A mummy (Tom Tyler) strangles an archaeologist (Dick Foran) in a tomb
#mummymonday Universal definitively killed off the reanimated mummy Imhotep in The Mummy (1932), so started from scratch to create a shambling creature of destruction in 1940’s The Mummy’s Hand: the undead Kharis.
Anecdotally the name was an amalgam of Bor-IS KAR-loff. Hooey? True? Your thoughts?
A molded oversized mask of a mummy with blood ona cheek and lips
#mummymonday
Very bummed to learn that Retro-A-Go-Go is no longer in business. The store specialized in vintage and retro designs, including a line of oversized masks (roughly 18” x 11”) in homage to the #bencooper designs. I have this one & several others (currently not on wall, redoing library)
A TV ad for The Mummy’s Hand. It shows a mummy holding a woman and advertises a 10 o’clock showing on KENS TV
#mummymonday "Shock Theater" had Joe Alston as The Host on KENS-TV Ch 5 San Antonio TX & was assisted by Bob Burns & Kathy Burns who appeared as mad lab assistants, hags, witches, mad doctors, the Frankenstein Monster, Wolf Man, & the mad mummy. It ran 1957 - 1961. Here’s an ad for The mummy’s Hand
Book cover for Mummy! A chrestomancy of cryptology. It shows a partially unwrapped mummy’s face, and it’s alive!!!
#mummymonday
Bill Pronzini had a great series of monster anthologies from Arbor House, among them Mummy! in 1980. This collection has some familiar stories (Lot 249 by Arthur Conan Doyle) and some less commonly collected (The Other Room by Charles L. Grant & The Princess by Joe Lansdale).
The actress Peggy Moran, B&W photo
The actress Elyse Knox, B&W photo
The actress Ramsey Ames, B&W photo
The actress Kay Harding, B&W photo
Menaced on #mummymonday Peggy Moran (The Mummy’s Hand, ‘40), Elyse Knox (The Mummy’s Tomb, ‘42), Ramsey Ames (The Mummy’s Ghost, ‘44), & Kay Harding (The Mummy’s Curse, ‘44). Virginia Christine is carried off more by Kharis than Harding but since she’s a mummy herself, worthy of a solo post later.
Today is both #MonsterMonday and #MummyMonday and, by coincidence, it's also the anniversary of the release of both the first and the last of Universal's classic mummy epics.
#horror #classichorror #filmsky #moviesky #monstersky #Mummy
A man in a fez is giving a drink of tana fluid to a living mummy while another man (Martin Kosleck) looks on
#mummymonday Here’s to Peter Coe (L), who played Dr. Ilzor Zandaab in The Mummy’s Curse (1944), the only high priest of Arkam who didn’t break his holy vows (& got a knife in the back for his troubles). He became a drinking buddy with Lon Chaney (seen here as Kharis) and later befriended Ed Wood Jr.
Ruins of an abbey atop a hill at night. There is a long set of stairs leading upwards, and dead trees flanking those stairs
#mummymonday 1944’s The Mummy’s Curse is the last of the Kharis films, & has a stunning painted backdrop that’s wasted on the film - there’s little backstory to it, other than it’s “a holy place.” Did it originate as a conquistador fort? A creole abbey? Just what’s it doing in the Louisiana bayous?
A shrunken Peruvian mummy
City ruins in the desert
#mummymonday Anthony Boucher’s short story “They Bite” is one of the scariest things I’ve ever read. Seems there are things, Carkers, in the American Southwest desert and… they bite. Worth seeking out; it’s often anthologized.
A book cover for ‘The Long Night of the Dead’ by Charles L Grant. It shows a reanimated mummy in a crypt at night. There’s a full moon
#mummymonday The Long Night of the Grave is a horror novel by Charles L. Grant. It is the third volume of a trilogy* within Grant's Oxrun Station series. Overall the novels deal with supernatural happenings, but the trilogy deals with the classics - a vampire, werewolf, & mummy
* back in print!
B&W illustration of a man running through a wood with a skeletal mummy chasing him. It is captioned “Nearer yet sounded the clatter from behind.”
#mummymonday
‘Lot 249’ is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. An Egyptology student at Oxford reanimates a mummy and sends it after people he believes have wronged him. Published in Harper’s Magazine, September 1892. Doyle wrote a great deal of supernatural horror in addition to Sherlock Holmes
A man shines a flashlight on the sarcophagus of a woman
A dried up mummy. Pretty fake looking
A mummy wearing an amulet is attacked by house cats
#mummymonday 1973’s The Cat Creature is an odd movie. Robert Bloch’s teleplay has:
• a mummy that comes to life, as
• a cat that can hypnotize, and
• a cat that can sever jugulars, and
• a cat that can become a woman, and
• a cat that drains bodies of blood
Got all that? Unfortunately not good 😿
A shambling mummy. B&W pic
A luchador leaps upon a fallen henchman
A mad scientist with awesome goatee trains his robot
A cackling master criminal. He has a black cloak and goatee
#mummymonday Popoca, the Aztec mummy, was featured in 3 Mexican films (1957 - 1958). Shot back-to-back to save on production cost, they have as much flashback material as the last three Kharis flicks! Toss in reincarnation, a luchador, a master criminal (The Bat!), henchmen, and a killer robot -wow!
Movie poster stating “Beware the beat of the cloth-wrapped” feet. It is yellow and shows a gigantic mummy holding a woman, with an image of a tree & mob on its head - very odd
Several people stand near a mummy in a sarcophagus
An animated mummy is swinging a hand axe in a museum
The great Michael Ripper, looking quite dapper in a light gray suit and spectacles
#mummymonday “Beware the beat of the cloth-wrapped feet!” warns Hammer’s 3rd avenging Egyptian movie, The Mummy’s Shroud (1967). The steam & magic have gone out of the series as the mummy Krem murders off the cast in odd ways. One bonus - Michael Ripper is again in the cast but not as an Egyptian
A man looks at a mummy in a sarcophagus. There is a green light highlighting the mummy’s face
A mummy smashes through French windows in a gust of fog
A very British-looking man is dressed as an Egyptian
#mummymonday Hammer’s 2nd mummy film is Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964). This holds a special place in my heart, being the first Hammer film I saw (~1972 on the CBS Late Night Movie). A couple nice twists offset lower production values but casting the awesome Michael Ripper as an Egyptian, though…
A man drives a fire poker into the chest of a living mummy. They are in a library
#mummymonday Hammer’s 1959 take on a living mummy borrows liberally from Universal’s The Mummy, The Mummy’s Hand, The Mummy’s Tomb, and (a bit) from The Mummy’s Ghost (1932, ‘40, ‘42, & ‘44) and comes away with its own fresh take: a powerful, vengeance-driven mummy that’s exceedingly dangerous. A+
Book cover showing a painted mummy holding a film reel in a tomb
#mummymonday
Thomas Feramisco’s book ‘The Mummy Unwrapped’ is a terrific resource for fans of the Universal Kharis series. Information on the four films, how they evolved from conception to execution, & details on a FIFTH proposed movie, The Mummy’s Return, give this a place of honor on my shelf.
Black & white pic of a little terrier mix
Black & white photo of a living mummy carrying a woman in a white nightgown
#mummymonday The real hero of The Mummy’s Ghost is Peanut, the little mutt owned by nominal hero Tom (Robert Lowery). While his master dithers about and achieves absolutely nothing, the brave pup leads rescue parties on the trail of Kharis (Lon Chaney Hr) after he abducts Amina (Ramsay Ames).
Ramsay Ames in a publicity shot for The Mummy’s Ghost. She is in a white dress and lying back on a pedestal in response to an offscreen threat
Ramsay Ames is aging rapidly and John Carradine as a high priest is offering her eternal life with a bowl of tana leaves brew
Virginia Christine in a publicity shot for The Mummy’s Curse. She is in a long, flowing dress and has a hand over her eyes
A woman’s mummified body in a sarcophagus
#mummymonday Two mummies are in Universal’s Kharis series. Princess Ananka is only mentioned in the first 2 but has major presence in the last. In the Mummy’s Ghost her spirit enters the body of a modern woman who then ages rapidly. In The Mummy’s Curse she reanimates once more before remummifying
A man in green robes with gold trim stands in front of a tomb with a living mummy inside
A man in a suit & wearing a fez prostrates himself before a living mummy
A bald man in robes looks at the camera. He is in a temple of the goddess Kali along with many other worshippers
A man in a turban speaks with another man (Michael Gough) in a hallway
#mummymonday - Cypriot actor George Pastell played Egyptian high priest Mehemet Bey in The Mummy (1959) & Hashmi Bey in The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964). His handsome exotic looks also had him portray Indians, as the high priest of Kali in Stranglers of Bombay (‘60) and Dr. Tagore in Konga (‘61)
A living mummy menaces a night watchman with a gun in a museum
#mummymonday Lon Chaney as Kharis about to slam poor Oscar O’Shea’s head into a pane of real glass in The Mummy’s Ghost (1944). O’Shea grabs the top of his head while he’s being strangled but he’s a trouper & finished the scene. Chaney cut his chin - you can see the blood. Was C2H5OH involved? Hmmm
Two men give tana leaves to a living mummy in a crypt
It’s #mummymonday and here’s Peter Coe as Dr. Ilzor Zandaab in The Mummy’s Curse, 1944. The only High Priest of Arkam who doesn’t toss aside his vows for a pretty face, he gets a knife in the back from his less-devoted assistant Ragheb (Martin Kosleck). Kharis (Lon Chaney) does for Ragheb afterward
The mummy Kharis is strangling a man in the swamp
A woman’s mummy lies in a sarcophagus
A monastery is seen at the top of a hill at night. Very creepy
It’s #mummymonday and here’s The Mummy’s Curse from 1944. The last but not least of the Kharis films, it has two mummies in it & a great setting where “the mummy’s in the swamp and he’s dancing with the devil!”
B&W photo of a man holding a medallion and wearing a fez
#mummymonday means time to remember George Zucco, the best darn high priest of Karnak that ever put on a fez - how many others could die *three* times in service of their god?
Mum's the word on this #MummyMonday! 🧟♂️🤕🪨
#comicsky #TheThing #MarvelComics #horrorsky #horrorfam #horror
