What an incredibly weak mummy film! I have seen all the mummy films from Universal--both the original and the Kharis series from the 1940s. I loved these films even if, after a while, they were a bit repetitive. And, I also liked the 1959 Hammer film, THE MUMMY. It was an excellent newer interpretation of the mummy stories. However, by 1964, a LOT of mummy films had been created and this one, though different, still wasn't that good! Yes, it had a few INTERESTING moments (such as the sleazy character played by Fred Clark who turned the excavated Egyptian treasures into a garish side-show--thus desecrating the gods) but most of the "original" elements were just dumb. In particular, at the end of the film, you find out that a main character is, in fact, the brother of the mummy who's been murdering everyone! Huh?! He was over 3000 years old and this just didn't make any sense. And the mummy himself looked awfully cheesy--like they didn't even try to make the creature look believable. Christopher Lee's earlier Hammer mummy just looked so much more believable--this new mummy didn't even have a mouth and his eyes were all wrong. All in all, this movie shows that the franchise had finally run out of steam and it was time to put it out to pasture.

PS--I don't know about you, but I hate the old film cliché of the fainting lady. In this film, it happens several times. I would HOPE that women would RUN, not faint. In fact, now that I think about it, the women fainted and the men just stood there and waited for the slow-moving mummy to kill them. Well, duh!

A shame, because a lot of Hammer's films are great or at least very entertaining. But unlike 1959's The Mummy directed by Terrence Fisher and starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb is not one of their finest hours. Not unwatchable by all means but very much a lesser effort for them.

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb is a good-looking film at least, thankfully not having the rushed and made-on-the-quick-and-cheap production values of the Universal Kharis Mummy films. The chilling Hammer atmosphere is present in how the film looks, with the sumptuous Gothic sets, lush photography that does a fine job evoking some atmosphere, much tighter editing and rich bold colours. The music score is hauntingly stirring, and while The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb is too often dull it really does pick up in the final twenty minutes. The final twenty minutes make the film, with the film being at its most horrifying and suspenseful by some considerable distance, with some gruesome but not overly-gratuitous shocks(i.e. the amputation scene) and a tense and exciting sewer chase.

Regarding the acting, the supporting cast fare far better than the leads. George Pastell brings a lot of charisma to his role, Jack Gwillum is movingly sympathetic and in particular Fred Clark plays a very sleazy character with intensity and lively and often funny comic timing. The very much-forgotten Dickie Owen, while just lacking the imposing creepiness of Christopher Lee and the pathos of Boris Karloff(much better than Lon Chaney Jnr though, at least Owen's heart seemed in it),is still a very formidable Mummy and is aided by some cool make-up. One just wishes he was on screen for longer and was introduced earlier.

On the other hand, the pacing really hurts The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb. It starts off well, but for at least three quarters of an hour(most of the film),the film is very tediously paced and painfully predictable, with the less eventful scenes dragging interminably and even with a few surprise twists here and there everything just felt very over-familiar. There is very little tension, thrills or sense of dread or horror, further let down by a pointless and saccharinely written love triangle that takes up far too much of the film. It also feels far too talky and stilted, with the romantic parts being truly banal, the humour while sometimes amusing and well-played at other points overdone, unneeded or not the best placed and the speeches, sideshows and history lessons didn't properly maintain interest.

While the supporting cast acquit themselves well, the three leads aren't too great. Ronald Howard is the least bad, but he has given far more involved performances, he has presence but at other points he sleepwalks through his role. Terrence Morgan is a wooden bore, though that his character is very underwritten doesn't help in, but Jeanne Roland fares the worst. Despite her exotic looks, Roland spends the entire time looking lost and is not always easy to understand, at worst incomprehensible. Michael Carreras has his moments, he shines in the last act with some of his visual directing and storytelling being almost worthy of the best of Hammer, but most of it sadly is very routine, competent and technically accomplished but he forgets to make the story and characters interesting so fails to engage the viewer as a result.

All in all, despite it coming to life in the last twenty minutes amongst a few other things, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb is one of the lesser and duller Hammer films. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Hammer Films which took over the famous Universal horror icons did a mummy's tale with The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb. A little bit of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray story was weaved into the plot of this movie.

Set at the turn of the last century, three archaeologists unearth the tomb of a crown prince of Egypt who legend has it was slain by his brother a few thousand years BC. But someone with reasons of his own to finance the expedition has used some ancient spells to revive the dead and the prince is out settling a few scores against those who've violated his sleep.

Terrance Morgan stars in this film and he's the fellow with the Dorian Gray situation. He's got an agenda himself working here at it involves putting an end to his Dorian Gray like existence and being reunited in eternity with his true love. In that sense a leaf is borrowed from the classic original Mummy film that starred Boris Karloff.

Which happens to be my favorite horror film of all time so every other mummy film just pales in comparison. Still The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb has enough on its own merits to rate some comparison and Terrence Morgan who is best remembered on the big screen for playing Laertes to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet does a fine job here as a most tortured soul.