"This is Paul Jensen speaking." "The picture we are about to watch, The Mummy, exemplifies what is best in the American horror films of the early 1930s." "This is due to the skill and sensitivity of many people, but especially the film's star, Boris Karloff, its director, Karl Freund, and its screenwriter, John L Balderston." "Also making an important contribution is Karloff's co-star, Zita Johann, whose voice and looks are simultaneously exotic and natural, vulnerable and seductive." "We must not overlook the support provided by the other performers in this well-cast film, especially David Manners, Arthur Byron," "Edward Van Sloan and Bramwell Fletcher." "Balderston begins his story with an archaeological expedition in the Egypt of 1921." "By doing so, he deliberately evokes the November 1922 discovery of Tutankhamen's unplundered tomb, a discovery which had tremendous impact on the popular press and the popular imagination - an impact that remained for quite a few years." "Howard Carter's excavation of the tomb was methodical." "Its inner chamber was not even opened until three months later." "The Pharaoh's mummy was not unwrapped until 1925." "Artefacts were first displayed in Cairo's museum in 1929, and the tomb was not fully cleared until February 1932, just a month before Balderston began writing this film." "Attracting a more sensational kind of attention was the tomb's supposed curse, which reporters mentioned when anyone connected with the expedition died." "In 1926 a New York Times front-page article quoted an Egyptologist as being, like Dr Muller in this film," ""absolutely convinced" that the ancients could" ""concentrate upon and around a mummy, certain dynamic powers of which we possess very incomplete notions."" "As late as 1930, a Times article summarised the deaths of 14 people connected with Tutankhamen's tomb." "In this shot and the next, note the lamp in the foreground." "This is the kind of extra detail that gives visual interest to the images, while making us aware of the object a short time before it will be used." "These archaeologists have the task of informing us about the present situation." "Most of the things we need to know are things the characters are just learning, so the exposition arises naturally." "A great deal of information is offered gradually, in stages, starting with general background about the expedition presented through two contrasting attitudes to archaeology." "Whemple, older and more experienced, advocates patience and method, while the younger Norton is excitable and impulsive." "As it makes the contrast, the script resists temptation to ridicule either viewpoint." "Each man is sympathetic and understandable." "After introducing Whemple and Norton and the general situation, the scene shifts our attention to Dr Muller, and through him, to the mummy." "Both have been visible on the sidelines in a couple of earlier shots." "Muller notes that the viscera were not removed and the body not embalmed." "This man seems to have died in some sensationally unpleasant manner, struggling in his bandages." "Clearly, he was buried alive." "He probably was punished for some kind of sacrilege." "The mummy is identified as that of Imhotep, high priest of the Temple of the Sun at Karnak." "Muller also notes that the sacred spells that protect the soul in its journey into the underworld were chipped off." "So Imhotep was sent to his death in the next world too." "Now attention shifts to a box on the foreground table." "It is not an easy object to get at, causing a delay which builds anticipation." "First they must remove it from an outer wooden casing." "Then they carry it to a new position." "Whemple determines that the inner box is made of gold." "Also, it bears the unbroken seal of the Pharaoh Amenophis." "Whemple soon breaks the seal." "But he does so perhaps a little too casually for a truly methodical scientist." "Inside is still another box." "On it, they read an ancient curse." "Note the composition as two figures frame the hieroglyphs, then, as attention is drawn to the inscription, the camera moves closer." "Whemple and Muller are impressed." "Muller urges caution." "But although Whemple accepts Muller's mastery of the occult sciences, he, like Norton, wants to examine the contents." "Norton, meanwhile, eagerly dismisses the curse." "Muller, impatient with the young man, takes Whemple out under Egypt's stars." "This is, of course, the author's device to leave Norton alone, but it is one that draws out Muller's personality and also evokes a bit of Egyptian atmosphere." "The two settings are now intercut, with the older man establishing that the box might contain the Scroll of Thoth and explaining its powers." "It is an adroit strategy for Balderston and Freund to alternate between this exposition - which is passive - and Norton's actions, which move the story forward and are among the most gripping in the film." "Notice this very compact composition, which includes Norton and the lamp, with a portion of the box, tempting him, on our left." "As Norton looks closer, the camera pulls back." "In the next shot, the camera's gliding movement to the other side of the table gives the box central importance visually, but not in an arbitrary fashion, for the camera moves in synchronisation with Norton's movement of the lamp." "Freund uses a fairly large number of different shots - ten in this short section, which lasts slightly longer than two minutes." "He also avoids the use of background music, with silence heightening the scene's ominous, oppressive mood." "To dramatise the moment of removing the scroll," "Freund cuts to empty space and has Norton's head move into view in close-up." "Then he pans down to Norton's hands." "Norton pauses to wipe his hands." "The tension has made him sweat." "He doesn't want to damage the papyrus when he touches it." "The action starts to feel ceremonial." "Now Freund is about to cut to a new shot, in which the camera is placed in a lower position, so that as Norton unrolls the scroll it ends up being quite large in the frame." "Outside, Muller puts the events we have just seen and are about to see in context when he urges Whemple to put the box back, reminding him, and us, about the curse." "Next, Freund uses film's ability to let viewers know things a character does not." "His camera becomes independent." "It knows where to look, but we have no way of warning Norton." "Then Freund cuts to a close-up of the mummy." "We see its eyes open slightly," "then he tilts down to the arms as they slowly unfold." "Freund cuts back to Norton, still oblivious of what is happening behind him." "Freund tilts down to the scroll, and after a few seconds a hand enters." "The slow lead-up that emphasised camera movement is climaxed now with four sudden cuts keyed to Norton's shock." "Again, Freund has him move into a shot for emphasis." "While Norton laughs, the camera moves to the doorway, then to the case, then down to the box." "These details summarise the action, not through crisp editing, but gradually, through camera movements that create anticipation and dreadful inevitability - feelings heightened by the off-screen mad laughter." "This sequence does not use dialogue to legitimise what we have seen." "It is a tour-de-force use of images and sound to depict events, to create atmosphere and to evoke horror, all through implication." "This involves viewers by requiring attentiveness and imaginative collaboration." "The result is both understated and intense." "The final image sums up the situation, placing a dusty handprint next to Norton's transcription of the scroll." "This scene has the rather undramatic task of introducing new characters and summarising the past ten years." "We learn that Frank is Whemple's son, that this expedition has had little success, that ten years earlier Whemple found too much and refused to return, and that Norton went mad and eventually died." "All of this information is efficiently conveyed in about 90 seconds." "The filmmakers liven up this rather passive conversation in three ways." "They begin by having Frank notice and mention the approach of a visitor, which reassures viewers that something will probably happen soon." "The slatted shadows that fall on the two men add texture to the image." "And the action of Frank taking out a cigarette and Professor Pearson offering a match gives us something to watch while the dialogue does its duty." "Boris Karloff's real entrance in the film occurs now, almost 14 minutes after its start." "When Karloff opens the door, notice how quickly and unobtrusively he brings his left arm back to his side, so that after the door swings open he seems not to have moved at all, as if the door opened by itself." "In a close-up, his eyes shift sharply to his left, while his head does not change position." "These details of Karloff's performance help establish the character's controlled, deliberate nature at the moment of his entrance." "Although never stated, it is clear that this man, who calls himself Ardath Bey, is Imhotep, after removing his mummy wrappings." "He is now a living person, an independent being with thoughts and will and feeling - very different from the shambling automaton in most later mummy films." "Karloff is probably best known for his performance as Frankenstein's monster." "However, that dangerous-but-innocent route does not represent the actor at his most typical or display all his strengths." "The first real showcase for Karloff was The Mask of Fu Manchu, made just before this film, in 1932." "In it he played an articulate, sardonic, flamboyant sadist." "However, that film's production was too chaotic to result in a truly satisfying work." "Indeed, after enduring the extensive rewriting of scenes during the production of The Mask Of Fu Manchu, the actor must have found The Mummy's carefully preplanned screenplay a relief." "Thus, it was The Mummy which first gave Karloff's physical and vocal talents an ideal setting." "Earlier, in his coming-to-life scene, Karloff had been heavily made up." "He reportedly spent eight hours being made up and wrapped up for this scene." "Given that fact, the filmmakers reveal an amazing degree of restraint, and considerable dramatic wisdom, by not showing his full figure in motion." "Instead, he was just a face and arms and a hand." "Now the camera lingers on him in unwrapped form as the actor fully captures what the script describes as "slow dignity"" "and "uncanny force and power"." "Karloff's gaunt features, his angular form and his lisping articulation tend to make such an immediately powerful impression that no matter what he does or says he runs the risk of overemphasis." "Because of this larger-than-life aura, he tends to be most convincing when playing an understated, restrained character." "On those occasions, his extraordinary appearance and voice suggest that behind the restraint lie a bitter intelligence and unrelenting will which could, at any moment, break free with overwhelming power." "Imhotep is a menace, a single-minded obsessive who has the power to implement his obsession." "He also is a sympathetic figure who once dared the gods' wrath in an attempt to return his lover to life and who now, 3700 years later, finds himself with a second chance." "His threat is strongly felt, as is his suffering and his enduring passion." "After an efficient transition, we enter the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the room containing items from Anck-es-en-Amon's tomb." "Here we see Freund's camera prowl past display cases and among the artefacts until it reaches Imhotep... who gazes intently at Anck-es-en-Amon's mummy." "The deep tones of a bassoon give the image a mournful and ominous mood." "From a shot of Anck-es-en-Amon's face on her mummy case, there is a rapid pan across the city, which stops on the face of Helen Grosvenor, connecting her with Anck-es-en-Amon and with Imhotep - well before any of the characters are aware of a link." "Such an abstract affinity across space and, in a sense, across time echoes a quality of romanticism in general, and of German expressionist films in particular." "Technically, this device has a specific precedent in the 1931 Warner Bros film, Svengali, in which the camera travels across a city to connect Svengali with the woman he controls." "Dr Muller's conversation with Helen gives us a little information about her." "At one point he calls her "my most interesting patient", a line that is particularly intriguing because it is left unexplained." "This scene's rather natural exposition is followed by the epitome of blatant exposition, as two unknown men we will never see again discuss Helen for our benefit." "The script now continues developing its two parallel plot threads." "After Whemple says that the museum is closing, the rather ordinary response "I did not notice the time"" "gains an interesting irony when spoken by Imhotep, to whom time has a very special meaning." "When Whemple offers his hand, Imhotep glances down and ignores it." "It is typical of Freund's natural understated staging that the moment receives no emphasis." "Soon after, as Whemple reaches to guide Imhotep's elbow, his visitor explains "I dislike to be touched." "An Eastern prejudice."" "Imhotep appreciates the irony of this reversal of the usual attitude." "In this scene, note the subtle difference between the straightforward lighting in the long shot... and in the separate shot of Frank and the more shadowy image of Imhotep." "A key to Karloff's performance is the fact that the character's fragility makes him avoid physical activity or even contact, holding his body erect and still with his arms at his sides, he is a quietly forceful centre of attention." "By doing nothing, he appears completely in control - of himself and of the situation." "At the same time, Karloff's vocal tone gives his dialogue a haunted resonance to which he adds an edge of ironic politeness, blending dignity with quiet frustration and brooding menace." "Karl Freund's camera again tracks through the museum, this time to discover Imhotep kneeling with the Scroll of Thoth and the lamp as he attempts to bring life back to Anck-es-en-Amon's body." "Earlier, the camera had moved across Cairo to link Helen with Anck-es-en-Amon and Imhotep." "Now editing develops that link, by revealing the impact his incantations and the repeated name "Anck-es-en-Amon" have on Helen." "An impact of which Imhotep is unaware." "Eleven cuts establish the long-distance power of Imhotep and the scroll." "Notice that Freund took the extra trouble to film several different views of Imhotep, rather than return each time to the same camera and lighting setup." "And the lighting produces some marvellously dramatic and mysterious shadows on his face." "Yet those shadows have a natural source - the lamp on the floor below him." "The stately rhythm of this intercutting is reminiscent of some German films of the 1920s, notably FW Murnau's 1922 version of Dracula, entitled Nosferatu, in which similar editing evokes the fact that the heroine senses the vampire's approach" "and is drawn to watch for his ship's arrival." "In both works, film technique evokes a romantic attraction that is inseparable from a fatalistic sense of doom." "Freund did not work on Nosferatu, but did photograph many of Murnau's other films, and he was a key figure in the German film industry at that time." "When Helen arrives at the museum and, trying to get in, collapses at the door," "Frank is on his way out, so their paths now cross in a reasonably natural fashion, which brings the separate plot strands together." "Cut, but probably shot, was a short scene in which Whemple pays Helen's taxi driver and one in which they decide not to take her directly to a hospital." "Also, in the script, the death of the museum guard comes next, before the scene with Helen which now follows." "In this scene, Helen repeats Imhotep's name, which reveals her connection, even though Whemple and Frank do not yet understand its implications." "Whemple recognises that she is speaking the language of Ancient Egypt." "But one might wonder, if it has not been heard for 2,000 years, how he knows what it sounds like, and even how to speak it himself." "When a museum guard investigates, the camera follows his flashlight beam as it searches the room." "This is a clear link between The Mummy and Freund's work in Germany, where, eight years earlier, he collaborated with FW Murnau on Der Letzte Mann, known in English as The Last Laugh." "In that film, the camera similarly follows a watchman's lightbeam as it moves along a hotel corridor." "In both cases, light itself becomes a dramatic element." "The plot's alternation between Imhotep and Helen continues as Muller visits her." "His arrival is filmed simply, but it does establish a new character, the Nubian servant, played by Noble Johnson, who appeared in Universal's Murders In The Rue Morgue and would soon be seen in RKO's King Kong." "Zita Johann's small stature and round face, her large eyes and haunting voice, and a quality of exotic vulnerability set her apart from the usual ingénue, making her immediately recognisable, even if one has seen her only in this role." "John Balderston initially suggested testing Katharine Hepburn for the part." "Miss Johann was born in 1904 in an area of Hungary that is now part of Romania, and she came to the United States with her family at the age of seven." "Her Broadway career began in 1924, and her first screen appearance was in director DW Griffith's final film," "The Struggle, in 1931." "Then for Warner Bros she played opposite Edward G Robinson in Tiger Shark." "The Mummy was her third film." "She made a few others but, dissatisfied with Hollywood, she returned to the New York stage." "Her husband, while she was making this film, was John Houseman, who soon would collaborate with Orson Welles in the theatre and on radio." "Miss Johann died in 1993." "David Manners may lack unusual characteristics, but he mixed a handsome appearance with a pleasant and responsible manner, which was not all that common in young leading men of the early 1930s." "A Canadian, he was born in 1901." "His first screen appearance was in James Whale's film Journey's End in 1930." "Before making The Mummy he appeared with George Arliss in The Millionaire, with Katharine Hepburn and John Barrymore in A Bill of Divorcement, in Frank Capra's The Miracle Woman, and in the lost-generation drama The Last Flight." "Despite his success, Manners lost interest in films and left the profession around 1936." "He died at the age of 97 in 1998." "Frank reveals to Helen that handling Anck-es-en-Amon's possessions led him to feel as if he knew her, and he admits that when he saw her face he sort of fell in love with her." "Helen jokingly asks if he has to open graves to find girls to fall in love with." "But the issue is more subtly emotional than just necrophilia or a love of the dead." "Frank feels attracted to a woman from the past who therefore is unattainable." "He is drawn into an emotion doomed to frustration - a desire impossible to satisfy." "This creates a parallel with Imhotep, who was and is passionately committed to the unattainable - first a vestal virgin, then a dead woman, now a woman dead for thousands of years." "Frank has just noticed Helen's resemblance to Anck-es-en-Amon, so he can now transfer his infatuation to her." "Before long, Imhotep will make the same discovery." "The guard had been killed off-screen, a typically discreet and understated approach, and one that fits the situation, for it protects Imhotep's aura of fragility by not showing him perform an energetic, physical act." "However, it leads to a logical problem, because there is no clear reason why Imhotep left the scroll behind." "Balderston's shooting script accounted for this by having Imhotep try to remove the scroll from the dead guard's hand and be interrupted by a second guard who sets off alarm bells, turns on the lights and pulls out his gun." "This prompts Imhotep to rise and, catlike, slink away." "It is not clear why the film leaves this out." "After the scene with the police and the dead guard, the script has Frank ask Helen why Muller calls her "his patient", but she avoids a direct answer." "Then Imhotep, at his pool, watches Muller and Whemple return home with the scroll, which explains why Imhotep arrives at the house a short time later." "Arthur Byron, who plays Whemple, entered films around 1932, when he was 60 years old, and after a Broadway stage career that included the role of the warden in 1929's The Criminal Code - the film version of which included Karloff in the cast." "In January 1932, he acted in The Devil Passes with Earnest Thesiger, just before that actor appeared with Karloff in Universal's The Old Dark House." "Arthur Byron died in 1943." "The role of Dr Muller was practically written for Edward Van Sloan, a Broadway veteran who played Dr Van Helsing in the stage and film versions of Dracula." "He also played Dr Waldman in the film Frankenstein." "For variety, he portrayed a sadist in the 1932 film Behind the Mask." "The actor who played Norton in the first sequence was Bramwell Fletcher, an Englishman who was born in 1904." "He made his stage debut at the age of 13 and his film debut the following year." "Prior to The Mummy, he acted in Svengali with John Barrymore," "The Millionaire with George Arliss and David Manners and A Bill of Divorcement in which he rejoined Barrymore and Manners." "His first wife, of four, was Helen Chandler, who played Mina in Dracula." "Dissatisfied with Hollywood, he returned to the New York stage." "In the 1960s he wrote and then toured in a one-man show about George Bernard Shaw." "He died in 1988." "Now Imhotep enters, seeking the scroll." "Earlier, when Muller arrived, Freund used only a single long shot." "Here he lingers on separate close shots of the Nubian and Imhotep." "In a close-up, a subtle change in the lighting causes Imhotep's eyes to brighten with intensity and mystic power, as he places the Nubian under his control." "Here, at virtually the film's midpoint," "Imhotep and Helen will meet for the first time and realise their connection." "Before this point, all Imhotep wanted was to revive the mummy of his lover, for which he needs the scroll." "Now, however, the situation becomes much more complicated." "The relationship between Imhotep and Helen seems so appropriate, even inevitable, that it comes almost as a shock to realise how different it is from the original concept for the film." "The project originated with Nina Wilcox Putnam, a popular author of stories for magazines like the Saturday Evening Post." "Independent in her life and assertive in her opinions, she was an early advocate of women's rights." "In her fiction she usually dealt with women's domestic and professional lives in a humorous style, so it is surprising that in 1932 she supplied Universal with stories for a 'Tom Mix' Western and a Boris Karloff horror film." "By the first week of February 1932," "Putnam completed Cagliostro, a nine-page story." "Then she and Richard Schayer, the head of Universal's scenario department, developed it into a more extended form, dated February 19." "In Putnam's plot, a Dr Astro, a spiritualist in modern San Francisco, is actually an Egyptian priest who has stayed alive for 4,000 years by injecting himself with nitrates." "At one point in his history, prior to the French Revolution, he was the notorious Cagliostro, whose seances were popular in Parisian high society." "He observes people with a television surveillance system and his death ray homes in on medallions which he gives to intended victims." "With these devices, he commits robberies and eliminates enemies." "He is served by a mute Nubian." "The heroine Helen Dorington works selling tickets at a movie theatre." "Helen's boyfriend Dr Jack Foster was physician to millionaire HG Whemple, who was killed by the death ray." "Whemple, deeply religious, resented as sacrilege the archaeological achievements of his brother Professor Whemple, and therefore left his money in trust to Jack." "This leads the police to suspect Jack of Whemple's murder." "Astro poses as the blind, long-lost uncle of Helen, who happens to resemble his ancient mistress." "He rents Whemple's mansion and gets Helen to work for him, but she senses something uncanny in the house and notices that his hands leave dusty imprints." "Meanwhile, Jack seeks to expose Astro the spiritualist as a charlatan." "Jack and Professor Whemple investigate a series of sensational robberies." "Later, Helen tries to leave but is imprisoned in the cellar by the Nubian." "While Astro is busy trying to steal nitrates from a safe-deposit vault, the professor invades the house and takes Astro's nitrate supply." "Astro's theft is not completed, but the professor is thrown in the cellar." "They are rescued by Jack when Astro crumbles to dust without his nitrates." "In Nina Wilcox Putnam's early version of the story," "Astro was betrayed by his lover in Ancient Egypt, so he spends the centuries avenging himself by destroying women who resemble her." "In other words, The Mummy originated as not a love story, but a hate story." "One finds little resemblance to The Mummy in this tangle of arbitrary events and contrived relationships." "To impose dramatic coherence on Cagliostro," "Universal sought out John L Balderston, a former magazine editor and journalist who had cowritten the popular 1926 play Berkeley Square." "He also adapted Hamilton Deane's play Dracula for American audiences and did the same for Peggy Webling's play version of Frankenstein." "Both these works provided Universal with the basis for successful films in 1931." "But Balderston had not written a film script before." "He arrived in Hollywood near the end of March, 1932, and set to work transforming the muddle that was Cagliostro." "He retained some elements of Putnam's plots, which he mixed with inspirations drawn from other sources in his imagination." "Balderston's first incomplete screenplay, dated June 30, was followed by a complete version on July 13, then five more during August and September." "The last, dated September 12, was published by Magiclmage Filmbooks in 1989." "As Balderston shaped these elements he drew on his own adaptation of Dracula to flesh out the relationships and evolve the plot." "At one point, he considered requiring that the mummy, like a vampire, return regularly to his coffinlike mummy case and he argued that the film should be titled Undead." "Ultimately, The Mummy's relationship to Dracula became less obvious but it exists." "Both films feature an undead being who, in a sense, seduces the heroine, threatening her with death while offering a kind of eternal life, thereby endangering both her life and her soul." "In both cases the creature is politely ironic and exerts hypnotic power." "Combating him are a young man who loves the heroine and an older expert in the occult, played in both films by, respectively, David Manners and Edward Van Sloan." "Each film includes a pivotal scene in which the expert tests his suspicions by confronting his opponent with an object - a mirror in Dracula and a photograph in The Mummy - which prompts the creature to drop his pose of civility." "And, in each case, a talisman offers protection from the creature's power." "A figure of Isis serves this function in The Mummy, a crucifix in Dracula." "Between this scene and the next, the shooting script included a scene of Frank and Helen in his car, talking outside her hotel." "In it she states that she does not want to see Imhotep again, despite what she had said in his presence earlier." "In the opening shot of Imhotep at his pool, we see a white cat, which the screenplay states is Imhotep's familiar, which is linked with the cat goddess, Bast." "The script took pains to establish the cat's presence whenever Imhotep is in this setting." "At one point it states that the cat seems to be taking part in the ceremony, and during the murder of Whemple it describes a close-up of the cat with its "fur erect, paws extended with claws out, gazing into the pool, spitting"." "Most of this was not included in the film." "In developing a script for what became The Mummy," "Balderston elaborated on the references to Astro being an Ancient Egyptian and Professor Whemple being an archaeologist, drawing for inspiration on the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb." "He himself had, as a journalist, covered that discovery in the 1920s, and his final screenplay makes frequent references to Egyptian artefacts and to such specific details as the Semiramis Hotel," "Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, the village of Kerma and Cairo's street names." "Even the names Imhotep and Anck-es-en-Amon are authentic, although they were not who the film says they were." "Balderston moved the setting of the film's story from San Francisco to New York and finally to Cairo." "But Egypt and Tutankhamen's tomb did more than supply an exotic setting." "They led Balderston to provide the mummy with a curse, which promises death to anyone who opens the box containing the scroll." "For all its dramatic impact, this curse is more misleading than meaningful, for by opening the box the archaeologists help Imhotep by returning him to life." "Once revived he does not seek to avenge their sacrilege." "In fact, they are useful to him, for they unearth the mummy of Anck-es-en-Amon." "Whenever Imhotep attacks someone, such as Whemple, it is not out of revenge, or to protect a tomb, but because that person stands in the way of his goal by trying to destroy the scroll or lure Helen from him." "This goal is essential to the film's plot and its sensitive characterisations." "It reverses the main character's negative motivation in Putnam's original story." "Imhotep's romantic situation also evokes that of Balderston's play Berkeley Square, in which a contemporary Englishman finds himself in 18th century London, where he falls in love with a woman from the past." "Balderston combined this concept of love across time with the fact that Anck-es-en-Amon's soul has been reincarnated in Helen, which creates in her a struggle between her ancient self and her modern one." "After Frank telephones Helen and she agrees not to leave her hotel, there was a substantial amount of footage eliminated before the film's release." "Out of about 13 pages of the script, all that remains is a short scene, one and a half pages long, in which Muller examines the ashes and realises they are just newspaper." "The cut footage shows Imhotep at the pool watching Helen at her hotel." "As he concentrates, Helen's dog whines." "She leaves." "Frank and Muller, in Frank's car, talk about Helen." "Meanwhile, Helen arrives at the museum and examines the display of Anck-es-en-Amon's personal items." "The jewellery found on her mummy, pots of ointment, jars of perfume, and a circular bronze mirror with its handle in the form of Isis." "At one point, Helen takes out her own lipstick and powder puff and adjusts her make-up using her reflection in the bronze mirror, an object which the script intends to reuse later." "Then Imhotep joins Helen and discusses the objects with her." "His attempt to awaken a memory of her prior life succeeds, as she comments "I feel as though I have seen those things before."" "During this section the power of the Isis amulet is established when Imhotep turns away in fear from one that is on display." "Meanwhile, Frank and Muller arrive at Helen's door." "They hear her dog whining and find she is gone." "They decide to look for her at the museum and at this point Muller finds that the ashes are of newsprint." "Imhotep tells Helen "You will come to me tomorrow", then leaves." "Frank and Muller enter and speak with Helen." "The discarded scenes would have ended with Imhotep's dusty handprint, reminding viewers of the final shot of the opening sequence." "Helen's visit to Imhotep's house and her scene by his pool were originally planned to occur the next day, but now they immediately follow Frank's telephone call, which compresses events effectively." "One certainly would like to see the missing scene between Imhotep and Helen in the museum, but its elimination was probably wise." "Its dialogue seems unnecessarily blunt about Helen's feeling of kinship to Anck-es-en-Amon, and her encounter with Imhotep there would certainly have diluted the impact of the scene in which she visits him at his house." "The situation involving Helen's dog at Imhotep's house is quite a bit clearer in the shooting script, which describes a close-up of this cat standing with outraged dignity as it looks at the dog, followed by a close-up of the dog afraid of the cat." "Then, after the dog is taken from the room, the camera was to pan to the cat, now sitting with dignity." "Helen reaches over to pet the cat, but it turns its head away from her." "As shot, this scene had Imhotep show only Anck-es-en-Amon's death, her burial, and his interrupted attempt to revive her, but no more than that." "Later, during the final sequence at the museum, Imhotep would use a mirror to reflect images that guide Helen back through her several prior lives." "In the most recent of these lives, she rejects a young gallant in 18th century France." "Moving progressively further back in time, she bids farewell to 13th century crusaders, she commits suicide in an eighth century Saxon stockade, and she becomes a Christian martyr in Ancient Rome." "Finally, she sees herself embrace Imhotep in the sanctuary of Isis, and only after reaching this point does Imhotep finally reveal the events surrounding his own burial alive." "The scenes depicting Helen's other lives and identities were filmed, and several still photos exist which illustrate them." "However, this material truly is extraneous to the main issue, which is Imhotep's need to reclaim Anck-es-en-Amon, so the footage was dropped, and appropriately so." "However, Henry Victor, who played a Saxon warrior in the cut footage, remains in the cast list included at the end of the film - an odd oversight." "And publicity materials listed both him and Arnold Gray, who appeared as a knight in the cut flashbacks." "When these scenes were cut, the footage depicting Imhotep's fate in Ancient Egypt was moved to this earlier scene by the pool so that the flashback tale is now told all at once." "This renders the film more compact." "It makes Imhotep's statement about his suffering for her more comprehensible, but it also obscures the meaning of his line "But the rest you may not know."" ""Not until you are about to pass through the great night of terror and triumph."" "These changes certainly streamline the climax, making it a tight and dramatic culmination of known factors, with no new plot elements added at the last minute to distract." "The accurate detail and atmospheric quality of The Mummy's Egyptian settings are the contribution of designer Willy Pogany." "Not a regular Hollywood employee, he also engaged in various other artistic pursuits, including theatrical set design, painting pictures and illustrating children's stories such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." "In 1931 he had worked on three films produced by Samuel Goldwyn, including The Unholy Garden, which had a desert setting." "But he may have been selected for The Mummy because of a 1926 Broadway play he had designed called The Jeweled Tree." "That production took place in Ancient Egypt and Pogany's sets were singled out for praise." "After The Mummy he worked on four musicals released in 1934, notably Kid Millions, for which he designed the lavish Technicolor ice-cream fantasy sequence." "In addition to physical and emotional suffering," "Karloff's restraint also suggests Imhotep's unwavering love for Anck-es-en-Amon, an emotion that so transcends mere feeling that it has taken possession of him and become his entire nature." "This was one aspect of the plot that appealed to John Balderston." "As early as April 41932, when he had just started to work on the project, he wrote in a studio memo" ""Even the mummy is not incapable of some humanisation."" ""He can be really affecting when he tells the girl what a lonely time he has had looking for her through all countries, all times, all civilisations for 4,000 years."" ""There is a love story for you."" "And he added that the character will get another moment of sympathy" ""when the audience sees his despair"" "during the flashback of Anck-es-en-Amon's burial." "Imhotep's tragedy is not his suffering at being buried alive, but his isolation, which is made especially poignant by the fact that the woman for whom he sacrificed everything has been reincarnated as someone to whom he is a stranger." "As Imhotep tells Helen of his austere passion, his ancient torment," "Karloff speaks these lines in an almost flat tone that nonetheless captures the emotion in the words, as well as the rhythmic musicality of the syllables and of the alliteration." "What a pleasure it must have been to speak such well-phrased dialogue, especially when it is so attuned to the way his voice echoes the dry precision of the desert sands and time itself." "When off-screen sounds indicate Helen's dog has been killed, probably by the cat, the situation in the release print is less clear than it might have been because so many of the references to the cat have been omitted." "In 1931, Dracula had established a precedent in American horror films by taking a supernatural subject seriously." "Another of Balderston's positive contributions to The Mummy is the fact that he removed from Putnam's original story the pseudoscientific explanations for events." "The nitrates which supposedly kept Cagliostro alive for centuries have been replaced with the Scroll of Thoth, the reading of which can raise the dead." "Thus, the screenplay totally accepts the efficacy of Ancient Egypt's religious beliefs, and most audiences are willing to go along with that premise." "In the process, Astro's television surveillance system becomes Imhotep's pool, in which he observes activities elsewhere." "And Astro's death ray has become the combination of muttered spells and mental power that Imhotep uses to kill Whemple, and later to attack Frank." "All of these mystical elements somehow come across on film as more convincing than the far-fetched pseudoscientific aspects would have." "A related influence on the final screenplay derives at least partly from the fact that after Balderston began work on this film he received a second assignment from Universal - to adapt H Rider Haggard's 1887 fantasy novel, She." "In working on both projects simultaneously, he submitted a 33-page treatment of She on July 17, just four days after completing his second Mummy script." "A second treatment of She followed on August 2nd." "After that, he concentrated on The Mummy and did not complete a screenplay of She until October 17, while The Mummy was in production." "Universal probably didn't produce She because of its budget, but the studio may also have realised that The Mummy included enough elements from She that a resemblance between the two might have been evident." "Finally, on May 311934, Universal sold its rights to She to RKO and transferred to that studio Balderston's treatments and screenplay." "Merian C Cooper's 1935 RKO film of She does not credit Balderston, but some of its dialogue echoes The Mummy's and may derive from his work." "Both She and The Mummy juxtapose an ancient romance with a modern one." "In both, one person survives from the past and the other is reincarnated in a new body." "In She, Kallikrates, a priest of Isis, committed sacrilege by loving the Princess Amenartas." "After the two flee from Egypt, they cross paths with Ayesha, who falls in love with the priest." "But, because he loves another, she kills him in jealous anger." "Because Ayesha gains immortality by bathing in a magical flame, she lives on, awaiting the return of her beloved." "And return he does, 2,000 years later, in the form of Leo Vincey, the descendant and, in a sense, the reincarnation of Kallikrates." "By blending Amenartas and Ayesha into a single character, and reversing the lovers' sexes," "The Mummy turns this situation into the forbidden love of Imhotep and Princess Anck-es-en-Amon, a priestess of Isis who broke her vows as a vestal virgin." "Before Ayesha can be reunited with her reincarnated love he must die and be reborn, thus becoming immortal like her." "As a first step, she destroys the original lover's preserved body." "Similarly, Imhotep must kill Helen, mummify her body and then use the scroll to revive it to eternal life." "First, he burns Anck-es-en-Amon's mummy." "In another link between The Mummy and She, both Imhotep and Ayesha reveal to others images of the past in the surface of a pool of water." "Ayesha and Imhotep share a mixture of malevolence and suffering." "Each is, in Haggard's words," ""a being who, unconstrained by human law, is also absolutely unshackled by a moral sense of right and wrong."" "Both are passionately devoted to satisfying the long-denied need to be with their beloveds." "In She, a native girl falls in love with Leo, so Ayesha kills her rival with the power of her eyes and her will." "Both Ayesha's method, and her casual ruthlessness, are transferred to Imhotep, who tries to destroy Frank Whemple for the same reason." "In the 1935 film She, a character based on the native girl tells Ayesha that she has a stronger hold on Leo" ""because I'm young, and you know love belongs to the young"." ""You were young once, but now you're old and it's too late for love for ever."" "This character sounds very much like Helen Grosvenor, who, speaking as Anck-es-en-Amon in The Mummy's climax, tells Imhotep" ""I'm alive." "I'm young." "I loved you once, but now you belong with the dead."" ""I want to live, even in this strange new world."" "This material, seemingly derived from She, helps give The Mummy the emotional substance and dramatic power that cannot be glimpsed in Cagliostro's plot." "The Mummy's screenplay was so carefully preplanned, and so faithfully followed, that in only one major instance was its structure altered before shooting began." "In the original plan, the scene of Imhotep's attack on Frank occurred almost immediately after she returns from visiting Imhotep." "Before filming, that scene was rewritten and moved to this spot, just before the film's climax, where it certainly has greater dramatic impact." "At the same time, the character of Frau Muller was replaced with that of the nurse who tends Helen." "The first version of the scene did not involve Helen leaving her room." "After three shots that concisely summarise the museum break-in... we discover Imhotep with Helen, who already wears Ancient Egyptian costume and is talking with Imhotep as Anck-es-en-Amon." "The shooting script led up to this moment much more gradually." "It describes the camera moving with a watchman as he walks outside, then it moves to the window with its bars bent and on to some shrubbery and trees, from behind which Imhotep and Helen emerge." "The Nubian servant, already within, starts to help Helen enter through the window." "Inside, Imhotep confronts a guard who collapses from his stare." "An antique oil lamp is obtained from a display and the Nubian hands Helen clothing to put on." "A necklace and bracelets are taken from other cases for Helen to wear." "Finally, Imhotep takes the bronze mirror, has Helen gaze into it, and through it reflects her stages of reincarnation and the rest of the events, which in the release print already were shown in the pool scene." "In the release print, we join Helen and Imhotep just after the end of the flashbacks as she says "No man has ever suffered for woman as you've suffered for me."" "A key figure in the success of The Mummy must be its director, Karl Freund." "However, any attempt to specify Freund's contribution requires some speculation because the shooting script - credited solely to Balderston - includes detailed descriptions of editing and camera movements." "Indeed, though some changes were made on the set and during postproduction, all of the major creative decisions are represented in the script." "Thus, the director had no major artistic problems to solve while shooting." "He merely executed the already-refined plans." "For example, the script's description of the mummy's return to life includes all of the subtle camera movements and the decision not to show the mummy move through the room." "Everything of significance in this scene already existed in the screenplay." "However, it is hard to imagine that Balderston, a first-time screenwriter, possessed such a refined cinematic sense that all Freund had to do was follow his instructions." "If so, Balderston surely would have been in greater demand." "But aside from the 1933 adaptation of his own play, Berkeley Square, he did not receive another screen credit until three years after The Mummy, and of his 19 screen credits, all but The Mummy and one other were written in collaboration." "It also is hard to imagine that Karl Freund, in his directorial debut, would have deferred so completely to a novice." "In Germany during the 1920s, this eminent cinematographer had been a major artistic collaborator on ten films directed by the renowned FW Murnau, as well as on Paul Wegener's The Golem in 1920, and Fritz Lang's Metropolis in 1927." "He also had helped to write and shoot the 1926 documentary, Berlin:" "The Symphony of a Great City, and had supervised the direction of a 1926 feature," "The Adventures of a Ten Mark Note." "After coming to the United States in 1929, Freund devised the poetic ending of Universal's All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930 and reportedly had substantial influence on Tod Browning's Dracula." "Freund was a filmmaker, not a photographic technician." "Could Freund have had input while Balderston was writing The Mummy?" "On August 29, 1932, Universal announced Freund's assignment to direct what was then called Imhotep, one week before Balderston completed his sixth screenplay, two weeks before the shooting script, and about 21 days before shooting began." "Freund had completed photographing Universal's Afraid to Talk in early August, so for about one month he was free to help develop the script." "Without further evidence one cannot be certain of the nature or extent of Freund's contributions." "However, it is more reasonable to assume that he participated than to assume that he patiently waited for the finished script and then modestly shot it as written." "Certainly, Freund did develop a close working relationship with Balderston, for on The Mummy he instituted a new system for Universal, one in which he, as director, could call on the writer to assist in script revision." "The Mummy's use of moving camera and the slow pace that results link the film's visual style to Freund's background in the German film industry of the 1920s, which lingered on images to create what is known as Stimmung," "a sense of the psychological or emotional atmosphere that hovers in the space around people and objects." "To a viewer whose sensibility is confined to the physical and tangible, a German filmmaker's willingness to devote time to creating Stimmung will seem like an intolerably slow pace, for action becomes secondary to the imprecise and the unstated." "In addition to such subtle overtones, one may surely credit to Freund the dramatic impact of placing the Nubian and his vat of embalming fluid large in the foreground of one shot, and to have his shadow cast on the wall near Helen" "as an almost spectral embodiment of her imminent fate." "Intercutting in the film's climax suggests a traditional last-minute rescue." "But in fact, Freund is more interested in helplessness than rescue, as revealed by the contrast between the carefully chosen intense shots of Imhotep and his preparations, which are much more varied and impressive than the nondescript long shots of Frank and Muller on their way." "Also, the alternation back and forth feels half-hearted, almost a token gesture toward building suspense." "Appropriately, although the heroes do arrive in time, they are unable to save Helen because Imhotep easily renders them powerless." "Helen, still possessed by the identity of Anck-es-en-Amon, prays to Isis for help, using the language of Ancient Egypt." "The statue's arm moves, the scroll burns, and Imhotep disintegrates." "Karl Freund would direct a few more films, generally minor, but his directorial career ended on a very strong note with the outstanding Mad Love, made for MGM in 1935." "At its release, The Mummy was met with generally dismissive reviews and only a lukewarm reception at the box office." "Nonetheless, it has survived through time and can be seen now as a subtle and austerely passionate story of love and pain and dread - one that makes graceful, even elegant use of the motion-picture medium." "If any one actor and character and film can embody the exotic yet accessible satisfactions of the classic American horror film, then that actor is Boris Karloff and that character is Imhotep and that film is The Mummy." "This is Paul Jensen."