The Mummy (1932)

Director:

Karl Freund

Writers:

Nina Wilcox Putnam (story) and
Richard Schayer (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

22 December 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror

Tagline:

It comes to life!

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Mummy | Reincarnation | Buried Alive | Virgin | Archeology

Cast

Boris Karloff	...	Im-ho-tep / Ardath Bey
Zita Johann	...	Helen Grosvenor / Princess Anck-es-en-Amon
David Manners	...	Frank Whemple
Arthur Byron	...	Sir Joseph Whemple
Edward Van Sloan	...	Dr. Muller
Bramwell Fletcher	...	Ralph Norton
Noble Johnson	...	The Nubian
Kathryn Byron	...	Frau Muller
Leonard Mudie	...	Prof. Pearson
James Crane	...	The Pharaoh
Henry Victor	...	The Saxon warrior (scenes deleted)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Arnold Gray	...	Knight (scenes deleted)
Leyland Hodgson	...	Gentleman #2 (uncredited)
Eddie Kane	...	Dr. LeBarron (uncredited)
Tony Marlow	...	Police inspector (uncredited)
C. Montague Shaw	...	Gentleman #1 (uncredited)
Pat Somerset	...	Helen's dancing partner (uncredited)
Arthur Tovey	...	Bit part (Nubian) (uncredited)

Directed by
Karl Freund

Writing credits
Nina Wilcox Putnam		(story) and
Richard Schayer		(story)
John L. Balderston		(writer)

Produced by
Carl Laemmle Jr.	....	producer
Stanley Bergerman	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
James Dietrich		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Charles J. Stumar		(as Charles Stumar)

Film Editing by
Milton Carruth

Art Direction by
Willy Pogany		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Vera West		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Jack P. Pierce	....	makeup designer (uncredited)

Special Effects by
John P. Fulton	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Fred Archer	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Ray Jones	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Music Department
Michel Brusselmans	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
James Dietrich	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Carl Laemmle	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1932) (USA) (theatrical)
• Realart Pictures (1951) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Screen Gems (1957) (USA) (TV)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Universal Pictures (1934) (Austria) (theatrical)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2002) (Netherlands) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Cagliostro
Im-Ho-Tep
King of the Dead

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Arabic | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1935) | Finland:K-11 (2004) | Spain:T | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:PG | Australia:PG | Germany:12 | UK:15 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Mojave Desert, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

So many layers of cotton were glued to Boris Karloff's face to create the wrinkled visage of Imhotep as a mummy that Karloff was unable to move his facial muscles enough even to speak.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Im-Ho-Tep breaks the glass in the display case with his bare hand, there is clearly no glass there, just the sound effect.

Quotes:

Helen Grosvenor/The Princess: I loved you once, but now you belong with the dead. I am Anck-es-en-Amon, but I... I'm somebody else, too. I want to live, even in this strange new world.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Satanic (2006)

Soundtrack:

Beautiful Love

The greatest Mummy movie ever made. Full of atmosphere and suspense.

I love the classic horror movies of the 1930s. They were made when the talkies were still novel and film makers were experimenting with storytelling approaches, often taking inspirations from German Expressionism (indeed 'The Mummy's director Karl Freund, who later directed another 1930s classic 'Mad Love', originally worked as a cinematographer on Fritz Lang's science fiction classic 'Metropolis' and several movies by F.W. Murnau). And it was before the Hayes Code kicked in and took a lot of the fun and thrills out of horror movies (just look at how safe and uninteresting horror became in the 1940s with a few notable exceptions e.g. the movies produced by Val Lewton). The film obviously owes a lot to 'Dracula' and Edward Van Sloan and David Manners from that film reappear here in similar roles. Karloff is brilliant as Imhotep a.k.a The Mummy, and stage actress Zita Johann is wonderful too, very striking with exotic good looks. Too bad she became very quickly disillusioned with Hollywood as she should have been a major screen star. Karloff and Johann are fantastic on screen together, and make 'The Mummy' impossible to forget. I was quite surprised to discover that this movie wasn't enormously successful when originally released, but it has obviously captured the imagination of thousands of film fans since. It is easily the best Mummy movie ever made (though I also have a fondness for Hammer's "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb' made almost forty years later), and much more entertaining and intelligent than the awful remake starring Brendan Fraser et al. 'The Mummy' stands alongside 'Dracula', 'Frankenstein', 'Island Of Lost Souls', 'Freaks', 'The Invisible Man' and 'The Black Cat' as one of the best horror movies of the 1930s, an era that has had an enormous impact on horror ever since. Highly recommended!