Blood From the Mummy's Tomb [DVD]

In this 1971 Hammer Films entry, we get the "reincarnation of the Egyptian Princess theme," but with a certain caveat -- there's no "bandaged-wrapped mummy" to avenge her or to drag her off at the end of the movie!Directed by Seth Holt, this is a fine horror flick with all the great set and location ambiance that we've come to expect from the British-based Hammer Film Company. It's shot in letterbox and the color saturation is most pleasing, as it punctuates the impressiveness of all the Egyptian sets and icons.The story, conveyed somewhat in retrospect, is that of a British expedition that unearths a tomb in which is found a perfectly-preserved princess (or "mummy" for this one), except that her hand has been lobbed off and the disembodied hand has a nice ring on one finger. The expedition falls under a bit of a curse (always bad to open these sacred tombs) and these paranoid tomb-raiders ultimately disband and scatter like dried leaves in the Autumn. But when the expedition leader gives his daughter the ring, which he conveniently cobbed from the tomb, the trouble really begins.The large ring's stone has imbedded within it a star alignment (which looks amazingly like The Big Dipper!) and that star alignment is, of course, when the reincarnation of the Princess is to begin. And did I mention that this gal who got the ring looks EXACTLY like the Egyptian Princess? It's so and the original expedition members begin to fall like flies when she subsequently visits them.There aren't any heavyweight actors in this film but I was pleased to see Aubrey Morris (as Dr. Putnam) who also played the birdwatcher ("Quince") in a great old B&W Avengers Episode, "Silent Dust". Morris was a fine actor and, albeit his role is a small one here, his toothy performance adds to the film's overall appeal.In the larger picture, the sets and locations are terrific in this film and the casting is spot-on. The film doesn't drag anywhere and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It's one that fans of older horror films will enjoy watching over and over.

While this movie features a mummy, it's not what you'd expect. That said, Hammer Studios of course delivered another entertaining story and the actors all did a great job of selling the plot. A little bit of gore for the time period, but nothing that should be too difficult to watch for modern viewers. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and would recommend. Especially if you're a fan of Hammer.

This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'Blood From the Mummy's Tomb' released by Shout! Factory in 2019.*****NOTE***** For those new to this movie, this is a movie made in 1971. It is not a Mummy movie in the traditional sense. It is a story based on Bram Stoker's, 'The Jewel of the Seven Stars'.TIMELINE: This is Hammer Horror's fourth Mummy movie. It is not related to any of the other movies.BLU-RAY: The picture is nice but not great. I've seen better from Shout! Factory with regard to the Hammer film library. I don't want to say that the picture is terrible. It's not. It's just not as sharp as I'd like. Of course, this often has to do with the original elements. The picture is 'soft' in spots. The colors are decent. You won't see any real imperfections such as dust, specks, lines, etc. Overall I'd give the picture about a 6 or 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. The movie is shown in two different aspect ratio's. You can watch in either 1.85:1 or 1.66:1.EXTRA'S:-The inside cover to the Blu-Ray case has an alternate cover.-Audio Commentary by Author/Film Historian Steve Haberman - Haberman does many audio commentaries for horror movies. He does his usual good job. Haberman is always well informed and provides the usual biographies of people involved.-'The Pharoah's Curse: Inside Blood From The Mummy's Tomb' - This is a new 18 minute documentary of the making of the movie. It features interviews with a bunch of modern day film critics.-Interview with Sound Recordist, Tony Dawe - This is a short 6 minute interview. Dawe talks about director, Seth Holt, actor Peter Cushing, actor Andrew Keir and the sound of the movie.-Interview with Camera Operator, Neil Binney - This is a 5 minute interview. Binney talks about actress, Valerie Leon, director, Seth Holt, producer, Michael Carreras and Director of Photography, Arthur Grant.-Interview with writer, Christopher Wicking and actress, Valerie Leon - This is a 9 minute featurette with the writer and star of the movie. This featurette was made in 2001.-Theatrical Trailer-TV Spot-Radio Spots-Still Gallery-SubtitlesIS THIS REALLY A MUMMY MOVIE? It is not a Mummy movie in the traditional sense. This movie is not connected to any of the other Mummy movies by Hammer Films. There is no actual Mummy in this movie. There is an ancient Queen who is dead but has not aged and her body is perfectly preserved. Therefore, even if you set aside that the Mummy is female, there was never a Mummy to begin with. The body was never preserved by the traditional Egyptian mummification process. The name, 'Mummy' was simply a selling point for Hammer Films.*****WARNING - LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT*****PLOT/SUMMARY: It's Professor Fuchs (Andrew Keir) gives a large jewel attached to a ring to his daughter, Margaret, a few days before her birthday. He tells her to wear it always. Fuchs got the ring from the detached hand of an ancient Egyptian Queen. Along with his team, he discovered an untouched tomb on an expedition to Egypt. He brought back everything he found and recreated the tomb in his basement. In addition to the artifacts, he brought back that body of the Queen and her sarcophagus. The body looks as perfect as the day she died. An artifact from the tomb was given to each of the members of the expedition. One of the members of the expedition, Corbeck, has rented the property across the street from Professor Fuchs. He has done this in order to spy on his daughter, Margaret. Margaret looks exactly like the dead Queen, Queen Tera.As the movie progresses, it is learned that Margaret was born the moment that Queen Tera was discovered. Margaret's mother died during childbirth. Margaret was born dead but began breathing shortly after birth. Each member of the team is afraid of Margaret except for Corbeck. Each of the artifacts, representing an animal, come to life. Corbeck plans on bringing back to life, Queen Tera. In order to do this, Margaret must die.PRODUCTION:-This movie was part of a double bill with 'Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde'.-The title for this movie came from the head of Hammer Pictures at the time, Michael Carreras. The company wanted a different title than 'The Jewel of the Seven Stars'. They wanted the name 'Mummy' in the title.-The character of Tod Browning is a homage to the famous director of 'Dracula', 'Freaks' and others.-Valerie Leon's (Margaret Fuchs) voice was dubbed. This was par for the course for Hammer Films. There really wasn't any reason to dub her voice but Hammer had gotten into the habit of doing this with most of their female stars of the era.-Valerie Leon had a body double in her nude scene in the bedroom.WHAT BOOK IS THIS MOVIE BASED ON? This movie is based on the novel, 'The Jewel of the Seven Stars' written by none other than Bram Stoker. Yes, that Bram Stoker. This book was published in 1903, 6 years after 'Dracula'.IS THIS MOVIE A RE-MAKE? ARE THERE OTHER VERSIONS BASED ON THE SAME BOOK?To date, there are 6 movies based on the novel, 'The Jewel of the Seven Stars'. 'Blood from the Mummy's Tomb' was the second adaption and first version that was released in a theater. The versions that have been made as of the date of this review are:Television episodes:'Mystery and Imagination: The Curse of the Mummy' (1970)Theatrical releases:'Blood from the Mummy's Tomb' (1971)'The Awakening' (1980)'The Tomb' (1986)Bram Stokers's Legend of the Mummy (1998)Straight to Video:'Legend of the Mummy' (1997)WHO IS VALERIE LEON? Valerie Leon is alive and still acting as of the time of this review in 2019. Leon got her start as a chorus girl. She has done modeling as well as been part of television commercials. She is probably best known for having been a Bond girl in two movies, 'The Spy Who Loved Me' and 'Never Say Never Again'. She has taken small parts in television series' throughout the years. Her role in 'Blood from the Mummy's Tomb' was probably the closest she got to a starring role.COMMENTS:IS THERE A CURSE OF 'THE BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB'?: Perhaps... There were 3 incidents that occurred during the filming of this movie. First and most important, the director, Seth Holt dies with about a week left before filming completed. Hammer's President, Michael Carreras, was forced to complete the movie himself. Peter Cushing had the original lead role of Julian Fuchs. Cushing's wife became very ill, one day after filming began. Cushing was forced to leave the production and Andrew Keir took over. All previous scenes involving Cushing were re-shot. In a addition, a member of the art department died in an accident during the production. Was the production cursed? You decide...OTHER COMMENTS:-Basically, I'm just not a fan of the plot of this movie. I haven't liked 'Mummy' movies, in general, since I was a young boy.-I don't think the 'hand' effect looks good at all. Same goes for the blood flowing from the arm.-Even though, Peter Cushing, was replaced, given the material, I don't think his presence would have helped to improve this production a whole lot.CONCLUSIONS: I am a fan of Hammer Horror movies. I am not a fan of this movie. I have seen other versions of this movie and don't like those either. This is strictly a matter of preference. I can't say that 'Blood from the Mummy's Tomb' is a poor movie. I just don't find it exciting and in fact, I find it boring. I have always found, Mummy movies in general to be mostly boring. At least this story is different than the more traditional versions of the Mummy. I feel like I'm watching the same movie over and over whenever I watch a mainstream Mummy movie, such as the ones made by Universal. I think the originals of both Universal and Hammer are good movies. I find the sequels dreadfully boring. To me, the most interesting aspect of this movie is the 'curse' that befell the production crew (Look above for more on this).The release itself is decent. You get a nice amount of extra's. The picture is not quite as good as some of the other 'Hammer' releases from Shout! Factory. If you are a 'Hammer' fan then of course you will need this for your collection.ARE THERE ANY SEQUELS? PREQUELS?:There are no sequels to this movie. Hammer Films made 3 other movies with the name 'Mummy' in the title. These movies are more in line with traditional 'Mummy' movies. The movies are:-The Mummy (1959)-The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)-The Mummy's Shroud (1967)-Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)RATINGS:Picture: 6.5/10 - It's decent, if not spectacular.Plot: 5/10 or 2 1/2 stars - It's a classic story from a famous author, but it's just not very exciting.SFX: 6/10 - There aren't a lot of effects. The make-up looks good and the props and sets are good but the one main effect, the cut-off hand doesn't look that good.Extra's: 8/10 or 4 stars - There are some nice extra's. This is a strong point of the release.Overall: 7/10 or 3 1/2 stars which I'm rounding up to 4 stars just because Shout! Factory makes these movies available on Blu-Ray.

This is a delightful Hammer B-list movie; I saw it in 1971 on the second half of a double bill - tellingly I can't recall what the main picture was. A very enjoyable version of Bram Stoker's 'The Jewel of Seven Stars', (which has just been re-issued by Penguin Classics in paperback). HOWEVER - amazon are displaying this as a 'special edition' with a separate disc of Hammer trailers... it isn't, the copy I received this morning doesn't even have the enclosure, illustrated with the movie poster, which is pictured here. Once again amazon proves unreliable on item details.

This is a fascinating and fun movie to watch, especially since there are no actual "mummies" in it. Great cast, the female lead is great to watch, both for her ability to make you believe her in this role and her rockin' body. Not too enamored of the ending, too sudden and a little too symbolic. Great color throughout, very atmospheric, definitely worth your while.