The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964) Reviews

• The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb: Watchable stuff

  Platypuschow2018-05-17

  Hammer movies have always been a tad hokey and that's forgivable, some sloppy writing however isn't. This is the second Hammer Horror movie from "The Mummy" franchise and this time the star power has taken quite a dip. No longer did they have the presence of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and that really showed. It tells the story of a rich American who plans on making the opening of a mummy's sarcophagus a tourist event in order to make money but oddly enough things don't go quite as planned. The film looks great, the performances though spotty are mostly passable and the Hammer Horror brand of musical score is present. It's all very colour by numbers stuff, but that's okay. Sadly the writing is inconsistent, some is poor and some is baffling especially when it comes to character development. Passable stuff but again this underlines why though I appreciate Hammer Horror I've never exactly been blown away by it. The Good: Looks great The Bad: The absence of the likes of Cushing/Lee is very damaging The bulletproof bandages have returned! Mummy actually looks worse No character consistency Awful cover art Things I Learnt From This Movie: Belly dancing is sexy or awkward, never anything inbetween

• I Liked It!

  BaronBl00d2001-11-19

  While definitely not as much a first-rate production as Hammer's first Mummy, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb has some great camerawork, nice supporting performances, and an intriguing mummy plot. Archaeologists financed by an American P. T. Barnum type find a lost tomb and open it despite the curse that says whosoever is present at its opening should die. Hammer production values prevail with lush costumes and sets. George Pastell(from the original) is back as yet another Egyptian naysayer out to prove that the British had no right to take and break the sacred nature of treasure and memory of forgotten kings. Michael Ripper, Jack Gwillim, and Fred Clark excel in their supporting roles, clearly out-performing the rather tiresome and boring leads of Terence Morgan, Ronald Howard, and Jeanne Roland. Clark gives an impressive performance(as well as very affable one) as the American out to turn his mummy find into carnival magic, taking the show to the "American Heartland" for a dime a peep. The story is not the fastest paced story around, but once the mummy's casket gets opened....people die. Definitely worth a look for the mummy fan.

• Not a masterpiece, but still underrated

  The_True_Meller2007-05-27

  Curse of the mummy's tomb certainly is not a best effort from Hammer studios, as many of their true classics outshine it without any serious effort. However, it is not as much a disaster as many comments here in IMDb suggest. The movie doesn't have any Hammer's big stars in the cast, the story doesn't bring anything new into the mummy myth, and at few times the going gets unintentionally hilarious in the film. But on the other hand, the characters are acted quite solidly, even if the performances don't truly shine. Comical reliefs are mostly done with certain style, especially by Fred Clark as a P.T. Barnum replica, and the plot has few interesting twists. We even have here few scenes of surprisingly graphic of it's time, if a bit unrealistic screen violence, if that's your cup of tea. Slow pace and low action rate of the film works more for than against the movie, at least in my books, and the whole package is short enough, so the story can carry it all through till the end. All in all, if you're a fan of old horror films, give it a go, whether you're a fan of Hammer studios works or not. At least this one certainly beats the stuffing out of it's follow-up, Mummy's shroud, which in my opinion truly deserves any public stoning it gets. This is my truth - what is yours?

• Filthy bandages on the loose in the streets of London!

  Coventry2004-01-27

  This motion picture is supposed to be a kind of sequel to the terrific film starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee from 1959 but, compared to that one, this is a highly unimaginative and rather dull experience. The movie starts exiting enough, with a scientist getting slaughtered by angry and dangerous looking Egyptian priests…Unfortunately, the next 40 minutes are just a series of dull conversations and uninspired history lessons. The typical stereotypical American businessman wants the bandaged body of Ra to be in an amusements park, while the serious British archaeologist wants it to be in a classy museum…very uninteresting, I tell you. Curse also lacks a few decent and convincing actors and Jeanne Dubois – as the love interest Anette – fades away when set next to the other Hammer Egyptian queens like Valerie Léon (Blood from the Mummy's Tomb) and Yvonne Furneaux (The Mummy). The film becomes a bit more watchable when the mummy finally is going on his rampage in the streets of London...he even ends up in the sewers!! Which brings me to the most positive element of Curse of the Mummy's Tomb!! The creepy and dusty looking make-up! The filthy bandages and the impressively shot images of Ra alone are worth the effort. The ending is more or less surprising and satisfying but it doesn't save the entire finish product. A real shame, I think, because mummies ( and the Ancient Egypt in general ) are such a fascinating and astonishing source of inspiration for terrifying horror tales.

• Pedestrian Hammer picture

  lorenellroy2005-01-26

  Hammer made its reputation ,not to mention its money , with Gothic horror but in 1964 this was the only such movie on its slate .That year they turned their attention elsewhere --to the psychological chiller with Fanatic and Hysteria ; to the adventure yarn with The Brigand of Khandahar and She ;to the war picture with The Secret of Blood Island .This may be why the movie looks so tired and underfunded -almost as if they wanted to be seen as a studio that could turn its hand to many genres and were a little shame faced about doing horror pictures This a routine and unoriginal revamp of the mummy movie sub genre with all clichés present and correct .There is one deft twist-the mummy's brother turns out to be an immortal ,alive and living in London .For the rest it is the over familiar tale of archaelogists who invade a tomb becoming prey for the rampaging ,vengeful mummy who sets out to kill the " desecrators "and who turns out to have a soft spot for the comely female of the party . Fred Clark is good as the American impresario who seeks to exploit the discovery of the tomb for commercial gain and there is sound support from Ronald Howard ,George Pastell and John Paul but Terence Morgan is dull and the heroine ,Jeanne Roland is so badly dubbed as to be incomprehensible at times .There was no exterior shooting in the picture and it shows with the Egyptian desert represented by a painted backcloth Add a mummy which lacks the poetry and pathos of Karloff and Lee in previous pictures and this is second rate fare ,well below the usual standards of the studio