Wonkette Movie Night: The Mummy (1999)

'I may not be an explorer or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am... a librarian.'

Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Christopher Lee, Arnold Vosloo and ziggywiggy have all portrayed a mummy.

Peter Cushing, Abbott and Costello, Scooby & the gang, and Brendan Fraser have all battled the bandaged baddie.

1932, 1942, 1959, 1969, 1974, 1999

There have been many movie mummies making monster mayhem, starting in 1932 with The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff as Imhotep, the ancient Egyptian prince risen from the dead to wreak vengeance on those who had disturbed his tomb.

But it would not be until 1942, with Lon Chaney Jr. as Kharis, where we would see the classic wrapped-in-white-gauze, decaying and slow moving mummy. There were four films in the series, with Chaney Jr. starring in the last three, The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost and The Mummy's Curse. Although the actor gained attention with The Wolfman and his ability to show emotions through layers of make-up, a mask was used for his roles in the movies that centered around the undead Kharis.

In 1955 Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy had the comedic duo guarding the similarly named mummy Klaris (not Chaney, but one Eddie Parker, credited as “Edwin Parker”) and getting into their usual slapstick shenanigans.

You can’t keep a good monster buried, and Kharis was back in 1959 with The Mummy. You’ll notice they never got very creative with the titles of this cinematic monster. This time it received the Hammer Film treatment, starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, but still following the same formula of an ancient Egyptian curse with a shambling, rotten fiend. This time out the conceit is that he’s a high priest punished for love, back from the dead to find a replacement for his beloved Princess Ananka.

1969 brought us a kid friendly cartoon version of the mummy in the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? In typical Mystery Inc. style the mummy of Ankha is unmasked at the end as just a man with an evil plot to steal a priceless artifact.

In 1974, I wrapped myself in toilet paper, dusted my face with baby powder, and I too became a shuffling, groaning mummy, one arm raised, reaching out for… candy. Homemade Halloween costumes of classic monsters like mummies, ghosts, witches, vampires and Frankenstein’s monster were much more fun than the scratchy plastic masks with nylon jumpsuits bought at the local K-Mart. Of course you didn’t realize that till you were older. Also never forgotten: the lessons learned about the staying power of food coloring on skin.

25 years ago, The Mummy was rebooted for modern viewers, and Imhotep was back, this time portrayed by Arnold Vosloo as a more terrifying and evil eternal being. In this incarnation, the high priest is trying to turn librarian Rachel Weisz into a receptacle for the spirit of his true love, Anck-Su-Namun. But Brendan Fraser is a swashbuckling adventurer who just might get in his way. There’s flesh eating scarabs, booby trapped sarcophagi and sand taking on humongous human form. The special effects of 1999 allowed for much more spectacular and frightening ancient malevolent forces as compared to Karloff’s less demonstrative monster.

Mummies still fascinate us. There will certainly be more future films about them, and the odds are good some of them will be titled The Mummy.

The Mummy is available with subscription on Peacock. $3.99 in all the usual places. May be available on cable tv.

Starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr and Patricia Velasquez. Directed by Stephen Sommers.

National Geographic provides a glimpse into this other world from days long gone by as archeologists of today still seek to unwrap the mysteries the desert holds. Instead of a cartoon I give you the full episode of Servants Of The Serpent Goddess, Kingdom Of The Mummies.