The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb

Second chapter in the Hammer Film tetralogy featuring the character of the Egyptian mummy, “The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb” is a film devoid of fresh ideas that vainly tries to pick up where the prior film, “The Mummy” (1959), left off.

The problem is that this time practically nothing works: Michael Carreras’ drab direction doesn’t come close to touching the expressive power of Terence Fisher’s earlier work, and the plot drags on, picking up only in the final 15 minutes of the film (the ending in the sewers shows some glimmer of vitality).

A not very convincing cast offers a host of one-dimensional characters. Among the worst offenders are the monotonous archeologist Annette Dubois, played by Jeanne Roland, who uses the exact same expression from start to finish (not even the barbaric murder of her father, repeated attacks on her colleagues, or encountering a mummy who has come back to life after 3,000 years seems to faze her in the least), and a constantly exaggerated performance by Fred Clark as the mission’s financier Alexander King, whose obsession for profit and sensationalism is irritatingly pointed out by dialogue such as: “Know about it? I wish I’d invented it!“, and “The public love to live dangerously. As long as there’s no real danger in it” and “A mummy brought back to life? Say, that would really be something“.