Director: Charles Lamont
Year: 1955
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Mummy; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Overhearing an expedition to a new tomb, Egypt-based archaeologists come across a cult of worshippers, intending to keep a secret regarding the resurrection properties, and must return the secret to the mummy's tomb before other parties get hold of it.
Review:
While not the travesty many claim it is, it is still one of the better ones Abbott and Costello have done. Like so many of their efforts, a lot of this one is based on the hilarity that ensues when mixing their brand of slapstick comedy and wordplay around the classic monster mayhem, as there are a lot of gags in here that do work. The early dead-body discovery is a gut-buster, the amulet in a hamburger- switch sequence is a justifiable classic routine, and other similar silly scenes are spread throughout the movie that are just as hilarious, including several snake-charming scenes and some humorous physical gags at the beginning. The usual humor of the team is on full display here, and it should be pleasing for fans of the group.
There is quite a rapid pace to this, and it flies by without any real problems here with the gags coming at a nice enough pace so that it never really slows down. The ending is complete madcap insanity, and provides some great laughs as well as being one of the best creative series of sequences in their history. It's one of their most impressive scenes and is the highlight of the movie, with everything coming together with a couple of nice, suspenseful scenes mixed in for a little horror to the comedic proceedings. This isn't as bad as it could've been, though there are a few flaws here. Most of what's wrong here is mostly just budgetary concerns. The sets look cheap and small, the locations are pretty much hampered by a lack of design, and most of the time, it looks dreary.
When everything should look big and grand, they instead come as looking like cheap sets on a back-lot that were hastily filmed to get it out in a hurry, as there's never a sense anywhere that they're at a large place. The mummy costume looks incredibly bad as well as it's a far cry from the wonderful look of the original and isn't scary in the slightest, looking exactly like moldy bandages wrapped up. They don't even cover his entire body, as there are several spots missing that weren't covered. It only elicits laughter when viewed and doesn't even get featured as often as it really should, with so much of the film spent on their madcap adventures instead of the horror. That causes this to spend a large portion of time waiting around to actually get to the tomb, with it spending all this time on their antics instead. Still, this one is a lot of fun.
Overview: ****.5/5
Not that bad of a final pairing, this manages to end the series on a high note with the kind of high-energy, zany slapstick and goofy comedy that is provided here. Those with an appreciation for this era of the genre or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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