Egypt, 1895. English archeologist Stephen Banning, his son John, and brother Joseph Whemple, search for the final resting place of Princess Ananka, a high priestess of ancient Egypt whose party disappeared while on a pilgrimage. The team finds a tomb hidden within a cliff-side, along with evidence that they're on the right track, and even though John is dealing with a broken leg, he agrees that they must press on. Within the week, they manage to completely excavate the tomb's entrance, but just as Banning and Whemple are about to head inside, an Egyptian, Mehemet Bey, warns them to stop, lest they suffer from a curse that comes about from disturbing such a tomb. Ignoring him, the two men head in and find a burial chamber that contains Ananka's sarcophagus. Whemple heads back to camp to tell John the good news, while Banning continues investigating by himself and finds an alcove containing the legendary Scroll of Life. Suddenly, his terrified screams echo outside the tomb and Whemple rushes to his aid, finding his brother virtually catatonic, babbling incoherently. Six months later, Banning has been put in a nursing home back in England, while John carries on with the excavation. Once it's completed, he has the tomb sealed up with dynamite. Nearby, Bey, who is a devoted follower of the Egyptian god Karnak, swears vengeance on the team for their desecration. Three years later, John and his wife, Isobel, visit Banning in the nursing home in Engerfield, as he's suddenly come out of his catatonia. John sees him alone and he's that he accidentally resurrected another mummy in Anaka's tomb when he read from the Scroll of Life. He also warns that the mummy will eventually come for them and kill them out of revenge for entering the tomb. John doesn't believe his father's far-fetched claim, unaware that Bey has arrived in Engerfield with a crate containing the reanimated mummy: Kharis, the high priest of Karnak and undead guardian of Anaka's tomb. With sway over Kharis, Bey begins sending him out at night to kill the members of the Banning expedition. Following the deaths of his father and uncle, John realizes his father was right but must find a way to prove it to the disbelieving Inspector Mulrooney, before he becomes Kharis' next victim.
Fortunately for John, after gathering testimonials from various Engerfield locals, Mulrooney starts to come over to his side. He also tells him of an Egyptian (Mehemet Bey) who's recently arrived and has leased a large house near the nursing home. Since Whemple told him of the Egyptian who tried to stop his father from entering the tomb years before, John, in his one true instance of being proactive, and despite Mulrooney's suggesting he not get into any "private police work," decides to pay Bey a visit. He makes casual conversation, talking about his father's recent death and also about Princess Ananka, commenting that the god she and the others of her sect worshiped, Karnak, wasn't a very impressive deity. This arouses a detectable sense of malice in Bey, who accuses John of being ignorant of such matters. Between this and seeing that Bey has the seal his father found at the tomb, John is sure he has control of Kharis and arms himself accordingly. Despite this and the police's attempts to protect him, John is, again, almost killed, when Isobel appears to Kharis and makes him think she's Ananka a second time. After killing Bey when he tries to murder Isobel, Kharis carries her off into the nearby swamp, with John, Mulrooney, and the villagers in pursuit. John tells Isobel to make Kharis put her down, a command he obeys, and John gets her to safety while the men, on his orders, open fire on Kharis, which leads him to sink down into the swamp.
While Cushing vastly out-shined him in The Curse of Frankenstein, and they were equals in Dracula, The Mummy is an example of Christopher Lee getting the much better role. You wouldn't think that since, for 90% of his screentime, Lee is again covered in layers of monster makeup and has no dialogue as the actual mummy, but his version of Kharis is more three-dimensional than the thankless role Lon Chaney Jr. was stuck with in the 40's movies. In a flashback to ancient Egypt, you see Lee playing Kharis in his original guise as the high priest of Karnak, as he oversees the embalming and burial of Princess Ananka when she dies during a pilgrimage. For his own reasons, Kharis has her buried in the region where she died, rather than returning her home, as was the usual custom, and it's later revealed why. Though it was forbidden, he loved Ananka, and after her burial, he broke into her sacred tomb to attempt to revive her by reading from the Scroll of Life. He's caught performing this blasphemous act and is duly punished: his tongue is cut out and he's buried alive in her tomb so that he may watch over her for all time. This is virtually the same backstory as that of the original Kharis but the difference is that we get a much more detailed look at who he was before he became the mute ghoul he is now (maybe a little too detailed, but more on that later), putting him more in line with Boris Karloff's Imhotep in the original 1932 film. Granted, Imhotep, whose ultimate goal was to make the reincarnation of his beloved princess undead like himself, had a lot more to him as a villain, since he was able to speak, had Dracula-like hypnotic powers, and was a true mastermind, whereas Kharis is mostly an instrument of death used to enact revenge on behalf of Karnak, but Lee still manages to give him some character even in his mummy form. Initially just a killing machine, Kharis' affection for Ananka is shown to still have a hold on him when he twice takes Isobel Banning for her. When it causes him to fail in his task of killing John the first time, you can see his despondence when Mehemet Bey proclaims to Karnak that they've carried out his vengeance, as he hesitates to return to his sarcophagus and appears desperate to tell Bey what happened, even though he's unable to. And when Isobel tricks him the second time, Kharis refuses to kill her, despite Bey's orders, and kills Bey himself when he attacks her with a knife. Kharis then carries Isobel off into the swamp, but when she tells him to put her down, per John's instructions, he does so, although you can see the reluctance in his face. This allows the men to open fire on him and send him sinking down into the muck.
From a purely monstrous standpoint, I find Lee's Kharis to be more of a threat than the one in the 40's. While he's still a slow-moving, reanimated creature whose main method of killing is strangling people with one hand, he doesn't shamble around on a bum foot but moves in for the kill fairly quickly, often after showing off his strength by smashing his way through a door or window, and bullets and even being impaled barely slow him down (though, that said, Lee suffered a number of injuries during filming). Lee's height, the bulkiness of his form in the bandages, and the expressions of rage in his eyes also give him advantages that Chaney never had. That's another thing: while it's still the typical look for an undead mummy, the makeup and outfit on Lee also look better than what Chaney was given, especially the face, the features of which you can vaguely see underneath the rotted, ashy remains of the bandages, and Lee's eyes look quite creepy with how they radiate out from them. Kharis' look also goes through several iterations over the course of the movie: you see him in fresh, white bandages when he's first mummified and buried alive, which have then faded to a dull brown in the flashback of Stephen Banning accidentally resurrecting him, and in all of the scenes in England, Kharis is much dirtier and caked in dried muck due to his crate getting dumped in a swamp before it can be delivered to Mehemet Bey's house.
Stephen Banning (Felix Aylmer), in the short amount of screentime he gets before he loses his mind at the sight of Kharis, as just as much of, if not even more than, a devoted archeologist as his son, becoming ecstatic when he discovers evidence he's finally found Princess Ananka's tomb after twenty years of searching. Although John needs to have his broken leg looked after, Banning excitedly tells his son of the discovery and allows him to decide whether he wants to stay until they manage to get inside the tomb or leave for the sake of his leg; naturally, John goes for the former option, even though he can't accompany his father. Once they break through to the tomb's entrance, Banning is joined by his brother, Joseph Whemple, and, after ignoring Mehemet Bey's warning, the two of them enter together. Inside, Banning finds Ananka's sarcophagus, and is so preoccupied with it that he almost doesn't hear Whemple say he's going to tell John of the find. Banning is then left alone in the tomb and finds the legendary Scroll of Life in an alcove. The sound of him screaming is heard outside, and when Whemple runs to him, he finds him slumped over the sarcophagus, his mind totally broken, as he's only able to mutter incoherently. He's taken back to England and placed in the Engerfield Nursing Home for the Mentally Disordered. For three years, he stays in this state of catatonia, when he suddenly asks for his son. John visits him and Banning shakily tells him about how he unintentionally resurrected a mummy in the tomb when he read from the Scroll of Life, adding that it will come for them and kill them for desecrating Ananka's tomb. John believes it to be a delusion and Banning, calling him a fool, sends him away, telling him that someone else has found the scroll. That night, as the crate containing Kharis is driven through the countryside, Banning appears to sense his presence, as he becomes hysterical, muttering about the mummy, and smashes his room's window with his cane, yelling for help. This outburst results in him being put into a padded room, where the only way to call for assistance is by ringing a bell. The following night, Mehemet Bey raises Kharis from the swamp he was dropped in and sends him to kill Banning. The mummy smashes his way into the padded room and Banning, after panicking and futilely pounding on the door, yelling but help, tries to ring the bell, but Kharis strangles him to death before he can do so.
As far as Hammer veterans go, the dependable Michael Ripper appears here as a poacher who, while out setting traps one night, spots Kharis shambling through the countryside while on his way to murder Joseph Whemple. Horrified at this, he runs to the pub and orders a drink to calm his nerves, raving about seeing a ten-foot tall man covered in bandages. He's later interviewed by Inspector Mulrooney, and after babbling about finding a dead rabbit, as he thinks he's being brought in for his poaching, he tells Mulrooney about Kharis, clarifying that he was likely a little more than seven feet tall rather than ten. The poacher sees Kharis again when he sets out to kill John Banning the second time, and unfortunately for him, Mehemet Bey knifes him before he can escape. George Woodbridge is here again, this time as Blake, Engerfield's police constable, who oversees the attempted recovery of the crate that fell into the swamp, which he's sure can't be salvaged because of the depth of the swamp in places. He's also interviewed by Mulrooney, telling him about Bey's appearance at the site and his calm demeanor about supposedly priceless relics being lost. Like the poacher, Blake is knifed by Bey while guarding the Banning house, waiting for Kharis to appear again. And finally, Dr. Reilly, the head of the nursing home, is played by Willoughby Gray, who was mainly a stage actor but would, years later, appear in the James Bond film A View to a Kill, as a former Nazi doctor whose experiments led to the psychosis of the main villain, Christopher Walken's Max Zorin.
The Mummy is where Hammer's films started to become true eye candy, as it has one of the richest color palettes yet, as well as a noticeable hint of late 50's Technicolor gloss that alludes to its having a bigger budget than its predecessors (125,000 pounds, as opposed to the 65,000 and 81,000 The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula had respectively). Jack Asher does some particularly good work here, giving the daytime scenes in the brightly-lit Egyptian desert, both in the actual story and the flashback to ancient Egypt, a very lush look. The colors, such as those of the blue sky and green palm leaves in the background, really pop, and those ancient Egypt scenes are especially beautiful-looking thanks to the costumes the actors where. (In general, they're where the movie really feels like a healthy-budgeted and very polished affair, even down to the sheen of the dark makeup used to make the actors feel Egyptian). Asher lights much of the interior of Ananka's tomb with an otherworldly green glow, along with some nice-looking shadows, and the inside of Mehemet Bey's rented house in Engerfield has a similarly otherworldly feel to it when he's praying to the idol of Karnak, which is lit by a couple of small torches on either and a small, glowing and steaming pot right in front of it, all of which create shimmering shadows on the walls. The tiny bit of exterior daytime photography in England is also lovely, showing off the rolling hills of the countryside under the golden rays of a setting sun, and there are some nighttime exterior scenes that were clearly shot at night, rather than the day-for-night process Hammer would come to rely on almost solely, which help make the scenes of Kharis storming down the country road and rural roads towards his unsuspecting victims, illuminated only by the occasional street lamp, just a tad bit creepier. Those scenes set at the swamp also have quite a moody and atmospheric feel, particularly when Bey appears to those attempting to retrieve his crate. Set at very early morning, it has a murky, dim look to it, accentuating the dark blue and grayish, cloudy horizon and the rich-looking, almost red color, of the muck very well, making the whole thing feel like something out of a fairy tale.
The movie presented Bernard Robinson with the task of creating more sets meant for outside scenes than was normal, such as the small valley outside the tomb, where both the Banning team's camp and the funeral procession for Princess Ananka are set, and the swamp from which Kharis is resurrected and where the ending takes place. While some of the wide shots of this tiny Egyptian valley, like the opening shot of the Banning camp, were obviously done on a set, the close-ups of the actors in the dialogue scenes and for Ananka's funeral procession work well enough with the facade. The swamp, however, which had been used once before for Val Guest's Yesterday's Enemy, is a truly inspired set, again feeling like something out of a grim fairy tale, and as I described above, Jack Asher's cinematography, as well as the backdrop of the dark sky in those scenes, truly add to that feeling (it's the one instance that feels very Gothic in a movie that, otherwise, doesn't exude it as many of its brethren; given the subject matter, it's not entirely unforgivable). In terms of actual interior sets, the most memorable is that of Ananka's tomb. Lying beyond a sealed door within the immediate opening, it's a large room, with hieroglyphics covering the walls, full of items from the funeral procession, and containing Ananka's sarcophagus in the back, which has the head of a bull, representing the Egyptian goddess Hathor, looking over it. There's a small alcove in the back where the Scroll of Life is kept and a hidden chamber behind a revolving wall panel where Kharis rests. In addition to providing the set's memorable lighting, Asher also helped create the illusion that the tomb hadn't been opened in thousands of years by having someone spray water into the air from the rafters before every take, resulting in all smoke and dirt particles being totally removed.
After the tomb, the movie's most memorable set is the interior of Mehemet Bey's house in Engerfield, where he keeps the prayer chamber with the idol of Karnak hidden behind two large, double-doors, as well as allowing Kharis to rest in a large cylinder that opens to reveal itself to be a makeshift sarcophagus. There's also the large, padded room in the nursing home where Stephen Banning is kept following his breakdown due to Kharis' arrival, which is recycled from Terence Fisher's previous film, The Man Who Could Cheat Death. It feels more like a cell, as it has only one, rather high, window, which is barred and has a mesh grating in front, and the only way he can call for help is by ringing a bell on the wall. And finally, there's the Banning household, in which all of the action is confined to the large study, no doubt built within the largest room at Bray Studios, with large windows dotting the back wall, a lovely fireplace, lots of fancy-looking lights hanging and sitting about, a bookcase behind the desk, and even a gun case. Speaking of Bray, while 99% of the interior sets were done there, Ananka's actual funeral was filmed at Shepperton Studios, where other Hammer films would be shot and which is also the site of the filming of many legendary films like Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Omen, Superman, Star Wars, Alien, and The Princess Bride, just to name a few.
Seeing the success Hammer was having with their Gothic horror films, Universal, starting with this film, entered into an agreement that allowed them to directly remake all of the classic monsters they'd made famous, which led to their reworking The Wolf Man into The Curse of the Werewolf and their remake of The Phantom of the Opera; Universal would also co-produce and distribute these and other films in the United States (because of this arrangement, the monster in Hammer's third Frankenstein film, The Evil of Frankenstein, is very similar in look to that of the classic Universal monster). In the case of The Mummy, it allowed Hammer to create a film that, while taking most of its inspiration from the 1940's films, is truthfully a melting pot of both those and the 1932 original, with the opening where an expedition member loses his mind at the sight of the newly resurrected mummy (whom he unwittingly brings back to life himself), and the flashback that shows how the mummy came to be what he is. While such a backstory exists in the original Kharis films, particularly the point of his tongue being removed before his mummification, the length and detail is more in line with Imhotep's story, especially the use of the Scroll of Life (called the Scroll of Thoth in the original) for resurrecting the dead rather than the tana leaves from the 40's movies. Also, the character of Joseph Whemple is named after the leading man's father in the 30's film. But, regardless, this story is mostly based on those later movies, with the use of Kharis, Princess Ananka, and the main plotline of a follower of Karnak controlling Kharis and sending him to punish those who desecrate Ananka's tomb. Also, the surname of Peter Cushing's character, Banning, is the same as the character Dick Foran played in The Mummy's Hand; the plot of Kharis being brought from Egypt to the expedition team's home country is taken from The Mummy's Tomb; and the ending involving the swamp is akin to that of The Mummy's Ghost, albeit with a more positive resolution.
This distillation of various elements from the Universal films, however, results in one of the major issues with Hammer's Mummy: there's little here that hasn't been done before. While Hammer was usually pretty good at putting their own spin on these classic horror stories, they really played it safe here and mainly just redid what Universal had done nearly two decades before. While I personally enjoy this film more than any of Universal's Mummy films, including the original, it is true that, if you've seen those, this will have a feel of "been there, done that." In fact, of the four Mummy movies Hammer would ultimately produce, only 1972's Blood from the Mummy's Tomb offers a truly unique and unorthodox take on the concept, whereas the two immediate follow-ups to this, The Curse from the Mummy's Tomb and The Mummy's Shroud, are just more of the same. It might have been more interesting if Hammer had decided to make this more in line with the 30's movie and have Christopher Lee play a character like Imhotep that would have made for a sort of Egyptian spin on his portrayal of Dracula, preferably with a lot more dialogue. They could have still called him Kharis just to differentiate it but I think it would have been cool to see Lee trying to awaken the reincarnated soul of his ancient beloved, making people with Nubian blood his slaves, and using his power to attack people from great distances, while watching their images in a small pool of water.
A major issue I myself have with the movie is the flashback to ancient Egypt that details what became of Kharis. As beautiful as it is to look at, and it's nice to see Christopher Lee getting to speak a fair amount of dialogue, the sequence goes on for far too long, taking up a whopping thirteen minutes of the running time, to the point where it seems like you're suddenly watching a totally different movie for a little bit. The similar sequence in the 1932 Mummy is also fairly lengthy but not like this. While it is necessary for getting across Kharis' forbidden love for Ananka, which led him to commit the act of blasphemy that sealed his fate, you see him saying prayers over his body, overseeing the embalming of her body, the lengthy funeral procession and the significance of the various items being carried along, and the interment of the body in the tomb and the ritualistic execution of the slaves and the princess' maidens, before finally getting to the moment where Kharis breaks into the tomb one night and is caught trying to revive Ananka. It's far more detail than I think was required, as the eye candy only works for so long, and it could have been trimmed down.
This is one of Hammer's least violent and gruesome films, as you don't see a drop of blood at all, with all of the onscreen deaths being due to strangulation and quick knifing, and the gunshots often fired into Kharis are totally bloodless (his ultimate death was originally meant to be more gruesome). The implied violence in the flashback, where you see the Egyptian soldiers preparing to slay Ananka's maidens before getting a very quick glimpse of their swords coming down on them, and the removal of Kharis' tongue prior to his mummification, are the only moments that make one grimace a bit but, even then, it's only the idea of it, as you don't see anything at all (again, the latter scene originally contained some pretty grisly stuff but it was removed to please the British censors). Because of this, the movie may have a broader appeal than many of Hammer's other horror films.
The movie opens in 1895, in a small Egyptian valley, where Stephen Banning and his party find a small seal near the entrance of a tomb they're excavating from within the side of a mountain. He shows it to his injured son, John, who's confined to his tent with a broken leg, and they both agree it's proof they've found Princess Ananka's tomb. Though John's uncle, Joseph Whemple, believes he must leave the camp to have his leg seen to, John prefers to stay until they're able to enter the tomb in just a few days, a decision his father abides by, much to Whemple's consternation. Within the week, they've managed to reach the entrance, but as Banning and Whemple are about to enter, the Egyptian Mehemet Bey tries to talk them out of it, warning them of a deathly curse that befalls those who violate the graves of Egypt. Neither of them pay the man any heed, Banning telling him to mind his own business, and head inside. They come upon a large pair of doors just beyond the opening in the wall. Examining it, Banning finds that it is, indeed, the royal seal of Ananka. Breaking the seal, Banning opens the doors one at a time, revealing the tomb, which is perfectly preserved. Spotting a sarcophagus in the back of the room, Banning inspects and confirms that it contains the body of Ananka. Whemple heads back outside to tell John, while Banning studies the tomb's interior by himself; outside, Whemple confirms to the native workers that it is Ananka's tomb, an announcement that's also heard by Bey, who's still at the scene. In the tomb, Banning spots an alcove in the wall next to the sarcophagus which contains a sort of box. Reading the inscriptions on its front, he finds it contains the fabled Scroll of Life, and his removing it from the alcove appears to open a secret door on the other side of the tomb. Out in his tent, John is told the good news and wishes he could be there with his father. Suddenly, they hear Banning let out a horrified scream from inside the tomb, and Whemple rushes back to his brother. He finds Banning slumped over the sarcophagus, and when Whemple asks him what happened, he's only able to let out incoherent mumbling.
Some time later, John and Whemple manage to finish the excavation of the tomb. John tells his uncle that his wife, Isobel, visited his father in the nursing home back in England and that he's still in the same state as before, adding that the doctors said if there was no change within six months, there never would be. The time comes to seal up the tomb again, which both of them are more than happy to do, as John tells Whemple he's never worked in a tomb that had such an uncomfortable atmosphere to it and that he could feel a sense of evil within it. The two of them then take cover behind a large stone and John gives the workers the signal to light the fuse to the dynamite that's trailing from outside the tomb's entrance. Within seconds, an explosion rocks its inside, completely caving in the roof. Nearby, Mehemet Bey swears to the god Karnak that those who entered Ananka's tomb will not go unpunished, that he will dig his way back through to the tomb, no matter how long it takes, and find the instrument of his revenge. It's then revealed that he now possesses the Scroll of Life.
The film jumps ahead to 1898, where John visits his father at the Engerfield Nursing Home for the Mentally Disordered, upon learning that he's emerged from his catatonic state and has asked for him specifically. Puzzled at this sudden change, John is taken to his father's room, where he attempts to warn him about a reanimated mummy he brought to life by reading the Scroll of Life in Ananka's tomb. Since no sign of a mummy other than the princess or a scroll was found, John doesn't believe what his father tells him, having to calm him when he starts raving about the mummy coming to kill them for entering the tomb. Realizing his son doesn't believe him, Banning sends him away, warning him that someone else has found the scroll and that the mummy will be unleashed again. That night, at a pub, two carters, Pat and Mike, leave to deliver a crate supposedly containing Egyptian relics to a mysterious foreigner who's rented a house in the area, but not before having a few drinks. Completely sauced, the two of them drive off, with Pat taking the reins. The route to the house takes them by the nursing home, and as they approach, Banning, sitting in his room, suddenly comes out of his placid state, murmuring about the mummy. As the cart passes by the nursing home, Banning suddenly smashes the window with his cane and starts yelling for help. The sight and sound of this panics Pat, who whips the horses to make them go faster. Mike, seeing the crate bumping around in the back, tells him to slow down but Pat, afraid of being attacked by an escaped lunatic, refuses. Continuing to drive at this frantic speed, they hit a bump and the crate tumbles out, falling into a bog.
Come the next morning, Blake, the Engerfield police constable, leads a small recovery team, though he personally believes there's no hope in finding the crate. He questions Pat about what was in it and where it was being taken, when Mehemet Bey arrives on the scene, identifying himself as the man who was expecting the crate. Despite being told there's no chance of recovering it, Bey is strangely calm about it and leaves the scene; when Blake asks him what was inside, Bey says it was merely relics. Meanwhile, John visits the nursing home again, this time to learn of his father's sudden setback from Dr. Reilly. Reilly tells him his father seems to have developed a persecution complex that's so serious, they had to put him in a padded room. John is dumbfounded by this, as he says he doesn't know of anyone who would want to kill his father. That evening, Bey returns to the bog and, after praying to Karnak to make his task as easy as possible, unfurls the Scroll of Life and reads from it. The surface of the bog begins bubbling, and as he finishes the incantation, Kharis, the reanimated mummy, emerges, completely covered in muck. Freeing himself, he walks onto the shore, where Bey sends him to dispense with the members of the Banning expedition. His first target is Stephen Banning, who's being put to bed in the nursing home's padded room. The male nurse tells him to ring the bell on the wall behind him if he wants anything, saying they won't hear him if he yells and pounds on the wall. He gets no response from Banning and heads out the door, locking him in. Outside, Kharis stomps down a country road and makes his through the nursing home's gates. Banning sees him appear behind the padded room's barred window and watches as he rips the bars, smashes the glass, and goes for the grating beyond the window. Banning jumps up and, in a panic, futilely pounds on the door and yells for help. By the time he stops and runs to the bell, Kharis drops down into the room, lunges for him, and grabs him by the throat, bending him over the bed and slowly strangling him to death. His task accomplished, he proceeds to climb back out the window.
After attending an inquest, wherein the death is ultimately determined to have been a random act of violence perpetrated by a madman, John, convinced there must be an actual motive, searches through his father's papers, with his uncle's help. Unable to find anything definitive, they remember the day when Banning found Ananka's tomb and then lost his mind almost immediately. Discussing what might have caused the breakdown, John admits he can't get his father's claims about a living mummy out of his mind and removes a folio containing all of Banning's research on Ananka. He proceeds to relate the story to Whemple. It took place in the year 2,000 B.C., when Ananka set out on a pilgrimage, only to become ill and die three months in. The film transitions to that time period, where Kharis, the high priest of Karnak, says a prayer over Ananka's body in her tent. The film then shows the beginning of the embalming of Ananka's body, with Kharis saying another prayer, as her body is anointed with holy oils, followed by her being placed in a bath of natron, where she's kept for seventy days. Next comes the funeral procession, with Kharis deciding to bury her in the area where she died, building a tomb in a mountainside, rather than returning her body home. The order of the procession was traditional: the Sekhmet boat, meant to bare the spirit of the dead to the other world; a man wearing a mask meant to represent a living god; an idol of Anubis, as a guardian of the tomb; the idol of the head of the goddess Hathor; maidens carrying funeral figurines called ushabti; and the sarcophagus containing the now mummified Ananka, followed by Kharis. The procession heads into the tomb, with Nubian slaves carrying the sarcophagus inside, followed by Kharis and a casket containing Ananka's heart. John narrates throughout this sequence, noting that many people were killed in the ceremony to ensure the location of the tomb remained a secret, including the Nubian slaves and the princess' handmaidens, who were meant to accompany her in the afterlife. This latter act is depicted with sword-wielding soldiers taking positions behind the handmaidens and Kharis, one by one, gesturing over each of them, as each soldier raises his sword. Kharis steps back and motions with his hands, leading to the handmaidens' instant execution. With that, Kharis walks to the sarcophagus, which is standing vertically, exchanges the two objects he was holding for two new ones, and says another incantation, starting the final rites, which last for six days and culminate in the tomb being sealed.
The night of the tomb's sealing, Kharis returns by himself, carrying the Scroll of Life's container, and violates the sacred seal in order to gain entry. Inside, he makes his way to the back of the tomb, where the sarcophagus lies, and opens the lid, revealing Ananka's body. John narrates that Kharis had loved Ananka, despite her being bound to Karnak himself, and that now that she was dead, the vows were no longer binding. Removing the scroll and unfurling it, Kharis reads from it: "Oh, thou Lord of Souls, oh, thou Lord of the Tomb, thou Mighty One of Amentet, let not these limbs be without movement, let them not pass away, and let them not suffer from corruption. Make supple these limbs and strong these sinews. Refill, oh my soul, this heart with tenderness that she may walk again in the land of Kemp, in all her strength and beauty. Give life. Give life when I pronounce the mighty word of power." Before he can say it, Kharis turns and sees that he's been discovered. The film transitions to the beginning of Kharis' punishment, beginning with the removal of his tongue, so his cries would not offend the gods' ears. An object akin to a pair of tongs is moved towards his open mouth and, in a shot angled from behind him, his tongue is cut with a blade wielded by a Nubian, Kharis letting out a pained grunt. Then, he's shown inside Ananka's tomb, completely wrapped in bandages, as he is about to be buried alive to guard the tomb for all time. As he watches, his wide, fearful eyes peering out from behind the slit in the bandages, a secret room is opened in the wall, and he's led inside by two sword-wielding guards. The Scroll of Life is placed in its alcove and the panel's door slowly closes, sealing him inside. The film fades to black and comes back to the study in the Banning household, with John adding that, for whatever reason, none of the procession returned home. Whemple writes the whole off as a historical myth, telling John that the parts revolving around Kharis' attempt to resurrect Ananka and his being buried alive are removed from fact and can't be taken seriously. He advises John to treat the story as such, lest he lose his mind as well.
That night, at his rented house, Mehemet Bey opens the double doors to the room containing an idol of Karnak and prays for his help in carrying out the second task. He then opens up a large cylinder next to the doors, revealing Kharis standing inside a makeshift sarcophagus. Bey sends him out to hunt down and kill the second member of the Banning expedition. Elsewhere, in the countryside, a poacher sets up a metal trap while downing a bottle of booze. Hearing and then seeing someone approaching, he ducks behind some bushes and watches as Kharis comes stomping through. Completely taken aback by this sight, the poacher runs off into the dark, straight to the town pub. Racing through the door and to the bar, he asks the bartender, Bill, to pour him some whiskey, before babbling about what he saw. Naturally, the bartender and the guy he sits next to figure the shot he downs isn't his first that night, but the poacher insists what he saw was real and that something bad is going to happen. Back at the Banning house, Whemple decides to turn in, advising John to do the same. But, Whemple no sooner steps out into the foyer than Kharis suddenly comes smashing through the front doors (a stunt that separated Christopher Lee's shoulder, as the door was accidentally bolted by a grip). Whemple barely has time to react when Kharis stomps towards him and grabs him by the throat. John runs in and, seeing Kharis lifting his uncle up into the air by the throat, rushes the mummy, trying to make him release his grip, but gets tossed aside. Running back into the study, he unlocks a gun case and grabs the revolver, though it's now too late to save Whemple. Kharis drops the dead man to the floor and stomps back out the door. John heads back into the foyer and fires at Kharis, hitting him in the back of his left shoulder, but he barely breaks stride from it. John shoots again but, once more, Kharis hardly reacts. He chases the mummy outside, firing the rest of his bullets, but finds he only managed to waste his efforts.
The next day, John talks with Inspector Mulrooney from Scotland Yard about what happened, telling him he knows he hit Kharis at least twice. He also tells him he believes the killer was a mummy, a claim that Mulrooney, who's already skeptical about John having shot him twice without taking him down, doesn't buy. He asks Mulrooney to take a seat, as he relates what he believed happened to his father. The next scene starts as John's recollection of what happened but then becomes a flashback to reveal what actually did happen, as it shows some details he couldn't possibly know. The movie replays Stephen Banning and Whemple opening the tomb, Banning confirming that the sarcophagus in the back houses the body of Ananka, and Whemple leaving his brother to tell John. Again, Banning discovers the Scroll of Life in its alcove and removes it, an action that, unbeknownst to him, opens the panel to the room where Kharis was buried alive. Banning sits beside the sarcophagus, removes the scroll from its container, unfurls it, and begins to read. As he does, Kharis is slowly restored to life and, seeing Banning, stomps towards him. Banning almost finishes reading the incantation, when he sees Kharis and lets out a scream of terror, falling back on the sarcophagus. Mehemet Bey comes running in and speaks to Kharis in Egyptian, getting his attention. He motions for Kharis to return to his own tomb and the mummy slowly does as he says, walking back inside the panel, which Bey closes shut. He then grabs the Scroll of Life and makes off with it, leaving Banning slumped back against the sarcophagus, moaning hysterically. The film cuts back to the present, where Mulrooney dismisses John's story, telling him that all he believes is that his father and uncle where murdered by the same man. Before he leaves, John tells Mulrooney he believes he himself is the next one to die. Throughout the day, Mulrooney conducts interviews with various people: he talks with the poacher about the enormous man he saw, Pat and Mike about the mishap they had with the crate they were supposed to deliver, and Blake about Bey appearing at the bog during the attempted recovery of the crate.
At his house that night, Bey again prays to Karnak for guidance, before sending Kharis out again, this time to kill John. At his home, John goes over some papers, including a drawing of Ananka, when Isobel comes in to ask him to come to bed. It's then he notices that she looks virtually identical to Ananka with her hair down and points this out to her. They then talk about the police's ongoing investigation, when Isobel senses that John is keeping something from her. He admits he believes the killer will return for him and that he's planning to wait for him to appear. Aghast at this, Isobel tries to convince John to get away but John, instead, is firm and orders her to go up to her bedroom and lock the door. Reluctantly, she does as she's told, and when she's gone, John takes a rifle from the gun case and loads it. As Kharis closes in on the house, John looks out through the study's windows and then heads back over to the desk. Just as he sets his rifle down, Kharis reaches the house. John turns and sees his shadow fall over the outside of one of the windows before he smashes through it. He quickly grabs his rifle and shoots Kharis twice in the torso, neither of which does anything to stop his advance. John leaps over the desk and grabs a decorative spear from above the bookcase, jamming it all the way through Kharis' body. Like the bullets, this does nothing and Kharis grabs John's throat, bending him over the desk, as he futilely tries to escape his powerful grip. Having heard the commotion, Isobel comes running downstairs and bursts into the room to see her husband getting strangled. She yells, "No!", getting Kharis' attention. When he sees her, her resemblance to Ananka takes him aback as it had John, who collapses to the floor upon being released. Kharis approaches Isobel, who backs into the corner next to the door, and motions towards her with his hands. The two of them look at each other, Kharis' eyes now having a look of peace and affection rather than the rage that was there before, which then turns to sadness as he averts his eyes down. With that, he turns and exits the house, the spear still sticking through him, while Isobel runs to John, who rises from the floor. Seeing to his neck as he tries to catch his breath, Isobel notices the drawing of Ananka on the desk and figures why Kharis reacted the way he did.
Talking with Mulrooney afterward, who slowly but surely is beginning to realize there's something to the idea of a living mummy, John learns of the Egyptian who's rented the house near the nursing home. Ignoring Mulrooney's suggestion not to, John decides to pay the man a visit. Inside, as Kharis stands nearby, Mehemet Bey announces to Karnak that he has been avenged. He tells Kharis that he may rest and they will head home soon. However, Kharis is reluctant to return to his sarcophagus, unable to tell Bey that he failed to kill John. Bey orders him back into the sarcophagus and the troubled mummy reluctantly steps inside. Bey hears the front door's bell ringing and quickly closes the doors to the prayer room and Kharis' container, before answering it. He's surprised when the visitor introduces himself as a Mr. Banning but, regardless, invites him in, introducing himself with the alias of Mehemet Atkill (like I said before, I don't know why he thinks an alias is necessary for someone who's never heard his real name). He leads John to the sitting room, where he learns that he is, indeed, Stephen Banning's son. The two of them sit down and Bey tells him that he considers many archeologists to be desecraters of ancient graves who root through the sacred objects of the tombs and send them to museums to be gawked at for all time. Despite this, he insists, "To me, the dead are the dead. Clay." Feigning ignorance about Stephen Banning's death, he asks John of the cause, and when he doesn't react strongly upon being told he was murdered, he apologizes, saying that violence doesn't impact him much, given how it's commonplace in Egypt. In discussing the history of violence that Egypt is steeped in, John comments that, despite all of the people who were put to death for him, Karnak was an insignificant deity, and questions the intelligence of those who worshiped him, decrying the religion surrounding him as being based on, "Artificial creeds and beliefs, some of them ludicrous in the extremes." Bey accuses him of being intolerant, telling him, "Because you're unable to experience the greatness of a deity, you dismiss it as of no consequence. But, believe me, to those who worship and serve Karnak, he is all powerful... Now, you talk about something of which you know nothing. You've scratched only the surface, and you know nothing. You assume the right to disturb the everlasting peace of the gods. You pry and meddle, with unclean hands and eyes. Profanity, blasphemy, religious desecration. All these you are guilty of. But the powers with which you have meddled do not rest easy. I think you will not go unpunished... There are certain things for which civilization has no answer. But, if you choose to meddle thus, then you must be prepared to face the consequences, whatever they are."
John notes how that last remark came off as a threat and Bey apologizes for his tangent, commenting on how thousands of years of belief can't be so easily suppressed; John, in turn, apologizes for having gotten carried away. As Bey sees him out, John notices a royal seal on a table, namely the same one his father found outside the tomb, and examines it briefly. Bey comments how a large consignment of other items from the corresponding dynasty was recently lost in transit. John then leaves, with Bey promising that they'll meet again. Once he's gone, Bey rushes back to the sitting room, reopening Kharis' cylinder and the doors to the prayer room. He tells Karnak they've failed him but promises, "Before the sun strokes the horizon, the last desecrater will be dead." He then prepares to leave, taking the Scroll of Life and bringing Kharis with him. Back at the Banning house, John loads a rifle, while Mulrooney admonishes him for going against what he suggested. John tells the inspector that he's confirmed that Bey is the one controlling the mummy, but Mulrooney, in turn, explains that John has now forced Bey to act soon, something he didn't want to provoke until he was ready. He goes on to say that, at the moment, he only has Blake and another man (who you never see and who never gets caught up in what happens next) standing guard over the house. John gives Mulrooney the rifle and the inspector suggests that Isobel come with him outside, while John acts as the bait alone. Despite Isobel's objections, John agrees with the idea, and the two of them head outside, Mulrooney telling John to use his own gun as a signal if anything goes wrong. Elsewhere, the poacher from before is, again, prowling around with a gun and a bottle of whiskey, when he sees Kharis stomping down the road. Like before, he panics and tries to flee, but this time, he runs into Bey, who chases him down and knifes him in the back, killing him instantly.
While John waits in the study, Mulrooney and Isobel camp in a bush outside, keeping an eye on the house. On another part of the grounds, Blake is stabbed in the back by Bey, who then leads Kharis along. Mulrooney tells Isobel to stay where she is, while he goes around the front to check on things. As he does, Kharis appears behind him and punches him on the back of his head, knocking him unconscious. Bey leads Kharis on, bringing him into the house through a side door, and then sending him into the study. Kharis bursts his way through the door and grabs John's rifle before he can shoot, though he does manage to shoot straight up, which Isobel hears from outside. Kharis wrestles the rifle away and tosses it aside, before again grabbing John by the neck and bending him over a chair as he chokes him, while Bey watches from the doorway. Isobel rushes in through one of the study's large, open windows, and yells at Kharis to stop. Kharis glances at her but, because she's wearing her hair up, he pays her no mind and goes back to killing John. John yells at her about her hair and she quickly puts it down, again yelling for Kharis to stop. This time, when he looks at her, he does relent and lets go of John, who collapses to the floor. Bey yells for Kharis to kill Isobel but he glares at him and makes no move to do so. Bey takes out his knife and rushes at Isobel, preparing to do it himself, but Kharis grabs him from behind and bends him over his knee, breaking his spine. Taking the Scroll of Life from him, Kharis walks to Isobel, scoops her up in his arms, and makes off with her. Mulrooney, having regained consciousness, comes in and helps John, who tells her that Kharis has Isobel. They rush outside and initially head for Bey's house, when they spot Kharis and see that he's carrying Isobel into the swamp instead.
When Kharis reaches the edge of the bog, he finds he's surrounded when a group of villagers rounded up by Mulrooney's sergeant comes at him from up ahead, with Mulrooney and John appearing behind him. Mulrooney is about to point and shoot but John stops him, fearing he might hit Isobel. Kharis walks straight into the bog, as the others reach the edge of it, Mulrooney being the one to stop them from firing on the mummy. John tells Mulrooney to have the men line up along the shore, with their guns ready, while the two of them rush to another spot. John calls for Isobel, awakening her, and tells her to order Kharis to put her down. Isobel calls Kharis by his name and he stops and looks at her. She tells him to put her down, as John and Mulrooney rush to the opposite side of the bog, the inspector telling the men to be ready to shoot. Isobel, again, tells Kharis to put her down and he, very reluctantly, does as he's told, setting her down in the mud. John and Mulrooney appear on the shore across from her, John telling her to come to him and to get down low when he tells her to. While she wades towards John, Kharis' head rears up and he turns and sees John and Mulrooney. John then tells Isobel to get down, yelling at the men to open fire. Kharis is then totally shot up and recoils from the bullets, while John and Mulrooney help Isobel get to shore. Kharis stumbles into the center of the bog, when he's fired upon again, and everyone watches as he sinks beneath the muck, clutching the Scroll of Life in his hand.
Like The Revenge of Frankenstein's Leonard Salzedo, Franz Reizenstein, the German-born composer hired to score The Mummy, ultimately accrued a scant handful of film scores in his career (which was cut short when he died in 1968 at 57). But, unlike Salzedo's rather forgettable score for that film, Reizenstein creates a very memorable, sweeping orchestral score, one that makes good use of the Egyptian core of the story, as you often hear flourishes of music that have that unique flavor to them, usually accompanied by vocalizing (just about every second of the flashback to ancient Egypt is permeated by this sound), and it also has a strong, brassy-sounding main motif for Kharis that's heard various times throughout the film but is at full strength during the climax. The score is actually quite old-fashioned, even for one composed for a 1950's horror film, as there are notable instances of what's called "mickey-mousing," where the music reacts directly to the action on the screen. The best example of this is during the sequence in ancient Egypt: each time Kharis gestures over one of the maidens, it's accompanied by a blast of horns, while a plucking string plays when each of the guards behind them raises their swords to execute them. Mickey-mousing was slowly but surely being phased out in film music at this point, so its appearance here is surprising, and it helps recapture the feel of the score for the original Mummy. All in all, Reizenstein came up with some truly magnificent music for the film and some of it would be reused in the score for The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb several years later.
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