Another Hammer Version of a Classic Monster Brings Us Christopher Lee as "The Mummy"- Tonight!

Tonight on MeTV- it’s the Hammer take on yet another of the Universal monsters- as Christopher Lee steps into the role of  another classic creature- with Peter Cushing again as the man who must try to stop him! The search for the lost tomb of Princess Ananka leads to the resurrection of “The Mummy”!

In this 1959 color version of the story- which also borrows plot points from Universal’s “Mummy’s Hand”, “Mummy’s Tomb” and “Mummy’s Ghost”- we see archeologist Stephen Banning, Joseph Whemple, and Banning’s son John at a dig site in Egypt in 1895. John has broken his leg, but delays getting it taken care of, due to promising discoveries that indicate they may have found Ananka’s tomb. And –they have indeed found it- but as the elder Banning and Whemple are about to enter it, an irate Egyptian,Mehemet Bey, approaches and warns them not to desecrate the holy burial place. The two men ignore him, enter the tomb, and unseal the burial chamber, where they find the sarcophagus of Ananka and various riches. Whemple goes to inform John of the success, leaving Stephen alone. The archeologist stumbles upon the legendary Scroll of Life- and begins to read it out loud ( bad move). Before long, Whemple and John hear him cry out- and return to find him a gibbering noncommunicative mess!

John oversees the removal of all the Egyptian artifacts, and the expedition heads back to England, where Stephen is placed in a home for the mentally disturbed, in a catatonic state. Three years afterwards, surprisingly, Stephen suddenly has regained some mental awareness, and requests that his son be brought to see him! John is shocked by this development, but happy that his father has a degree of his faculties back- but when Stephen begins to relate what actually happened to him- and warns him that a living mummy is certain to search them out and kill them- John is skeptical. Stephen sadly dismisses his unbelieving son- knowing he has spoken the truth.

Before long, a couple boozy fellows depart a pub to make a delivery they have been hired for- by a strange foreign fellow. Their lack of sobriety on the rough roads leads to the box they are to deliver tumbling off their wagon, and into a marsh! When police come to investigate, and decide the box cannot be recovered, its owner shows up- it’s Mehemet Bey, in England now, who calmly takes the news, and states that the box merely held Egyptian artifacts.

Later, the Egyptian returns, and uses the Scroll of Life to revive the Mummy Kharis- who emerges from the marsh at the command of Bey, a follower of the god Karnak ( no, not Johnny Carson in a turban)- who sets him on his mission to destroy all who desecrated Ananka’s tomb! Those members of the original expedition are now in danger, as well as John’s wife Isobel- but will the local police inspector believe their lives are at stake?

This is another impressive Hammer horror film, and, as far as Mummy films go, more traditional and probably more to most fans’ liking than last month’s “Time Walker. We’ll introduce you to the cast, lead by Lee and Cushing, introduce an odd version of a popular game show, bring you a new song, and get a quick cameo appearance of – well, you’ll have to see…by the way, due to the length of this film, we will limit my segment times in the show in order to provide more of the movie.

“The Mummy” lives again on MeTV at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time. MeTV invites you to join all the viewers who post on Twitter during the show, using the hashtag #svengoolie. In Chicago, our main local station, CW26, presents an encore of Joan Crawford and William Castle’s “I Saw What You Did” at 11 am.

We did want to acknowledge that last weekend, the MeTV promo for 3 shows to watch in the upcoming week did erroneously show the wrong Mummy film as our feature for this week. It was corrected, and we thank those who pointed it out to us.

My first public appearance in about a year and a half is coming up soon- as we once again hit “Flashback Weekend” at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, IL at the end of this month. You’ll find the information about it under the “appearances” tab here on our website.

New Sven merchandise is being worked on! Some may be coming later this summer!

Tonight- join us for Hammer icons Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as we unwrap a story of terror from an Egyptian tomb!