 1999. The title was a tremendous success for Universal on home video, selling 7 million units on VHS and 1 million on DVD, making it the year's best-selling live-action VHS and second best-selling DVD (behind The Matrix). The Mummy's performance helped Universal gross over $1 billion in home video sales. On April 24, 2001, a two-disc Ultimate Edition DVD of the film premiered to coincide with the release of The Mummy Returns. The film was later digitally remastered and received a Blu-ray release in 2008. It was subsequently re-released on 4K Ultra HD in 2017 as both a stand-alone title and in a trilogy pack with its sequels.

Adaptations
The Mummy's box office performance led to numerous sequels and spinoffs. The film sequel The Mummy Returns (2001) features most of the surviving principal characters. As a married couple, Rick and Evelyn confront Imhotep and the Scorpion King. The film also introduces the heroes' son, Alex. A second sequel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), takes place in China with the Terracotta Emperor inspiring the villain, and Rachel Weisz replaced with Maria Bello. The films inspired an animated TV series titled The Mummy, which lasted two seasons, and a spin-off prequel, The Scorpion King (2002). Universal announced plans in 2012 to reboot the franchise; a new film, also titled The Mummy, was released in June 2017 to poor critical and box office performance. Developer Konami Nagoya published two video game adaptations of The Mummy under license from Universal Interactive Studios, in 2000: an action-adventure game for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows developed by Rebellion Developments, as well as a Game Boy Color puzzle game. There was also a 2002 video game based on the 2001 animated series, published by Ubisoft for Game Boy Advance. The film also inspired a roller coaster, Revenge of the Mummy, found in three Universal Studios Theme Parks: Hollywood, California; Orlando, Florida; and Sentosa, Singapore.

In April 2023, it was announced that The Mummy and characters from the film would be featured in the upcoming video game, Funko Fusion, set to be released in 2024. The game is set to include, at least, Evelyn Carnahan.

title: The Mummy (1999 film)


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Washing

Washing is a method of cleaning, usually with water and soap or detergent. Regularly washing and then rinsing both body and clothing is an essential part of good hygiene and health.

Often people use soaps and detergents to assist in the emulsification of oils and dirt particles so they can be washed away. The soap can be applied directly, or with the aid of a washcloth.

People wash themselves, or bathe periodically for religious ritual or therapeutic purposes or as a recreational activity.

In Europe, some people use a bidet to wash their external genitalia and the anal region after using the toilet, instead of using toilet paper. The bidet is common in predominantly Catholic countries where water is considered essential for anal cleansing.

More frequent is washing of just the hands, e.g. before and after preparing food and eating, after using the toilet, after handling something dirty, etc. Hand washing is important in reducing the spread of germs. Also common is washing the face, which is done after waking up, or to keep oneself cool during the day. Brushing one's teeth is also essential for hygiene and is a part of washing.

'Washing' can also refer to the washing of clothing or other cloth items, like bedsheets, whether by hand or with a washing machine. It can also refer to washing one's car, by lathering the exterior with car soap, then rinsing it off with a hose, or washing cookware. Excessive washing may damage the hair, causing dandruff, or cause rough skin/skin lesions.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Washing


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Mummy (disambiguation)

A mummy is an unusually well preserved corpse.

Mummy or The Mummy may also refer to:

Places

 * Mummy Range, a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States
 * Mummy Cave, a rock shelter and archeological site in Park County, Wyoming, United States, near the eastern entrance to Yellowstone National Park
 * Mummy ride, a dark ride at three theme parks based on the film franchise

People

 * Mummy, a nickname for mother
 * Ray Schoenke, American football player nicknamed "The Mummy"
 * Joe D'Acquisto, professional wrestler nicknamed "The Mummy"

Film

 * The Mummy (1911 film), an American movie made by the Thanhouser Company
 * The Mummy (franchise), an American horror/adventure film series by Universal
 * The Mummy (1932 film), an American movie starring Boris Karloff as Imhotep/Ardath Bey
 * The Mummy (1999 film), first Universal Pictures remake of their earlier 1932 film
 * The Mummy (2017 film), second remake of the 1932 film, and "reboot" of the 1999 version, starring Tom Cruise
 * The Mummy (1959 film), a British remake of Universal's Mummy films starring Christopher Lee as Kharis
 * The Night of Counting the Years (also released as The Mummy), 1969 Egyptian film directed by Shadi Abdel Salam
 * Tale of the Mummy, a 1998 British-American horror film
 * Mummy (2016 film), an Indian Kannada-language film
 * Mummies (2023 film), an English-language Spanish 3D animated film
 * Pizza 3: The Mummy, a 2023 Indian horror film

Literature

 * The Mummy! (or The Mummy, or A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century), an 1827 novel by Jane C. Loudon
 * The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned, a 1989 novel by Anne Rice
 * The Mummy. A Handbook of Egyptian Funerary Archaeology, by Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge
 * Mummies: A Voyage Through Eternity, a 1991 illustrated book by Françoise Dunand and Roger Lichtenberg

Other arts and entertainment

 * Funeral of a Mummy on the Nile, 1877 painting by Frederick Arthur Bridgman
 * Mummy (undead), a popular trope of horror fiction
 * The Mummy (TV series), based on the film franchise
 * The Mummy (video game), based on the film franchise
 * The Mummy, a 1999 radio-drama produced by Radio Tales for National Public Radio
 * "The Mummy", a song by JJ Lin from the album No. 89757
 * "The Mummy", a song by Massacration from the album Good Blood Headbanguers
 * The Mummies, 1980s American garage punk band

Other uses

 * Mummia, a substance also known as "mummy"
 * Mummy brown, a pigment claimed to be made from mummies
 * Mummy paper, a paper claimed to be made from mummies
 * Mummy wasp, wasp of the genus Aleiodes
 * Mummification (BDSM), a bondage practice

title: Mummy (disambiguation)


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Operation Dingson

Operation Dingson (5–18 June 1944) was an operation in the Second World War, conducted by 178 Free French paratroops of the 4th Special Air Service (SAS), commanded by Colonel Pierre-Louis Bourgoin, who jumped into German occupied France near Vannes, Morbihan, Southern Brittany, in Plumelec, on the night of 5 June 1944 (11 h 30) with Captain Pierre Marienne and 17 men, then advanced to Saint-Marcel (8–18 June).

At this time there were approximately 100,000 German troops, and artillery, preparing to move to the Normandy landing areas.

Immediately upon landing in Brittany, on the night of 5 June 1944 (11 h 30), the Free French SAS who jumped in near Plumelec went into action fighting against German troops (actually, Georgians and Ukrainians).

One hour later (0 h 40), the first victim of the liberation of his country, Corporal Émile Bouétard (born 1915 in Brittany) was killed near Plumelec.

The Free French SAS established a base (Saint-Marcel) and began to arm and equip members of local resistance fighters, operating with up to 3,000 Maquis fighters and 200 paratroopers. However, their base was heavily attacked by a German paratroop division on 18 June and was forced to disperse.

A few weeks later, Captain Pierre Marienne and 17 of his companions (6 paratroopers, 8 resistance fighters and 3 farmers) were summarily executed after being captured in Kerihuel, Plumelec (12 July at dawn).

The Dingson team was joined by the men who had just completed Operation Cooney. Dingson was conducted alongside Operation Samwest and Operation Lost.

Operation Dingson 35A
On 5 August 1944, 10 Waco CG-4 gliders towed by aircraft of 298 Squadron and 644 Squadron transported the French SAS men and armed jeeps to Brittany near Vannes (Locoal-Mendon), each glider carrying 3 SAS troopers and a jeep which carried two Vickers K machine guns plus explosives, sten guns and a PIAT antitank gun. The gliders were escorted by 32 Spitfires for part of the trip. One glider was lost with the death of the British pilot.

The SAS teams remained behind enemy lines in occupied territory until the Allies arrived. The glider pilots were looked after by the local Resistance and then met up with the advancing American army at Auray.

title: Operation Dingson


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The Mummy (1932 film)

The Mummy is a 1932 American pre-Code supernatural horror film directed by Karl Freund. The screenplay by John L. Balderston was adapted from a treatment written by Nina Wilcox Putnam and Richard Schayer. Released by Universal Studios as a part of the Universal Classic Monsters franchise, the film stars Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan and Arthur Byron.

In the film, Karloff stars as Imhotep, an ancient Egyptian mummy who was killed for attempting to resurrect his dead lover, Anck-es-en-Amon. After being discovered and accidentally brought to life by a team of archaeologists, he disguises himself as a modern Egyptian named Ardath Bey and searches for Anck-es-en-Amon, whom he believes has been reincarnated in the modern world.

Whilst less profitable than its predecessors Dracula and Frankenstein, The Mummy was still a commercial and critical success, becoming culturally influential and spawning several sequels, spin-offs, remakes, and reimaginings.

Plot
In 1921, an archaeological expedition led by Sir Joseph Whemple finds the mummy of an ancient Egyptian high priest named Imhotep. An inspection of the mummy by Whemple's friend Dr. Muller reveals that the mummy's viscera were not removed, and from the signs of struggling Muller deduces that although Imhotep had been wrapped like a traditional mummy, he had been buried alive. Also buried with Imhotep is a casket with a curse on it. Despite Muller's warning, Sir Joseph's assistant Ralph Norton opens it and finds an ancient life-giving scroll, the "Scroll of Thoth". He translates the symbols and then reads the words aloud, causing Imhotep to rise from the dead. This snaps Norton's mind, and he laughs hysterically as Imhotep shuffles off with the scroll. Norton is said to later die, still laughing, in a straitjacket.

Ten years later, Imhotep has assimilated into modern society, taking the identity of an eccentric Egyptian historian named Ardath Bey. He calls upon Sir Joseph's son Frank and Professor Pearson and shows them where to dig to find the tomb of the princess Ankh-es-en-Amon. After locating the tomb, the archaeologists present its treasures to the Cairo Museum, after which Bey disappears.

Bey soon encounters Helen Grosvenor, a half-Egyptian woman bearing a striking resemblance to the princess, who stays with Muller. Bey falls in love with her but so does Frank. After it is discovered that Bey is the mummy Imhotep, Muller urges Joseph to burn the Scroll of Thoth, but when Joseph tries to do so, Bey uses his magical powers to kill him and then hypnotizes a Nubian to be his slave and bring the Scroll to him. After the servant does so, he hypnotizes Helen to come to his place and there, reveals to her that his horrific death was punishment for sacrilege, as he attempted to resurrect his forbidden lover, Princess Anck-es-en-Amon.

Believing her to be the princess's reincarnation, he attempts to make her his immortal bride by killing, mummifying, and resurrecting her. Frank and Muller come to her rescue but are immobilized by Bey's magical powers. However Helen is saved when she remembers her ancestral past life and prays to the goddess Isis to come to her aid. The statue of Isis raises its arm and emits a flash that sets the Scroll of Thoth on fire. This breaks the spell that had given Imhotep his immortality, causing him to crumble to dust. At the urging of Dr. Muller, Frank calls Helen back to the world of the living while the Scroll continues to burn.

Cast

 * Boris Karloff (billed as "Karloff") as Ardath Bey / Im-ho-tep / The Mummy, an Ancient Egyptian high priest mummified for trying to revive his lover who is later revived in 1921 and who searches and finds his lost love in 1930s Egypt after many years in 1932
 * Zita Johann as Helen Grosvenor, a young Egyptian-American woman preyed on by Imhotep / Princess Anck-es-en-Amon, Helen's lookalike ancestor and Imhotep's ancient lover whom he tries to revive
 * David Manners as Frank Whemple, an archaeologist and Helen's lover
 * Arthur Byron as Sir Joseph Whemple, a retired archaeologist and Frank's father
 * Edward Van Sloan as Dr. Muller, Joseph and Frank's colleague
 * Bramwell Fletcher as Ralph Norton, Joseph's archaeology protegé
 * Noble Johnson as The Nubian, Joseph's and later Imhotep's servant
 * Kathryn Byron as Frau Muller, Dr. Muller's wife
 * Leonard Mudie as Professor Pearson, Frank's expedition partner and an archaeologist
 * James Crane as Pharaoh (misspelled as "Pharoh" in the credits) Amenophis, Princess Anck-es-en-Amon's father and ruler of Ancient Egypt
 * Montague Shaw as Gentleman, who appears at the party in which Helen is at
 * Henry Victor as The Saxon Warrior (scenes deleted)

Production
Inspired by the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and the alleged "curse of the pharaohs", producer Carl Laemmle Jr. commissioned story editor Richard Schayer to find a novel to form a basis for an Egyptian-themed horror film, just as the novels Dracula and Frankenstein inspired their 1931 films Dracula and Frankenstein. Schayer found none, although the plot bears a strong resemblance to a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle entitled "The Ring of Thoth". Schayer and writer Nina Wilcox Putnam learned about Alessandro Cagliostro and wrote a nine-page treatment entitled Cagliostro. The story, set in San Francisco, was about a 3,000-year-old magician who survives by injecting nitrates.

Pleased with the Cagliostro concept, Laemmle hired John L. Balderston to write the script. Balderston had contributed to Dracula and Frankenstein, and had covered the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb for the New York World when he was a journalist so he was more than familiar with the well publicised tomb unearthing. Balderston moved the story to Egypt and renamed the film and its title character Imhotep, after the historical architect. He also changed the story from one of revenge upon all the women who resembled the main character's ex-lover to one where the main character is determined to revive his old love by killing and mummifying her reincarnated self before resurrecting her with the spell of the Scroll of Thoth. Balderston invented the Scroll of Thoth, which gave an aura of authenticity to the story. Thoth was the wisest of the Egyptian gods who, when Osiris died, helped Isis bring her love back from the dead. Thoth is believed to have authored The Book of the Dead, which may have been the inspiration for Balderston's Scroll of Thoth. Another likely source of inspiration is the fictional Book of Thoth that appeared in several ancient Egyptian stories.

Karl Freund, the cinematographer on Dracula, was hired to direct, making this his first film in the United States as a director. Freund had also been the cinematographer on Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The film was retitled The Mummy. Freund cast Zita Johann, who believed in reincarnation, and named her character 'Anck-es-en-Amon' after the only wife of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The real Ankhesenamun's body had not been discovered in the tomb of King Tut and her resting place was unknown. Her name, however, would not have been unknown to the general public.

Filming began in September 1932 and was scheduled for three weeks. Karloff's first day was spent shooting the Mummy's awakening from his sarcophagus. Make-up artist Jack Pierce had studied photos of Seti I's mummy to design Imhotep. Pierce began transforming Karloff at 11 a.m., applying cotton, collodion and spirit gum to his face; clay to his hair; and wrapping him in linen bandages treated with acid and burnt in an oven, finishing the job at 7 p.m. Karloff finished his scenes at 2 a.m., and another two hours were spent removing the make-up. Karloff found the removal of gum from his face painful, and overall found the day "the most trying ordeal I [had] ever endured". Although the images of Karloff wrapped in bandages are the most iconic taken from the film, Karloff appears on screen in this make-up only for the opening vignette; the rest of the film sees him wearing less elaborate make-up.

A lengthy and detailed flashback sequence was longer than now exists. This sequence showed the various forms Anck-es-en-Amon was reincarnated in over the centuries: Henry Victor is credited in the film as "Saxon Warrior", despite his performance having been deleted. Stills exist of those sequences, but the footage (save for Karloff's appearance and the sacrilegious events leading up to his mummification in ancient Egypt) are lost.

The piece of classical music heard during the opening credits, taken from the Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake, was previously also used (in the same arrangement) for the opening credits of Universal's Dracula (1931) and Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932); it would be re-used as the title music of the same studio's Secret of the Blue Room (1933).

There has been no official explanation as to why Ardath Bey hesitates for nearly seventy seconds to slay Helen in the climatic scene. Because of the unusual delay, Dr. Muller and Frank are able to save Helen from an untimely demise.

Historical accuracy
The Scroll of Thoth is a fictional artifact, though likely based on the Book of the Dead. Thoth, the Egyptian god of knowledge, is said to be the inventor of hieroglyphs and the author of the Book of the Dead. The film also makes reference to the Egyptian myth of the goddess Isis resurrecting Osiris after his murder by his brother Set.

Conspirators were caught in a plot to assassinate Pharaoh Ramesses III around 1151 B.C. Papyrus trial transcripts reveal that the conspirators were prescribed 'great punishments of death', and archaeological evidence led to the suggestion that at least one of them may have been buried alive. Although such punishment was not common practice, this discovery probably influenced the film's screenplay.

There is no evidence to suggest that the ancient Egyptians believed in or considered the possibility of reanimated mummies. Mummification was a sacred process meant to prepare a dead body to carry the soul through the afterlife, not for being reincarnated and living again on Earth. While it is possible that some individuals were mummified by being buried alive, it is unlikely that ancient Egyptians would think resurrection was possible because they were very aware of the fact that all the necessary organs had been removed and the body would be of little use on Earth anymore. Egyptologist Stuart Tyson Smith notes that 'the idea of mobile mummies was not entirely alien to ancient Egypt', citing one of the Hellenistic-era stories of Setna Khaemwas, which features both the animated mummy of Naneferkaptah and a fictional Book of Thoth and may have inspired screenwriter John Balderston.

Reception
The Los Angeles Times was positive, although the film otherwise gained mixed critical reviews despite being a modest box office success. When the film opened at New York's RKO Mayfair theater, a reviewer for The New York Times was ultimately unimpressed:"For purposes of terror there are two scenes in The Mummy that are weird enough in all conscience. In the first the mummy comes alive and a young archaeologist, going quite mad, laughs in a way that raises the hair on the scalp. In the second Im-Ho-Tep is embalmed alive, and that moment when the tape is drawn across the man's mouth and nose, leaving only his wild eyes staring out of the coffin, is one of decided horror. But most of The Mummy is costume melodrama for the children." The film was a success at the box-office in the United Kingdom.

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 89% score, based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's consensus states: "Relying more on mood and atmosphere than the thrills typical of modern horror fare, Universal's The Mummy sets a masterful template for mummy-themed films to follow".

Cliff Aliperti at Immortal Ephemera opines: "The perfect explanation of The Mummy's quality comes from film historian William K. Everson's closing comment in the brief Mummy section of his 1974 Classics of the Horror Film: 'If one accepts The Bride of Frankenstein for its theatre and The Body Snatcher for its literacy, then one must regard The Mummy as the closest that Hollywood ever came to creating a poem out of horror'."

The Mummy has been decried for "othering" Eastern culture, especially portraying it as being more primitive and superstitious than Western culture. In one scene, Helen Grosvenor longs for the "real" (Classical) Egypt, disparaging that she is in contemporary Islamic Egypt. This is viewed by critic Caroline T. Schroeder as a slight against Islamic culture at the time. However, it is clear that Helen longs to be in Ancient Egypt (but does not know why) because she had been reincarnated, living in present day, but had originally lived in Ancient Egypt.

According to Mark A. Hall, of the Perth Museum and Art Gallery, film portrayals of Egypt, especially in Egyptian archaeology, often deal with themes of appropriating and controlling the dangers of non-European cultures, or deal with the past if it relates to legend and superstition. Mummies, Hall says, are a common example of this. While he commended the archaeological wisdom espoused by Sir Joseph Whemple in the film, he writes that "much more is learned from studying bits of broken pottery than from all the sensational finds" and that archaeologists' job is to "increase the sum of human knowledge of the past", and mentions that the archaeological element was only used as a foil for the supernatural elements. As a result, per Hall, what it and similar films offered was a "depiction of archaeology as a colonial imposition by which cultural inheritance is appropriated".

Sequels
Unlike other Universal Monsters films, The Mummy had no official sequel. The character was re-imagined in The Mummy's Hand (1940) and its sequels; The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), The Mummy's Curse (1944), and the studio's comedy–horror crossover film Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). These films focus on the titular character named Kharis (Klaris in the Abbott and Costello film). The Mummy's Hand recycled footage from the original film for use in the telling of Kharis's origins, where Karloff is clearly visible in several of these recycled scenes but was not credited. Lon Chaney Jr. played the Mummy in The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, and The Mummy's Curse.

Hammer Film Productions series
In the late 1950s, British Hammer Film Productions took up the Mummy theme, beginning with The Mummy (1959), which, rather than being a remake of the 1932 Karloff film, is based on Universal's The Mummy's Hand (1940) and The Mummy's Tomb (1942). Hammer's follow-ups — The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964), The Mummy's Shroud (1966) and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) — are unrelated to the first film or even to each other, apart from the appearance of The Scroll of Life in Curse of the Mummy's Tomb and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb.

Remake series
The much later Universal film The Mummy (1999) also suggests that it is a remake of the 1932 film, but has a different storyline and is more similar to The Mummy's Hand than the original. In common with most postmodern remakes of classic horror and science-fiction films, it may be considered as such in that it is produced-distributed by the same studio, its titular character is again named Imhotep, resurrected by the Book of the Dead, and out to find the present-day embodiment of the soul of his beloved Anck-su-namun, and features an Egyptian named Ardeth Bay (in this case, a guard of the city and of Imhotep's tomb). This film spawned two sequels with The Mummy Returns (2001) and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008). The Mummy Returns also spawned a prequel spin-off of that sequel, The Scorpion King (2002), which in turn spawned a prequel, The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (2008), and three sequels, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (2012), The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power (2015) and Scorpion King: Book of Souls (2018). Also, a short-lived animated series simply titled The Mummy ran from 2001 to 2003.

Reboot
In 2012, Universal announced a reboot of the film, more in-line with the horror films, from the Universal Monsters film franchise. The reboot was directed by Alex Kurtzman. The Mummy was planned as the first film in a series of interconnected monster films, as Universal has planned to build a shared universe film series out of its vault of classic monster movies. Tom Cruise stars in the film. Sofia Boutella portrays Princess Ahmunet / The Mummy for the film, while Russell Crowe appears as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Hyde, two roles which had previously been portrayed by Boris Karloff in the studios' previous film franchise. It received negative reviews and is considered a box office bomb, scrapping the plans for the upcoming films of the Dark Universe.

Honors
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
 * 2001: AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated
 * 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
 * Imhotep – Nominated Villain

Home media
In the 1990s, MCA/Universal Home Video released The Mummy on VHS as part of the "Universal Monsters Classic Collection", a series of releases of Universal Classic Monsters films. The film was also released on LaserDisc.

In 1999, Universal released The Mummy on VHS and DVD as part of the "Classic Monster Collection". In 2004, Universal released The Mummy: The Legacy Collection on DVD as part of the "Universal Legacy Collection". On October 19, 2004, Universal released The Mummy: The Legacy Collection on DVD as part of the "Universal Legacy Collection"; this two-disc set also includes The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, and The Mummy's Curse. In 2008, Universal released The Mummy on DVD as a two-disc "75th Anniversary Edition", as part of the "Universal Legacy Series".

In 2012, The Mummy was released on Blu-ray as part of the Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection box set, which includes a total of nine films from the Universal Classic Monsters series. The following year, The Mummy was included as part of the six-film Blu-ray set Universal Classic Monsters Collection, which also includes Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man. In 2015, the six-film set was issued on DVD. In 2014, Universal released The Mummy: Complete Legacy Collection on DVD; this set contains six films: The Mummy, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Curse, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. In 2016, The Mummy received a Walmart-exclusive Blu-ray release featuring a glow-in-the-dark cover. In September 2017, the film received a Best Buy-exclusive steelbook Blu-ray release with cover artwork by Alex Ross. That same year, the six-film Complete Legacy Collection was released on Blu-ray.

In August 2018, The Mummy, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Curse, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy were included in the Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection Blu-ray box set. This box set also received a DVD release. Later in October, The Mummy was included as part of a limited edition Best Buy-exclusive Blu-ray set titled Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection, which features artwork by Alex Ross.

title: The Mummy (1932 film)


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The Mummy (1959 film)

The Mummy is a 1959 British horror film, directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. It was written by Jimmy Sangster and produced by Michael Carreras and Anthony Nelson Keys for Hammer Film Productions. The film was distributed in the U.S. in 1959 on a double bill with either the Vincent Price film The Bat or the Universal film Curse of the Undead.

Though the title suggests Universal Pictures' 1932 film of the same name, the film actually derives its plot and characters entirely from two 1940s Universal films, The Mummy's Hand and The Mummy's Tomb, with the climax borrowed directly from The Mummy's Ghost. The character name Joseph Whemple, the use of a sacred scroll, and a few minor plot elements are the only connections with the 1932 version.

Plot
In Egypt in 1895, archaeologists John Banning, his father Stephen and his uncle Joseph Whemple are searching for the tomb of Princess Ananka, the high priestess of the god Karnak. John has a broken leg and cannot accompany his father and uncle when they open the tomb. Before they enter, an Egyptian named Mehemet Bey warns them not to go in, lest they face the fatal curse against desecrators. Stephen and Joseph ignore him, and discover within the sarcophagus of Ananka. After Joseph leaves to tell John the good news, Stephen finds the Scroll of Life and reads from it. Outside, members of the archaeological team hear his screams and rush into the tomb to find Stephen in a catatonic state.

Three years later, back in England, Stephen Banning comes out of his catatonia at the Engerfield Nursing Home for the Mentally Disordered, and sends for his son. He tells him that when he read from the Scroll of Life, he unintentionally brought back to life Kharis, the mummified high priest of Karnak. The high priest had been sentenced to be entombed alive to serve as the guardian of Princess Ananka's tomb: Kharis secretly loved the princess and attempted to restore her to life after she died; when he was discovered, eternal life and mummification were his punishment. Now, Stephen tells his disbelieving son that Kharis will hunt down and kill all those who desecrated Ananka's tomb. Meanwhile, Mehemet Bey, a devoted worshiper of Karnak, comes to Engerfield under the alias of Mehemet Atkil to wreak vengeance on the Bannings. He hires a pair of drunken carters, Pat and Mike, to bring the slumbering Kharis in a crate to his rented home, but the two men's drunken driving cause Kharis's crate to fall off and sink into a bog. Later, using the Scroll of Life, Mehemet exhorts Kharis to rise from the mud, then sends him to murder Stephen Banning. When Kharis kills Joseph Whemple the next night, John witnesses it. He shoots Kharis with a revolver at close range, but to no effect.

Police Inspector Mulrooney is assigned to solve the murders but, because he is skeptical and deals only in "cold, hard facts", he does not believe John's incredible story about a killer mummy, even when John tells him that he is likely to be Kharis' third victim. While Mulrooney investigates, John notices that his wife Isobel bears an uncanny resemblance to Princess Ananka. Gathering testimonial evidence from other individuals in the community, Mulrooney slowly begins to wonder if the mummy is real.

Mehemet Bey sends the mummy to the Bannings' home to slay his final victim. However, when Isobel rushes to her husband's aid, Kharis sees her, releases John, and leaves. Mehemet Bey mistakenly believes that Kharis has completed his task, and prepares to return to Egypt. John, suspecting Mehemet Bey of being the one controlling the mummy, pays him a visit, much to Bey's surprise.

After John leaves, Mehemet Bey leads Kharis in a second attempt on John's life. The mummy knocks Mulrooney unconscious, while Mehemet Bey deals with another policeman guarding the house. Kharis finds John in his study and starts to choke him. Alerted by John's shouts, Isobel runs to the house without Mulrooney; at first, the mummy does not recognize her, but John tells her to loosen her hair and the mummy releases John. When Mehemet orders Kharis to kill Isobel, he refuses; Mehemet tries to murder Isobel himself, but is killed by Kharis instead. The mummy carries the unconscious Isobel into the swamp, followed by John, Mulrooney and other policemen. John yells to Isobel; when she regains consciousness, she tells Kharis to put her down. The mummy reluctantly obeys. When Isobel has moved away from him, the policemen open fire, causing Kharis to sink into a quagmire, taking the Scroll of Life with him.

Cast

 * Peter Cushing as John Banning
 * Christopher Lee as Kharis / The Mummy
 * Yvonne Furneaux as Isobel Banning / Princess Ananka
 * Eddie Byrne as Inspector Mulrooney
 * Felix Aylmer as Stephen Banning
 * Raymond Huntley as Joseph Whemple
 * George Pastell as Mehemet Bey
 * Michael Ripper as Poacher
 * George Woodbridge as P. C. Blake
 * Harold Goodwin as Pat
 * Denis Shaw as Mike
 * Gerald Lawson as Irish Customer
 * Willoughby Gray as Dr. Reilly
 * John Stuart as Coroner
 * David Browning as Police Sergeant
 * Frank Sieman as Bill
 * Stanley Meadows as Attendant
 * Frank Singuineau as Head Porter

Production

Filming occurred at Bray Studios in Berkshire. Originally the scenes of Kharis's tongue being cut out and shotgun demise were more graphic, but were trimmed for the British censor.

In the video, Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror, Peter Cushing says he suggested the scene in which he drives a spear through the mummy. He was inspired by the pre-release poster (see image above) which shows the mummy with a shaft of light passing through it.

A fibreglass replica of a sarcophagus created for the film is in the collection of the Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

Critical reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin of the UK wrote: "More glamorously photographed than ever, Hammer's latest excursion into nineteenth century macabre fantasy is weighed down by wordy historical exposition, flashbacks to ancient Egyptian burial ceremonies and a resultant slackening in pace". Howard Thompson of The New York Times thought that the film was "woodenly directed" and "should have been better". Variety wrote that the film was "excellently executed" in all technical departments, and while there was "little of actual newness" to the plot, the film "carries the type of action expected, and while chiller aspects aren't too pronounced they're sufficient to those who want to find them". Harrison's Reports called it "a fairly good picture of its kind, produced on a more lavish scale than its predecessors and enhanced by Technicolor photography".

The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films wrote of the film: "Structurally little more than a string of picturesque and nice-lit killings, The Mummy ' s melancholic presentation and romantic undertow grants it a certain atmosphere which elevates this bandaged brute far beyond its cinematic predecessors". It currently holds a positive 89% "Fresh" on film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 9 reviews.

Nina Wilcox Putnam, co-writer of the original 1932 Universal Mummy film, was highly critical of the Hammer adaption, writing in a letter to Time magazine: "This disgusting English remake was done without my knowledge or consent, and it has been a terrible shock at the age of 75, to find such a work attributed to me, however wrongly and by indirection".

In other media
The film was adapted into a 12-page comic strip for the July 1978 issue (#22) of the magazine Hammer's Halls of Horror. It was drawn by David Jackson from a script by Steve Moore. The cover of the issue featured a painting by Brian Lewis of Christopher Lee as Kharis.

The film is cited as a particular influence on the Doctor Who serial Pyramids of Mars (1975).

title: The Mummy (1959 film)


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Operation Lost

During the Second World War, Operation Lost was a reactive seven-man Special Air Service operation inserted into Brittany alongside Operation Dingson on 22–23 June 1944. The team, drawn from officers and men of 37 Military Mission and the SAS Brigade, was originally inserted to discover what had happened to the Dingson base after it had been attacked and dispersed by German led rear area security troops.

These SAS operations trained and armed local fighters and harassed the defenders as they tried to react to the Overlord landings. The Lost team was active from 23 June to 18 July.

The team was commanded by Major Oswald A. J. Cary-Elwes, (a career soldier who subsequently rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel) who was asked to join the SAS by its first Commanding Officer David Stirling. Stirling and Cary-Elwes were friends.

The Lost team was given instructions to search for and re-organise irregular French resistance forces formerly in touch with the French SAS, but which had been attacked and dispersed into woodland. This was one of several tasks under the overall leadership of the one-armed Free French Colonel, later member of Parliament, Pierre Bourgoin (1907-1970), the CO of 4eme BIA (Bataillon de l'Infanterie de l'Air) or 2eme RCP (Regiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes), which was known, colloquially, to the British as '4 SAS'.

Cary-Elwes and his batman were eventually exfiltrated by sea from northern Brittany in July 1944, on an escape line maintained by MI9, a now-defunct branch of the British War Office Directorate of Intelligence, at this period closely integrated with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) who had joint control of the branch and knew it as P15.

title: Operation Lost