The Mummy’s Shroud Blu-ray Review

• 23rd Oct 2012

This was the third of four Mummy films made by Hammer studios and it has to be said the worst. Hammer had always intended Mummy films, like Dracula and Frankenstein to become part of a franchise. The Mummy’s Shroud was also arguably one of the weakest Hammer horrors made. The problem, despite its obvious cheap budget is the dull characters and dull dialogue which never really picks up throughout the films length. However, it is not without its plus points. The Mummy’s Shroud was directed by John Gilling who had directed a number of films for Hammer studios including The Reptile and Plague of the Zombies (both 1966), two films which have also recently been re-released on the Studiocanal restorations. Gilling was a director with an undistinguished career who made many B movies with his better and better known films those he made at Hammer which included a number of the studio’s adventure costumers. The Mummy’s Shroud was also Gilling’s last film before he moved to Spain in the 1970s and, as Jonathan Rigby points out in the extras something of “a poisoned chalice” with the Mummy nothing more than a lumbering serial killer.

The story repeats the oft told tale of a forbidden relationship in Ancient Egypt and an ensuing power struggle and the entombing in mummy wraps of a priest. Many eons later, in 1920 an archaeological dig (pre-dating the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb a few years later) led by a ruthless businessman, Stanley Preston (John Phillips) and an archaeologist, Sir Basil Walden (Andre Morrel) discover and plan to exploit the tomb and discovery of a shroud and a mummy exposing them to an ancient curse. Still in Egypt, a fortune teller called Haiti (Catherine Lacey) and her son (Roger Delgado) are locals who awake the Mummy and send him on his murderous mission. It is the murders themselves which are the only standout features of the film. Gilling, shoots the murder from reflective perspectives: the archeologist is seen murdered through the fortune reader’s crystal ball, a photographer is reflected in the red (representing blood) chemicals of a developing tray and the murder of the servant (played by the always wonderful Michael Ripper) though his poor eyesight and broken glasses.

From an acting perspective the film is an ensemble piece in that it had no main actors but the standouts are the reliable use of Michael Ripper as the servant and a particularly menacing performance, saliva and all from Lacey as the wicked fortune teller. Not a great film by any stretch it does have a few bright moments but all in all it seems to be a lazy B piece so typical of Gilling following on the backs of his previous two efforts for the studio. There is little effort to convince us that this is 1920 and its poor effort at disguising a Buckinghamshire sand and gravel pit as Egypt. The extras included another good Making Of documentary and a tribute to one of the films stars, the little known and late David Buck by his wife, Madeleine Collinson who appeared in a handful of other Hammer films.

Chris Hick