Mummy Films and Valerie Leon Without Bandages

[Calenture]

I thought I'd moved this one over before, but perhaps I just posted the slideshow at the BHFS. Anyway, for newcomers, click on the photo of Val for the show.

I'm getting bored insulting people on MySpace, so time for something different. I was talking films with Steve a while back and he asked if I had any Mummy movies. Sadly, I have only two, the first Universal Karloff and an old tape of Seth Holt's Blood From the Mummy's Tomb.

I haven't actually seen the one shown above. I just like the girl's stocking tops...

Anyway, getting back to Mummys, I found the poster on this site, Mummy Movies, which is very informative. It covers Mummy Movies from Georges Méliès to the present day.

Years back, Channel 4 showed a whole stack of these films, more than I knew existed (and I was a former Famous Monsters of Filmland reader!) I'm particularly annoyed about wiping The Mummy's Curse. It was probably crap, but I loved the baked mudflat setting.

Anyway, it's probably time for another slideshow, so here's Valerie Leon in Seth Holt's 1971 Hammer, Blood From the Mummy's Tomb. Val' doesn't wear many bandages of course. You'll just have to live with that. Click on either of the pictures (the poster below or Valerie) to see the 18 picture slideshow at the Doll's House.

I hope you can reach the show. I'm getting gateway timeout pages, but the address is right.

Craig Herbertson:
Good slide show. reminded me a little of Jane Fonda's start to Barbarella.

Hmm... I wonder if that would be an SF slideshow we could sneak past Dem'?

Franklin Marsh:
Blood From The Mummy's Tomb is a corker - and (SPOILER!!!) Val does get to wear bandages (shame!) - Many jeer Christopher Wicking's impeneterable script but, as it's based on Bram Stoker's Jewel Of The Seven Stars and has a good cast of Brit weirdos (Aubrey Morris, James Villiers, James Cossins etc) as well as Val's ..erm.. heaving bosom, it's unmissable. Hammer's other efforts are all worth a watch. The first Mummy (despite a hysterically unreal Egypt) is great stuff) Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb is also entertaining. I need to see The Mummy's Shroud again. The Universal Karloff picture is ace.

Added later: This slideshow was intended to be have a lot more photos, incidentally, but the browser crashed a few times, Steve seemed to think it was OK, and in the end I think a shorter slideshow worked better.

I've just made some late changes to the slideshow text, mainly deleting some of it ('cos it was naff).

Yes, quite a number of mummy films were based on Stoker's Jewel of the Seven Stars including The Awakening (1980). I think that Mummy Movies page I linked lists some more.

It's so long since I've seen other mummy films; I think they've become a cult-within-a-cult. The Hammer ones made a big impression on me from my first glimpses of them on Barry Norman's Cinema show (he was always showing Hammer clips) - I think it was Barry Norman who did that, right?

The first Karloff version's been shown a few times on Film4 in the past year, along with at least 3 other Universal classics. Karloff was quite literally put in an oven to dry out his bandages, and the moment when the mummy takes a "little walk" is unforgettable classic cinema.

[redbrain]

calenture said:

Valerie Leon in Seth Holt's 1971 Hammer, Blood From the Mummy's Tomb. Val' doesn't wear many bandages of course. You'll just have to live with that.

Bandages and boobies would be over-doing things.

The film is (or was) available as part of a 5 DVD boxed set entitled Hammer Horror Selection. The other 4 films are The Devil Rides Out, The Horror of Frankenstein, Scars of Dracula, and Lust for a Vampire. More than one piece of essential viewing there!

[redbrain]

Inspired by this thread, I watched Blood from the Mummy's Tomb last night - and enjoyed it (although the ending is diappointing). Valerie Leon made a great mummy. And I was right - boobies and bandages is overdoing things.

[Johnlprobert]

I'm always amazed at how good this film is seeing as it seemed to be made in the worst circumstances (Peter Cushing leaving on Day 1, director Seth Holt dying before finishing shooting, no actual script for Michael Carreras to put his edit together from because writer Christopher Wicking had been barred from the set by producer Howard Brandy).

[David A. Riley]

I just rewatched this film recently on dvd and must admit to having enjoyed it this time much more than previously. There is plenty of plot and a bigger cast than usual - and some remarkably good acting.

It's a pity that Peter Cushing had to drop out after filming had just started - was it because his wife had just died or was dying?

He would have fitted the role better, I think. More vulnerable looking than Andrew Keir, good actor though he is.

Still, a bit different than most mummy films (though I have a fondness for them all, especially the series from Universal in the forties). I don't find the ending disappointing. When you think about it properly it is enigmatically daunting.

David

[David A. Riley]

Although I like most mummy films, please don't get me on about the more recent ones from Universal, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns (or The Return of the Mummy or whatever they called it).

[Johnlprobert]

David - yes, Cushing's wife was dying which is why he left.

I like Mummuy movies for some reason - I have all the Universal ones on a couple of DVDs and dig them out from time to time.

Stephen Sommers' THE MUMMY was a great disappointment. Apparently Clive Barker was attached to the project in his HELLRAISER heyday, which could have been interesting.

Yes, BLOOD FROM.. does have some good acting, especially James Villiers (The meek won't inherit the earth - they wouldn't know what to do with it!)

[David A. Riley]

I have all the Universal ones on a couple of DVDs and dig them out from time to time.

They're probably the same ones that I indulge with now and again, John. The loosely continuing storyline is very bleak, with not much long term hope for most of the main characters, esoecially those carried forward from previous films. Very underated.

I love that line you quoted from Blood from the Mummy's Tomb: "The meek won't inherit the earth - they wouldn't know what to do with it!" James Villers was superb in that role.

[Craig Herbertson]

Can I just mention 'Barbarella' again because I like doing that

[Johnlprobert]

Oh go on then.

I've never seen Barbarella, or rather I've never made it past the opening titles.

David now that you mention it you're right - whoever wrote the Universal ones, apart from the fact that they couldn't remember characters' names from one picture to the next, did seem to be rather nihilistic. The Mummy's Tomb wastes no time killing off the heroes of The Mummy's Hand, and the girl who gets possessed by Ananka in one of them doesn't get saved - she gets carted off into the swamp, getting older as she goes.

Mmmm - maybe I can fit them into my packed Xmas schedule (when I have to watch an inordinate amount of mid-seventies Spanish horror pictures)

[Calenture]

johnlprobert said:

Oh go on then.

I've never seen Barbarella, or rather I've never made it past the opening titles.

Clearly you're not aware what you're missing. The scenes when Barbarella is attacked by savage mechanical dolls with razor-sharp teeth, then saved by David Hemmings from a flock of savage budgerigars who divest her of her last rags of clothing (again) are unmissable.

johnlprobert said:

...Mmmm - maybe I can fit them into my packed Xmas schedule (when I have to watch an inordinate amount of mid-seventies Spanish horror pictures)

Lucky sod. I tried finding just a Universal mummy film on Amazon the other night, and the damn thing turned out to be Region 1.

[David A. Riley]

Lucky sod. I tried finding just a Universal mummy film on Amazon the other night, and the damn thing turned out to be Region 1

That's not a problem with most dvd players, unless you buy Sony or Panasonic. Last night I'd just got the final two episodes of the 2nd series of Dexter to watch when our dvd player went on the blink. I dashed out to Asda and bought a cheap one for £29. On the menu screen it had an option for multiregional, region 1 or region 2. Of course, not being completly daft, I set it for multiregional. Who wouldn't? And why?
The result of which was two hours of some of the best TV available.
David

[Calenture]

I must remember Asda next time I go hunting for a cheap DVD player. I have a cheap Tecknika model from Tesco from some years back, and it plays just about everything, home-burned or pro.

Recently I wanted another one as I was fed up reconnecting scart leads for another room, so I decided to get another of that make. The new one - with the same Technika badge - had serious problems playing home-burned DVDs. I returned it to Tesco's and took another of a different price with their own badge on it.

Exactly the same problems, exactly the same software inside the thing.

Of course they refunded my money. But next time, I'll try Asda.

[Johnlprobert]

My multi region player is Panasonic and has served me well for many a year.

I would add Frank Agrama's awful 'Dawn of the Mummy' to the list of mummy movies to avoid. It should be a great zombie knock-off, but it's not.

[andydecker]

Blood from the Mummy´s Tomb is a nice movie, and Val Leon is sure nice to look at.

Of course The Mummy Lives with Tony Curtis is pure trash. Unfortunatly it is also boring trash.

I never understood why those Mummy movies always have the same basic plot. Of course I also never understood why Coppola thought it a good idea to use the reincarnation theme in his Dracula. It ruined the story and the character (at least for me.)

Cushing´s The Mummy has also aged gracefully and is a lot of fun.