It comes to life! This Week On Svengoolie

The Mummy
1932 | B&W | 73 Minutes | 1.37:1 | NR | Horror | Mono | Universal

Director:

Karl Freund

Writers:

Nina Wilcox Putnam

Richard Schayer

Stars: 

Boris Karloff

Zita Johann 

David Manners 

In 1921 a field expedition in Egypt discovers the mummy of ancient Egyptian prince Im-Ho-Tep, who was condemned and buried alive for sacrilege. Also found in the tomb is the Scroll of Thoth, which can bring the dead back to life. One night a young member of the expedition reads the Scroll out loud, and then goes insane, realizing that he has brought Im-Ho-Tep back to life. Ten years later, disguised as a modern Egyptian, the mummy attempts to reunite with his lost love, an ancient princess who has been reincarnated into a beautiful young woman.

Here is some fun trivia for The Mummy:

Jack Pierce

This is the only Universal monster of the time without a fictional antecedent. Large segments of the movie are scene-by-scene parallels of the movie Dracula. An ankh symbol (the ancient Egyptian glyph for "life") is substituted for the crucifix of the earlier movie. Even Edward Van Sloan's character, Dr. Muller, is quite analogous to his Dr. Van Helsing from the vampire film.

Boris Karloff's mummy makeup is based on the appearance of Ramses III; makeup artist Jack P. Pierce spent eight hours a day applying Karloff's makeup.

The flashback scenes in ancient Egypt were designed to resemble a silent film, with no dialog, exaggerated make-up and gestures, and a faster camera speed, to suggest the great antiquity of the events portrayed.