The Mummy (1959) - Poster/promo art by Joseph Smith

Peter Cushing as John Banning in The Mummy (1959)

Watercolors on Paper, 8.5" x 11", 2024

By Josh Ryals

the mummy, 1959.

The Mummy (1959)

The Mummy (1959), Italian fotobusta, re-release 1971

Christopher Lee: A Sinister Centenary - Number 19

Welcome to Christopher Lee: A Sinister Centenary! Over the course of May, I will be counting down My Top 31 Favorite Performances by my favorite actor, the late, great Sir Christopher Lee, in honor of his 100th Birthday. Although this fine actor left us a few years ago, his legacy endures, and this countdown is a tribute to said legacy! Today’s Subject, My 19th Favorite Christopher Lee Performance: The Mummy (1959).

I often feel that the Hammer version of “The Mummy” is somewhat overlooked: whenever people and documentaries and so on talk about The Mummy, they usually refer to either the 1990s film series starring Brendan Frasier (as the hero, not the Mummy), or the original 1932 classic starring Boris Karloff. Both are certainly worthy of praise; the first of the Stephen Sommers films is more of an action/adventure madhouse than a true horror movie, but it’s iconic for a reason. Meanwhile, the original 1932 classic is a spellbinding spook show, in which Boris Karloff takes the creepy cake. But for me, my absolute favorite Mummy movie appeared in the middle of these two eras: the 1959 Hammer Horror version, starring Sir Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. It’s interesting that the Hammer Mummy is, essentially, positioned smack in the middle between the Karloff and Sommers/Frasier features, because, honestly, the movie ITSELF feels like an interesting halfway point between the two periods in time. The Karloff film was a slow, hypnotic film that had a dreamlike, unnerving pace; the Mummy wasn’t a vicious monster, but a mental and emotional menace. And, of course, the Sommers films went for a more action-oriented tone, like a cross between Indiana Jones and Dracula. The Hammer Mummy – which blends elements of the Karloff film and the other Universal Monsters movies for the character that followed with some original material all its own - feels not only like a sort of “Best Of” collection of everything that came before, but a glimpse into what would be. It’s a nice middle ground between the two genres, and I think that’s why I like it so much: there’s a little something for everyone in this version. Lee, of course, is one of the highlights of this picture. I love the look of his Mummy; it’s not the dessicated, exaggeratedly-decomposed monster from the Sommers films, nor is it the nowadays considered more cartoonish creature of the post-Karloff Universal films before it; once again, its somewhere in the middle. In this version, the Mummy is called Kharis: it is revealed in a lengthy flashback sequence that, long ago, he was a High Priest of Ancient Egypt, who fell in love with the Princess Ananka. When she died, he secretly tried to resurrect her, but was caught in the act; the Pharaoh then had Kharis cursed, mummified, and sealed in a tomb, to keep eternal vigil over the Princess, as a sort of cruel and ironic punishment. When archaeologists unearth Ananka’s tomb and awaken the monster, a mad cultist called Mehemet Bay finds a way to control Kharis. He sics the Mummy on people who he feels have defied the Ancient Gods, in a twisted scheme of revenge. Things only get more complicated when Kharis comes to believe our main hero’s love interest is actually the reincarnation of his own precious princess. Lee suffered a LOT making this picture. “I did things in that film,” he once said, “that even Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn’t do, and rightly so!” The number of stunts, intense makeup, and special effects involved in making his Mummy and all the action it was involved in come to life literally left scars: over the course of filming, he suffered a dislocated shoulder, burn marks, lacerations from broken glass, and even threw out his back, just to name a few of his literal injuries. To top it off, the makeup obscured everything on him but his eyes. In a weird way, however, I think all these pains – both literal and figurative – actually AIDED his performance and the power of the movie: his Mummy never says a word, but you can feel the power, the urgency, the need, the intensity of emotion and physical strain, in every single step, gesture, and flicker of the eyelids. He brings to life so much while all but buried alive in his own outfit, and I think it’s because he knew that, nine times out of ten, he’d only have one shot to really get it right. There is nothing cartoonish about the lurching, unstoppable force that is his Mummy. To top it off, unlike his previous classic Monster roles, Dracula and Frankenstein’s Creature, the Mummy gave Lee a little more room to show off his voice: while the Mummy himself never speaks, as I said before, Kharis does. In the aforementioned lengthy flashback scene, the only ones who speak are Peter Cushing (who narrates the sequence) and Lee’s Kharis, who brings subtlety and grace to the dignified but tormented High Priest. In a way, the Mummy represents a stepping stone in Lee’s career: after his earlier successes, the Mummy is, I feel, the moment when the folks at Hammer – and the world at large – began to realize there was far more to this tall and elegant actor, in terms of range and ability, than they had perhaps considered before. It’s still a marvelous and expertly crafted performance to this day. Tomorrow, the countdown continues, and I shall present my choice for Number 18!

Today in gothic horror/ monster movie history: November 2, 1959 The Mummy debuted in Sweden.

Here's some new Christopher Lee art to mark the occasion!

Watching the 1959 Mummy and Mehemet Bey is a villain who's only a villain because he's killing people and not because he's morally wrong in his beliefs. (He's angry about archaeologists who desecrated a sacred tomb and then took the artifacts. So he brings the mummy to life and hunt down and kill the archaeologists.)

THE MUMMY (1959) dir. Terence Fisher

The Mummy (1959)

George Pastell as Mehemet Bey in The Mummy (1959)

Ink & Watercolors on Paper, 8.5" x 11", 2024

By Josh Ryals

The Mummy (1959)

Who’s your mummy?

The Mummy (1959)

Vintage Poster - The Mummy

Universal International (1959)