The Mummy (1959)

Another review of an old horror film by me. I became obsessed with British horror thanks to Island of Terror, and upon finding out that this film starred not only Peter Cushing and Eddie Byrne (Brian Stanley and Reginald Landers in the other film) but also Christopher Lee as the title character, I knew I just had to see it. The film is surprisingly good, definitely better than the old Universal movie (no offense to Boris Karloff fans). And despite a few plotholes here and there, it manages to hold together quite nicely.

We begin in in Egypt in 1895, where a team of scientists is digging in an oasis for the tomb of Princess Ananka. The team is led by Stephen Banning, a renowned archaeologist whose life's work has revolved around Ananka, who we learn was the high priestess of the Egyptian god Karnak. Aside from the obligatory native crew members, the team also consists of Stephen's brother Joseph Whemple and his son John Banning. John is the youngest member of the team, and currently confined to a tent thanks to a broken leg. Precisely how he broke the leg is never revealed. Joseph keeps bugging Stephen to send John home to England so that he can get the leg properly set, but when they discover the badge of one of the princess' guards ten feet from the entrance of the yet-to-be unearthed tomb, proving that it must be the final resting place of Ananka, an excited John ignores his uncle's concerns and decides to stay on, despite the fact that if the leg isn't set properly and soon he'll walk with a limp for the rest of his life.

Pretty soon, they have gained entrance to the tomb. John can't accompany them just yet of course, but his father and uncle promise to let him know if they find anything exciting within. They're just about to enter when Mehemet Bey, an intense Egyptian man wearing a red fez who speaks fluent English, approaches them and asks them politely not to go inside. Initially Stephen thinks he's an official from the Egyptian government and protests that they have the necessary permits to dig in the oasis. However, Bey replies that he isn't from the government, but that he appeals to Stephen's reason and tells him that entering the tomb will put himself and his party at risk. Since Bey is, to them, no one of consequence, Stephen and Joseph enter the tomb anyway. Stephen uses a pocketknife to cut the rope with the royal seal on it holding the double doors (!) of the tomb closed, and then he and Joseph walk in to find the interior absolutely undisturbed by looters, a stupendous archaeological find to say the least. Reading the heiroglyphics on the sarcophagus, which identify the mummy within as "Ananka, Princess of the Two Kingdoms" and the high priestess of Karnak, the archaeologists are overjoyed.

Joseph exits to go and tell John the good news. While he's gone, Stephen pokes around a bit and finds an heiroglyphic-laden container of some description set within a small alcove. This he identifies as the "Scroll of Life," and as we'll see later, the scroll is what's in the box rather than the box itself (although that ought to be obvious). Removing the container from the alcove causes a secret door to open in the wall nearby, although Stephen remains oblivious to this for now. Outside, Joseph has just finished telling John that they've found Ananka's tomb after all these years, with John complaining about his injured leg keeping him from sharing the glory with his father. Speaking of whom, almost immediately thereafter they hear Stephen's screams coming from within the tomb. Joseph rushes to investigate and finds his brother a barely conscious mess, muttering incoherantly, with no sign of the Scroll of Life. Although since Joseph never even knew the Scroll existed, he doesn't find its absence terribly unusual.

Cut to six months later, and a lot has changed. John, whose leg has healed enough that he is able to hobble around on a cane with only minimal difficulty, has received a letter from his wife Isobel back in England. Apparently, Stephen has since lapsed into a total catatonic state and was sent home to receive psychiatric care at the Engerfield Nursing Home for the Mentally Disordered. Because it's been six months without any sign of improvement, the doctors are fearful that Stephen's condition might be permanent. Anyway they've finished excavating the tomb and are preparing to leave, with John lamenting that the place gives him a serious case of the willies despite the fact he's been in hundreds of tombs before. For whatever reason, they line the entrance to the tomb with explosives and blow it up to seal it off with a cave-in. The plot reasons for the tomb being inaccessible for the moment will become clearer as the film wears on, but John and Joseph's reasons for doing this are fairly unclear. Anyway they blow the entrance up but good and leave.

Little do they know that Mehemet Bey, the man with the fez, is watching them, and he now has the Scroll of Life. In prayer, he promises the god Karnak that he will reopen the sealed-off tomb and uncover the hidden instrument of Karnak's vengeance, and seek revenge against the three Englishmen who dared to desecrate Princess Ananka's tomb. At this point in the film, I can really understand Mehemet's feelings. I mean, they did blow the tomb up after taking everything from it.

Cut to three years later, in Engerfield, England in 1898. Only two things have changed for our English heroes. For starters, John Banning is now capable of walking without the aid of a cane even though, as his uncle predicted, he has a serious limp. Then, miraculously, John and Isobel receive a call from Dr. Reilly, the man in charge of the Engerfield Nursing Home. According to Reilly, who thought that John's father's condition was the result of a stroke, Stephen Banning has suddenly come out of his catatonic state and sent for his son. John, needless to say, rushes over ASAP to see his dad who he hasn't spoken to in three years. However, while conscious, Stephen doesn't seem to be fully recovered. The reason he summoned John was to tell him about "the mummy." John, a little confused, thinks he means Princess Ananka, who as far as he knows is on display at the British Museum. But Stephen doesn't mean Ananka. Apparently there was a second mummy, one that came to life when Stephen read aloud from the Scroll of Life. However because he and Joseph found neither the Scroll nor any mummies besides Ananka herself, John is decidedly disinclined to believe his father, who warns him that the mummy hates them for desecrating the tomb and will come after them now that "someone else" has taken possession of the Scroll. Precisely how Stephen knows this last tidbit goes unanswered for now, because, disappointed that John doesn't believe him, he angrily calls his son a fool and sends him away.

Meanwhile, we cut to a local pub called the Red Lion where we are introduced to two moving men named Pat and Mike. I'm unsure which is which, so I'll call the skinny one Pat and the fat one Mike. They've been hired by a mysterious "foreigner" to carry a crate of "Egyptian relics" to the old spooky mansion out beyond the nursing home. Even though Pat doesn't think it's wise of them to carry cargo they know nothing about, "times being what they are" means he and Mike need the money the foreigner is paying, so a job's a job. Why they're going and getting themselves smashed is something I'm unable to figure out, though. The plot spends a little too much time with these two decidedly unfunny comic relief characters, and after they have a pointless arguement about whether a man's best friend is a dog or a horse, they hop onto their cart and head off. The crate of "Egyptian relics" is on the back. It isn't tied down, and Mike reckons they ought to secure it since the road is bumpy, but Pat waves him off and says it's only half a mile to the foreigner's house.

To get there they have to pass by the nursing home, which is known as "the nuthouse." In his room, Stephen Banning is sitting awake and mumbling about "the mummy," which he says is always waiting. Hearing the approaching moving cart outside, he freaks out for no apparent reason and begins screaming for help, using a cane to hit the window and smash it. Pat and Mike, hearing this commotion as they go by, mistakenly believe one of the lunatics has escaped. Not wanting to get killed, Pat whips the horses into a frenzy as they go across a bumpy-roaded causeway near a swamp. As Mike predicted, the bumps cause the crate of relics to fall off the wagon. It tumbles down the hill and lands in a convenient pond/bog, where it sinks straight to the bottom.

The following morning, some men are attempting to fish the crate out unsuccessfully while Pat is questioned by P.C. Blake, the local policeman. Pat tells the whole story, and when Blake asks him who the crate was for, a familiar-looking man in a red fez approaches and explains that it was for him. It's Mehemet Bey! Although as we'll learn later, at the moment he is going by the alias of Mehemet Akir. Although since he never told the Bannings his name back in Egypt, his decision to use a different last name during his time in Engerfield is a bit odd. In fact, he and John have never even met face to face, and John will be the only member of the expedition to even encounter Mehemet from here on out, as (spoiler warning!!!) both Stephen Banning and Joseph Whemple will die without even knowing that Mehemet is in town. And since the alias itself isn't even mentioned until much, much later, it all seems even more pointless. P.C. Blake doesn't even ask Mehemet his name in this scene! Anyway, Mehemet calmly explains to the constable that he hired the two moving men to take the crate to his house, and when Blake asks what was in the crate, he tells him, "Egyptian relics, nothing more," and departs, totally unconcerned when told that the crate is irrecoverable. Hmm.

Cut to the nursing home, where Dr. Reilly is telling John Banning about his father's outburst the previous night. Reilly thinks that Stephen has a "persecution complex," and has had him confined to a padded cell for his own protection, as he is fearful that his patient may attempt to commit suicide in an effort to "cheat" whoever he thinks is after him out of the pleasure of killing him. This seems like a perfectly reasonable assumption, I guess, but John isn't buying it. As far as he knows, his father hasn't got an enemy in the world.

Cut back to the swamp type place. Everyone has left, and Mehemet Bey approaches the pond alone. He then takes out the Scroll of Life and reads aloud from it. He first reads the entire thing in Egyptian, then says it in English! This is apparently because subtitles weren't in vogue at the time, and incidentally this is the only time where we'll hear the Scroll of Life read in Egyptian. Anyways, the incantation that Mehemet reads, translated to English, goes, "Return O' Ka, the Double, O' Ba, the Soul. Pass strong O' Ab, the Heart. Make supple the limbs and strong the sinews. Refill, O' my soul, this heart with tenderness, that he may walk again the Land of Kemet, in all thy strength and beauty, and wear once more the uralet." As Mehemet repeats it in English, We see the surface of the water start to bubble, and after a moment, a hulking, broad-shouldered mummy emerges from the muddy water and wades unsteadily ashore, where, side by side with Mehemet, he stands at least a good foot taller than the vengeful Egyptian. This is Kharis, the guardian of Princess Ananka's tomb. He'll be Mehemet's personal hitman for the duration of the film, and his backstory will be told in due time. For the moment, though, he's just a mean ol' mummy as far as the story is concerned. A quick prayer to Karnak to ensure that Kharis will succeed, and Mehemet sends Kharis to hunt down and kill the first member of the expedition who violated Ananka's tomb. Kharis lumbers off into the night to fulfill his mission.

Victim number one turns out to be Stephen Banning. He's in his padded cell, and Kharis begins to smash through the window (since when did padded cells have windows?). Even though an attendant had just gotten done telling Stephen that if he needed anything he shouldn't bang on the door and instead press a call button, what does he do? Yup, bangs on the door. By the time he finally decides to try the call button, it's too late and Kharis has successfully broken in. The hulking, mud-dripping mummy grabs Stephen by the neck and proceeds to choke the archaeologist to death. That accomplished, Kharis departs the way he came.

Cut to a coroner's inquest at he nursing home the following day. Present are John and Isobel Banning, Joseph Whemple and Dr. Reilly. The coroner deems Stephen Banning's death the work of a homicidal maniac, and since the attacker broke in from outside the hospital, he can rule out any of Dr. Reilly's other patients as suspects. Ultimately it is ruled by the court "murder by person or persons unknown." The inquest is concluded and the Bannings head home. En route, John reveals that he refuses to believe the coroner's verdict that Stephen's death was the work of a maniac, saying that there must be a motive somewhere.

Since Stephen was a meticulous record keeper, he and Joseph decide to go at once to his study and look over his papers to see if they can find any sort of leads or clues. Cut to the two of them in the study later that night doing precisely that. Joseph wonders aloud precisely what it is they're looking for, because he knew Stephen never had any enemies, and, indeed, his and John's search through the dead man's papers is proving completely fruitless. Joseph does, however, mention their encounter with Mehemet Bey that day before they went into Ananka's tomb, but since Bey did not give either Stephen or Joseph his name, Joseph merely refers to him as "that Egyptian" (further making me wonder just what Mehemet is doing going by a different last name). Talk turns to fond memories of Stephen, with John going on about how he was very fond of his father despite his bad leg, which he deems his own fault for not getting it set properly in time. Joseph says he'll never forget how happy Stephen was when they discovered Ananka's tomb, which brings John's mind back to what his father told him at the nursing home the other day. Since it was never really established precisely what "made him crack," John decides to tell his uncle about Stephen's mummy story. Unsurprisingly, Joseph declares this rubbish, prompting John to get out Stephen's portfolio about Princess Ananka, asking him if he knows the legend. In a truly amazing development, Joseph reveals he knows almost nothing about the legend of Ananka! John decides to educate his uncle (and us) about the legend of the princess, leading us into a lengthy flashback to ancient Egypt.

According to John, reading from Stephen's notes, in the year 2,000 B.C. Princess Ananka, the high priestess of Karnak, set out on a pilgramage for Amtakh (the reputed birthplace of Karnak, or so Stephen's notes claim). Three months into the journey, Ananka became ill and died. We see Kharis as a normal human, the high priest of Karnak and therefore Ananka's male counterpart, conducting "the lengthy and involved mourning ceremonies" with the aid of two priests. And, we see that Ananka, laying peacefully in death upon her bed, looks almost exactly like Isobel Banning who we've only seen briefly in a couple of scenes so far! The mourning ceremones are indeed lengthy, taking at least two months according to Stephen's notes. Although custom decreed that once mummified Ananka would be taken back to "the coastal plains where she had ruled in life" for burial, but Kharis broke with tradition and put her in a tomb in an oasis near where she had actually died en route to Amtakh. He did this because he was secretly in love with the princess, and although in life she was promised to Karnak, her death freed her from this and so Kharis planned to use the Scroll of Life to bring her back from the dead so that they could be together. Unfortunately for Kharis, he was caught in the act by the other priests, and removed from his position.

The new high priest then had Kharis' tongue cut out and then had him mummified alive and stashed in a hidden compartment in the wall of Ananka's tomb, the one we saw beginning to open when Stephen Banning had read aloud from the Scroll of Life, where he would remain for eternity as the guardian of the tomb. Mysteriously, none of those involved in Kharis' punishment ever made it back to Egypt, possibly due to illness (or the god Karnak wanting to make extra sure that dead men tell no tails, and in any event the fact that everyone involved died before returning from the journey begs the question of just where the legend comes from). Back in the present, John finishes telling the story to Joseph. Joseph still considers it all a bunch of hogwash, "a fairy story, nothing more," even though John sensibly suggests that perhaps Stephen, upon discovering that the first half of the Ananka legend was true, might have, in his excitement, led his mind wander into believing that the other half, the stuff about Kharis, was also true, and therefore lost it.

Meanwhile, we cut to the old mansion currently occupied by Mehemet Bey. Mehemet, wearing a green ceremonial robe of some sort, opens a set of double doors to reveal a small shrine dedicated to Karnak, including what I'm assuming is meant to be a statue of said god dominating the small room. The box containing the Scroll of Life sits in a small alcove to the left of the statue. Mehemet prays to Karnak, asking for his help in his next "task," the destruction of the second person who desecrated Princess Ananka's tomb. He then leaves the room and goes to a nearby sarcophagus which contains the slumbering Kharis, now (mostly) cleaned from all the mud, and after waking him up, instructs him to go and eliminate the second of the unbelievers. Kharis stomps out of the house.

We then cut to a poacher out in the woods. After taking a swig from a small whiskey bottle, he goes about setting a small trap, only to hear someone approaching. He hurriedly conceals the trap and then hides in some bushes. The approaching figure turns out to be Kharis, and the mummy neither seems to notice or care about the hiding poacher. The poacher, on the other hand, is understandably weirded out by the sight of Kharis, and proceeds immediately to the Red Lion tavern to get drunk and forget about it, naturally telling both the bartender and another patron precisely what it was he saw, exaggerating Kharis' height to about ten feet. They have a good laugh at his expense, but he tells them he's got a gut feeling something bad is going to happen tonight.

At the Banning house, John and Joseph are still going over Stephen's papers but Joseph decides to call it a night. Syaing good-night to his nephew he leaves and is about to head upstairs when suddenly Kharis literally smashes through the front door. Shocked, Joseph can only stand there wide-eyed, kindly allowing Kharis to simply walk right up to him and grab him by the neck. John, hearing the crash, comes running, but his efforts to make the mummy release his uncle are fruitless. So he runs back into the study and unlocks a cabinet containing several guns. Unfortunately while he is doing this, Kharis succeeds in choking Joseph to death, so that by the time John finally comes out of the study again he finds his uncle laying dead and the killer already leaving. I've never quite been able to figure out why Kharis doesn't try to kill John as well during this scene, but I guess the mummy is simpleminded enough that he can only assassinate one person at a time. Anyway, the mummy walks out of the house despite John firing at him six times with a revolver, clearly managing to hit him at least twice.

The following day, John meets with Inspector Mulrooney. Mulrooney is the stereotypical skeptical police official, and doesn't believe John's claims that he managed to shoot his uncle's murderer not once but twice, because, he reasons, then the killer - who John describes as being totally covered in bandages - should be dead. He assures John that his men are out hunting for the criminal as they speak, and is about to leave when John takes him into the study and puts forth his own idea about who the murderer is. He tells Mulrooney he thinks the killer was "a living mummy." Mulrooney balks at this, saying that he thought "these Egyptian things" were always dead people, but John sits the Inspector down and explains to him what Stephen had told him at the nursing home the day before he was killed, which leads into another flashback, a flashback riddle with problems.

We see Stephen and Joseph discovering the tomb again, and then finding the sarcophagus, and then Joseph leaves to inform John and Stephen finds the box containing the Scroll of Life, and then everything goes to hell. When Stephen reads aloud from the Scroll, Kharis, already visible because the secret compartment opened when Stephen removed the box, comes to life and stalks towards the archaeologist, prompting Stephen to let loose a scream. Then, in runs... Mehemet Bey?! Uh, the timeline of this flashback is more than a little iffy. Previously we had seen Joseph rush back into the tomb a mere few seconds after Stephen's scream, but here, Mehemet Bey has enough time to A) tell Kharis in Egyptian to, I guess, stay his hand (more on this in a second), steer Kharis back into the hidden compartment and close the door, C) grab both the Scroll of Life and its box, and D) find somewhere to hide and/or hotfoot it out of the tomb before Joseph returns, all without being seen. The other problem I have with this flashback is if Mehemet wanted to kill Stephen why not do it now? He clearly has enough time to do so by simply letting Kharis strangle the old man to death. Why pass up this opportunity and then wait for three whole years to travel to England to exact his revenge? The third problem is that this is John telling Mulrooney what happened, based on what his father and uncle told him of the event, but even in Stephen's version of the story, which includes Kharis coming to life, Mehemet coming in is not mentioned. So this means that *John* is the one inserting Mehemet into this flashback, which makes no sense given that he's never even seen the man. At least this explains how Stephen knew "someone" had taken the Scroll of Life.

Back to the present once more (thankfully this is the final flashback), Mulrooney doesn't believe a word of what John has just gotten done telling him. He refuses to accept that the two murders he's investigating were committed by "a dead man," and tells John that he deals in facts, not "fantasies straight out of Edgar Allan Poe," (nice to know he reads the classics) but at least he concedes that the man who killed Joseph Whemple is also the same man who killed Stephen Banning at the nursing home. After promising John that he'll catch the killer using real police work, Mulrooney takes his leave. On the way out he tells John that his "ideas" make fascinating listening if nothing else, prompting John to tell the Inspector that he thinks he's the next to be killed.

Before we can see what Mulrooney's reaction is to this bombshell, we cut to his office at the local police station. A police sergeant brings in the poacher who had a run-in with Kharis the previous night, and although this is what Mulrooney wants to talk to him about, the poacher, in a nicely down bit of comedy, is under the impression he's been brought in for his illegal animal trapping. In particular, he keeps claiming that the dead hare the sergeant found him with was dead when he found it. Ultimately though Mulrooney manages to steer the conversation towards the story he told the bartender of the Red Lion, about the tall bandaged man he encountered in the woods. The poacher initially reiterates that he was ten feet tall, but upon being pressed by Mulrooney, finally admits he was probably only about seven feet. We then cut to the Red Lion where Mulrooney is talking to Pat and Mike, the two moving men who had been hired by Mehemet Bey. After hearing their story about the lost crate, Mulrooney returns to the police station and confers with P.C. Blake, who expresses bewilderment about "the Egyptian" (i.e., Mehemet Bey) not being terribly concerned about the loss of the crate and its contents.

Back at Mehemet's house, Kharis is once more slumbering in his sarcophagus, while Mehemet prays to the shrine of Karnak and once again asking him for his divine assistance in the third and final task Kharis must perform. With that accomplished, he once more awakens Kharis and instructs him to kill "the last unbeliever who disturbed the sleep of your beloved." Kharis' eyes narrow in determination and then the mummy once more stalks from the mansion.

Back at the Banning residence, John is in the study looking over various pencil drawings from the Ananka portfolio when Isobel comes in. It's about time. By this point I had almost forgotten John was even married. She's in her nightgown and has her hair down, prompting John to remark on how much she resembles a drawing of Ananka, who he says was considered the most beautiful woman in the world. Isobel says she's flattered, but John reminds her the world wasn't very big then, prompting his wife to tell him not to spoil the moment. She asks him if he's spoken to Inspector Mulrooney any more, but John claims that Mulrooney didn't believe a word he said, not even his claim to being the next victim, and thus they haven't gotten any police protection. Isobel is understandably worried, especially when John, rifle in hand, says the only thing for him to do is sit up all night and await the arrival of the killer. Isobel protests, but John tells her he wants her to lock herself in her room where she'll be safe.

He doesn't have to wait long. Kharis arrives very shortly thereafter and smashes in through the porch window (which John had actually just looked out of). John fires twice at Kharis with his rifle, blowing two holes in the mummy, one in the shoulder and one in the chest. This fails to stop Kharis so John turns and hops over the desk to put it between himself and the mummy, even as Kharis makes a grab for him and misses. John next grabs an ancient spear that his father had on display and shoves it right through Kharis' torso, but as with the bullets this fails to even faze him. The mummy then grabs John's neck and begins to choke him. Isobel, disobeying her husband's order to lock herself in their room, comes downstairs and into the study where she finds John in the grip of bandaged doom. She screams "No!" and Kharis turns and sees her, whereupon he immediately releases the still-living John and approaches her upon (apparently) seeing her resemblance to Princess Ananka. He reaches out for Isobel with longing, but then turns and leaves the way he came (with the spear still in him!). As soon as the mummy is gone, Isobel rushes to her living but shaken hubby.

Cut to later, presumably the same night, with John and Isobel talking to Inspector Mulrooney. Mulrooney is looking at the drawing of Princess Ananka and admitting there is a strong resemblance, but feels the need to remind John "she's been dead four-thousand years." I thought it was only 2,000, but whatever. Mulrooney says that although he is not entirely convinced there's an undead killing machine on the loose, his facts seem to have gone wrong because his inquiries around Engerfield have turned up absolutely zilch in the way of facts, although all clues point to the mysterious Egyptian everyone keeps mentioning. This helps to confirm some of what John has been saying, although Mulrooney is of the opinion the locals he's been talking to "wouldn't known an Egyptian from a Chinese acrobat." John admits to knowing nothing about the Egyptian and wants to go and see him, but Mulrooney refuses to allow it and says he'll go.

Even though Mulrooney made John promise no private police work, we immediately cut to John en route to the old mansion beyond the nursing home. I guess the police don't work quickly enough for his tastes. At the house, Kharis is, uh, "reporting" to Mehemet Bey. Or at least reporting as well as a giant mummy incapable of speech can. Mehemet seems to be under the impression that Kharis has succeeded in killing John, and doesn't seem to notice Kharis' clearly agitated behavior. He assures Karnak's idol that the three desecrators have been dealt with, then orders Kharis to get back into the sarcophagus. Kharis refuses, forcing Mehemet to order him to do so twice more before he obeys. Suddenly the doorbell rings. Mehemet closes both Kharis' sarcophagus and the doors to Karnak's shrine, then rushes to answer it, and is astounded when the man on his doorstep introduces himself as Mr. Banning. John says he's here to welcome his new neighbor to the neighborhood, and Mehemet invites him in, giving his name as Mehemet Akir.

Forced to play the gracious host in order to avoid suspicion, Mehemet first asks John which Banning he is, at first pretending to mistake him for Stephen Banning, then inquiring how Stephen died when told John is his father's son and Stephen is dead. When he reacts apathetically to news of Stephen's murder, he explains that violence is quite commonplace in Egypt so he's long since gotten used to it. The two men then sit down and discuss archaeology. Mehemet says he often wonders about archaeologists, and whether or not they realize that by poking and prodding in ancient tombs they are being intruders and desecrators. John comes back by saying that if they didn't, a lot of the history of Egypt would be unknown. Mehemet concedes, but says it still bothers him deeply, as he is only interested in archaeology at an academic level. Mehemet seems particularly disturbed by the idea of putting the remains of long-dead kings in museums, "where thousands of people can stare at them," while John merely shrugs this off as his job and says it doesn't bother his conscience too terribly.

Talk turns back to the whole thing about violence in Egypt, with John testily mentioning that he remembers from his boning up on Princess Ananka, who he says was "high priestess to a pagan god," over one-hundred people were put to death during her funeral rites. This doesn't sit too well with him because he never considered Karnak a particularly important deity, "a third-rate god," and therefore he doesn't understand why so many people died for him. Mehemet, trying very hard to avoid looking like he's offended, tells John he doesn't know what he's talking about, that Karnak was not third-rate to those who believed in him, and, testily himself, hints that perhaps even today there may still be worshippers of him. John says the standard of Karnak's followers' intelligence must be "remarkably low" because Karnak had nothing that made him at all significant compared to other gods in the Egyptian pantheon.

Mehemet gets brownie points for keeping his temper in check, simply telling John he is intolerant and says that because he is unable to experience the greatness of a deity ge dismisses it as of no consequence, and therefore feels justified in robbing the graves of his worshippers. He says the powers with which he has meddled do not rest easily (leaning against Kharis' sarcophagus as he does so), and that if he's going to meddle he'd better be prepared to face the consequences. John says it sounds like a threat, and Mehemet then backs down and apologizes. John apologizes as well since he only came to welcome him to the neighborhood, and shows himself out. Along the way he notices that, suspiciously, Mehemet has the seal to Ananka's tomb displayed amongst a small collection of Egyptian knick-knacks.

As soon as John is gone, Mehemet rushes to the shrine and wholeheartedly apologizes to Karnak and asks for another chance, promising him that the third desecrator will soon be dead. He then retrieves the Scroll of Life from the alcove by the statue of Karnak, and summons Kharis, saying that this time he will accompany the mummy to make sure he will not fail. Um, okay, but why does he need the Scroll of Life? It's never said.

Cut back to the Banning house, where John, Isobel and Mulrooney are in the study. Although Mulrooney has apparently finally come around to accepting the possibility of a living mummy, he is angry at John for going to see Mehemet because, as he explains to Isobel, he believes that Mehemet may have in all probability been forced into a position where he must act quickly, and Mulrooney is not yet equipped to deal with an attack just yet. He's got the police sergeant in town rounding up some of the townspeople and deputizing them, while P.C. Blake and "another man" are guarding the house. Their plan to deal with the mummy is a little sketchy, but basically John is going to remain in the house while Isobel accompanies Mulrooney out the back, apparently to get her to a safe place.

Meanwhile we see that Murlooney's "other man" is, of all people, the poacher. Um, okay, a criminal is the last person I'd deputize to guard someone. At any rate, the poacher isn't around too long. He stops to take a drink from his whiskey bottle (so, not only is he a criminal but Mulrooney is also letting him have booze while on guard duty? Damn) when he sees Kharis coming towards him from down the road. He turns to run, only to bump right into Mehemet, who in addition to carrying the Scroll of Life also has a knife. The poacher turns to flee, but Mehemet stabs him in the back and kills him. He and Kharis then proceed towards the house, running into P.C. Blake along the way. Blake is too busy trying to warm himself up (it looks like) to notice Mehemet creeping up on him, and gets a knife in the back just like the poacher. Strangely neither man screams or anything, and thusly Isobel and Mulrooney are completely unaware of the impending danger.

Actually I take that back. Mulrooney seems to think something is up when the poacher doesn't meet them as planned and goes to check things out. He runs into Kharis, who hits him over the head and knocks him out. Then the mummy follows Mehemet into the Banning house, and somehow Mehemet knows John is in the study, so he points at the door, which Kharis immediately crashes through. Kharis tackles John and the rifle goes off into the ceiling. Isobel hears the shot and yells for Mulrooney, but gets no answer seeing as how he's unconscious at the moment, so she rushes back inside the house to take care of things herself. Kharis gets the rifle away from John, throws him against the desk, and then begins to choke him as Mehemet looks on. Just then Isobel runs in through the porch window, and yells for Kharis to stop. Initially he doesn't because she hasn't got her hair down, but then he lets it down and orders him to let John go a second time, whereupon he obeys. John collapses.

Mehemet is livid, and orders Kharis to kill Isobel. Kharis refuses, so Mehemet taks his knife and walks towards Isobel, obviously intending to kill her himself. But Kharis has apparently had enough of taking Mehemet's orders, so he follows after him and grabs him by the arm before he can reach Isobel. There's a brief struggle and then Kharis kills Mehemet by (I guess) breaking his back over his knee. Seeing someone killed right in front of her causes Isobel to faint, and so after taking the Scroll of Life from Mehemet's corpses, Kharis scoops the unconscious Isobel into his arms and carries her out through the window. No sooner has he gone than Mulrooney, recovered from being hit on the head, comes in and finds John. He helps him to his feet and then the two men rush after Kharis.

Initially, they think Kharis is taking Isobel back to the old house, but Mulrooney spies him on the road leading towards the swamp. Uh-oh. This occurs just as the police sergeant arrives on the scene with several of the deputized villagers. Trapped between them and the approaching John and Mulrooney, Kharis carries Isobel into the pond that the crate had fallen into earlier. John and Mulrooney, after giving the deputies orders not to fire yet lest they hit Isobel, run to the edge of the pond. John yells for Isobel, who has woken up, to tell Kharis to put her down. She does so, and Kharis, apparently realizing what is about to happen, obeys. She then wades through the water towards her husband and the Inspector, and as soon as she's clear, Mulrooney gives the order to open fire. Bullets rip through Kharis, almost completely destroying his head. He staggers about blindly before being shot some more, then he sinks down into the water, taking the Scroll of Life with him, as John, Isobel and Mulrooney watch. John helps Isobel from the water and they embrace as we get one final shot of the pond. Roll credits.

The End

This movie pleasantly surprised me. A surprisingly strong female lead who never (really) screams or behaves uselessly, a good performance by Peter Cushing, and an excellent and surprisingly sympathetic monster played by Christopher Lee. I also really liked George Pastell as Mehemet and Eddie Byrne as Mulrooney, who I'm glad survived (after his character's rather nasty end in Island of Terror).