The "re-imagining" of Universal's classic monsters in last year's dismal Van Helsing paved the way for a remarketing of DVD collections featuring the various '30s and '40s originals, and while the Mummy wasn't among the creatures for the new film, the studio has graciously honored him with this two-disc set collecting the five movies made between 1932 and 1945. Actually, Universal had two separate and distinct Mummy characters. The first, Im-Ho-Tep, was played by Boris Karloff in The Mummy (1932), a deliberately paced but atmospheric chiller that soft-pedaled the gauzy wrappings and murders in favor of pulpy melodrama with occult trappings. Universal's best-remembered Mummy, however, was Kharis, who shuffled and strangled his way through four '40s B-pictures much beloved for their top-drawer casts (featuring such genre icons as Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, George Zucco, and Turhan Bey), exotic settings, and memorable musical scores. Former cowboy star Tom Tyler plays Kharis in The Mummy's Hand (1940), which also stars Dick Foran, Wallace Ford, and Peggy Moran, and some of these same characters return in The Mummy's Tomb (1942), in which the supposedly incinerated Kharis makes an unexpected comeback and finishes the job he began in the previous film: annihilating those who defiled the tomb of his erstwhile beloved, the Princess Ananka. The Princess herself appears--reincarnated, of course--in the shapely body of former big-band singer Ramsey Ames in The Mummy's Ghost (1944), in which the indestructible Kharis--played by Lon Chaney Jr.--is submerged in a Louisiana bayou at film's end (only to pop up in 1945's The Mummy's Curse, the fourth and weakest film in the Kharis series). Obvious budgetary limitations and occasional plot inanities notwithstanding, Universal's Mummy movies are terrific fun and worthy additions to the Legacy Collection series. DVD extras include the original documentary "Mummy Dearest," and a commentary by film historian Paul Jensen on The Mummy. Recommended. [Note: also newly available in the series are The Invisible Man (5 films total) and Creature From the Black Lagoon (3 films total).] (E. Hulse)
The Mummy: The Legacy Collection
Universal, 2 discs, 327 min., not rated, DVD: $29.98 Volume 20, Issue 1
The Mummy: The Legacy Collection
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