'The Mummy's Shroud' was the third of Hammer's four Mummy themed films and, although it's a bit cheap looking (The Mummy is basically wearing a romper suit) and is obviously supporting feature material, it zips along okay and has some good moments, and that's more than alright with me.
The storyline is fairly typical - British archaeologists desecrate tomb, get nastily knocked off one by one by reanimated Egyptian corpse - but what's particularly good about it is that Hammer stalwart Michael Ripper gets a proper role - lots of lines, a character, everything - and he does brilliantly with it, creating a memorable and sympathetic person who we feel really sorry for when the Mummy gets hold of him (and chucks him through a window and into a trough in the street).
Perhaps the best bit, however, is the ending, in which the 'Spell of Life' that brought the Mummy back is countermanded by the 'Spell of Death' and the Mummy, on command, literally crushes itself into a dirty pile of nothingness. Cool.
I think this is one of the best of Hammer's Mummy franchise. There's a surprising amount of violence -considering the 'PG' rating- and Michael Rippers death is seriously brutal.
ReplyDeleteOh, and it's got The Master in it, so how can you go wrong?