The Mummy (1932)

DVD review from The Movie Snob

The Mummy (1932) (B). I expected this old-time horror movie to be a cheesy movie centering on a slow-moving bandaged monster strangling victims in ancient tombs. It was a lot more sophisticated than that, with a plot that is fairly similar to the 1999 Brendan Fraser remake. Mummy Imhotep (Boris Karloff, Frankenstein) is reanimated when a foolish young archaeologist opens a cursed box and reads from the Scroll of Thoth. Ten years later, Imhotep resurfaces, but he passes for a living human being, albeit of cadaverous and creepy mien. He directs a British archaeology team to dig in a certain spot, where they swiftly discover an undespoiled tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess. Imhotep's purpose, it turns out, is to use the Scroll of Thoth to revive his long-lost love, and he will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal. Given the love story, this Mummy is a rather more sympathetic monster than most.