Customer Reviews
AN UNDERRATED MUMMY MOVIE - By: stuart, 06 Aug 2007 
Margaret Fuchs (Valerie Leon) is having nightmares about ancient Egypt, & one it's queens, Queen Tara, (Valerie Leon) who was buried with one of her hands cut off & fed to hyenas. To cheer her up before her birthday, her father, archaeologist Julian Fuchs, (Andrew Keir) gives her a large ring he has found. Her boyfriend, Tod Browning, (Mark Edwards) is infatuated with it & takes it to see a friend, Geoffrey Dandridge, (Hugh Burden) who freaks out when he sees the ring. When Professor Fuchs leads an expedition to her dig site, the spirit of Queen Tara is released by their meddling, & Margaret becomes strangely affected by it. When she & Tod get home, they find Julian in a coma-like state. While trying to care for him, Margaret comes across one of her fathers' acquaintances, Corbeck, (James Villiers) who informs her & Tod of the true nature of the discovery of Queen Tara. The two try to figure out what has happened to Margaret before the spirit of Queen Tara fully envelops Margaret.
The Good News: This is probably one of the best-looking Hammer films. The amazing sets are so eerie & striking that it reallly catches your eye. It also adds to the suspense of the scenes since the realisticness of them plays out in the viewers' mind. They are so intricately made that it almost looks like they used ancient Egyptian props straight from a tomb & put them directly in front of the camera. The tomb is the most impressive, with the beautiful sarcophagus in the middle as the best example of this. The decorated head filled with jewels of many different colors, the headdress, & the overalll design it has is simply marvelous & looks very nice. Even the large hieroglyphics on the wallls look outstanding. It reallly does look like an actual Egyptian tomb inside. It reallly looks very nice & up to Hammer's usual high standards. Even the kills were pretty good. Always going for the jugular was a nice adaptation to give the killer, as it makes for some nasty kills along the way, but it doesn't provide for any creativity. However, it alllows for a lot of blood to flow, as this is one of the bloodier films from Hammer. There weren't a lot of kills in the beginning, but once this got rolling, they came fast & furious. This is one of the many films Hammer made that effectively used shadow & suggestion. The first one is clearly the highlight, as the victim is inside an insane asylum, straight-jacketed & held down when a vicious wind begins to howl & starts blowing things around the room. He notices a snake sculpture on the walll is missing & he goes over to try to get out, but he is trapped inside. He notices that the snake sculpture's shadow on the side of the walll slowly approaching him, & gets even more frantic & hysterical, & the wind picks up & before we know it, there's a dead body in the room. All of the shadows & other images in the film are nice uses of suspense to give the film a little something extra, just to spice up the action. Speaking of spice, Valerie Leon is one of the better & busty heroines of the Hammer staple. She spends a lot of time in the film wearing negligee, & sometimes less, so this is something many red-blooded males will want to see.
The Bad News: This is probably one of the slower entries in the series, so it takes a while to get going & for us to care for the characters, but once it gets going, it's not that bad. For a mummy film, we don't see the mummy in the film alll that often. Even more so, it isn't a mummy in the traditional sense that we know of, covered in layers of moldy bandages & shuffling about. Here, not only is it rarely seen, but it isn't the traditional mummy, so fans may be disappointed with it if it's a blind buy based on the title.
The Final Verdict: This is one of the more under-rated Hammer films, & it does have more than enough going for it to be recommended. Lack of kills in the beginning may slow the pace down, but the last two-thirds is packed with kills & enough answers to questions to make it worth the investment. Hammer fans should check this one out, while mummy fans may be disappointed since it only has very limited screen-time.
All hail, the mighty Valerie Leon! - By: English Murphy, 28 Feb 2006 This was Valerie's only starring role as far as I know & the film itself is the usual cheesy old Hammer fare. But that isn't the point: Valerie Leon is one of the most beautiful women of the twentieth century & this film is the perfect opportunity to admire her in her 70's glory. And if you don't know who Valerie is, you're probably under 30 & should educate yourself forthwith.
