THE MUMMY’S SHROUD
(director/writer: John Gilling; screenwriter: from the story by Anthony Hinds; cinematographer: Arthur Grant; editor: Chris Barnes; music: Don Banks; cast: André Morell (Sir Basil Walden), John Phillips (Stanley Preston), David Buck (Paul Preston), Elizabeth Sellars (Barbara Preston), Maggie Kimberly (Claire de Sangre), Michael Ripper (Longbarrow), Tim Barrett (Harry Newton), Richard Warner (Inspector Barrani), Roger Delgado (Hasmid), Catherine Lacey (Haiti), (Sir Basil Walden), Eddie Powell (The Mummy), Dickie Owen(Pem, Mummy Slave),Toolsie Persaud (Kah-to-Bey); Runtime: 90; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Anthony Nelson Keys; Twentieth Century–Fox/Seven Arts Films (Hammer Films); 1967-UK)
“Obscure horror film, that deserves to be buried.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
John Gilling (“The Plague of the Zombies”/”The Reptile”/”The Flesh and the Fiends”) directs and writes this obscure horror film, that deserves to be buried. It’s based on the story by Anthony Hinds. This was Gilling’s last effort for Hammer Films. It’s a terrible film, that suffers from a dull story and wooden acting. The only thing mildly intriguing was the strange camera angles employed.
Treasure seeking British industrialist John Phillips, in 1920, sponsors the archeologist André Morell to lead a four man expedition to Egypt to find the lost tomb of a pharaoh buried in 2,000 B. C.. The expedition members besides the leader archeologist are the linguist (Maggie Kimberly), the photographer (Tim Barrett), and the sponsor’s son (David Buck). At the crypt, the expedion is joined by the industrialist. The group is warned by the crypt guardian (Roger Delgado) to stay clear, but the pharaoh’s shrouded mummy is stolen and placed in a museum. Phillips wants full credit and manages to get the archeologist leader committed to an asylum. After crypt guardian visits the museum, he brings the mummified slave back to life by intoning the hieroglyphic “Words of Life” emblazoned on the pharaoh’s shroud. What follows is the carrying out of the one at a time deaths of those on the expedition. But Kimberly and Barrett survive when the linguist evokes the “Words of Death” inscribed on the pharaoh’s shroud. Thereby the mummy (Eddie Powell, stuntman) turns to dust. The finale scene was the film’s highlight.
REVIEWED ON 9/16/2015 GRADE: C+