Archaeologists discover the final resting place of a boy king, removing the remains to be exhibited in a museum. By disturbing the sarcophagus they unleash the forces of darkness. The Mummy has returned to discharge a violent retribution on the defilers as the curse that surrounds the tomb begins to come true. One by one the explorers are murdered until one of them discovers the ancient words that have the power to reduce the brutal killer to particles of dust.
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Reviews
So much average
Great Film overall
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
The Mummy's Shroud is far from an awful film, I've yet to see an unwatchable Hammer film, even their lesser work. It is however an uneven film, with a number of strengths and an even number of big weaknesses, and one of Hammer's least accomplished.It looks good, some of the editing lacks tightness sometimes and the Mummy effects are not very good, but the photography is solid and often wonderful especially in the final thirty minutes, the lighting is suitably eerie and the sets give a sense of time and place very well while also looking great. The music score thunders thrillingly and doesn't feel stock and over-bearing, fitting with the atmosphere appropriately. The murders are inventive and quite grisly, while the first murder is the one with the most punch the most memorable being Longbarrow's. While the best The Mummy's Shroud gets is the final thirty minutes, which is very entertaining and legitimately scary.Casting and acting-wise, it is a rather mixed bag with a few coming off well. The best performance comes from Michael Ripper, I appreciated that his role was more substantial in comparison to some of his other roles, and he is excellent in it, the tragic nature of the character Longbarrow was so poignantly done and had such pathos that it was easy to feel sympathy for him. John Phillips also stands out as a suitably loathsome villain, while Barbara Sellars matches him more than ideally; the interplay between Phillips is very effectively played by both. David Buck is an appealing hero. Catherine Lacey tries too hard sometimes, but it is clear that she was having fun and she is enjoyable to fun as one of the film's more colourful characters.Others don't fare so well. Roger Delgardo has a tendency to over-compensate, that it takes one out of the film, his tongue-in-cheek comedic nature too much out of place. Andre Morell was a reliable actor but is completely wasted, no matter how hard he tried to give some serious depth to his character. As truly attractive Maggie Kimberly looks, her acting is very over-theatrical and melodramatic and it does hurt the film sometimes. Lastly the Mummy of the title is badly disadvantaged by the truly laughable and fake look it has(the Egyptians in the opening sequence are also very poorly made up), its far too late and far too short screen time and Eddie Powell's(even more lumbering and anaemic than the worst of Lon Chaney Jnr's interpretation) emotionless and un-menacing performance.The film takes far too long to get going, with an overlong(did it really need to be seven minutes?) and not always relevant opening scene, with the back-story rather unnecessary. Despite the distinguished delivery, the narration was not really needed, and it should have been a case of more show less tell. The script is very stiff and rambling, with a lot of talk that doesn't do anywhere. The first half is also let down by its draggy pacing, noticeable lack of suspense and horror and a very over-familiar story with a few subplots that either lead nowhere, add little or both.All in all, an uneven film and one of Hammer's lesser and least accomplished films, but by all means watchable, especially for the final thirty minutes and Ripper's performance. 5/10 Bethany Cox
The Mummy's Shroud is directed by John Gilling who also co-adapts the screenplay with Anthony Hinds. It stars André Morell, John Phillips, David Buck, Elizabeth Sellars, Maggie Kimberly and Michael Ripper. Music is by Don Banks and cinematography by Arthur Grant.Mezzera, Egypt, 1920, and an expedition to find the tomb of Pharaoh Kah-to-Bey gets more than they bargained for when they unearth a shroud adorned with the ancient writings of life and death...The third instalment of Hammer Films forays into Mumified based Egyptology, The Mummy's Shroud follows the standard formula but never the less entertains in undemanding fashion. Released as the support feature to Frankenstein Created Woman (not Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed as listed in some quarters since that was two years later), it's nicely photographed, stoically performed by the cast (especially by Hammer hero Ripper who gets a meaty role) and is pacey enough to uphold the interest. The violence aspects are strongly constructed, but kept mostly in suggestive terms as per visual enticements, and how nice to see the lead ladies here be more than token cleavage.This was the last Hammer feature to be made at Bray Studios, so it has some poignant significance in the history of Hammer Films. It's not a great send off for Bray, but it's unmistakably one of those Hammer Horror films that fans of the studio's output can easily spend the evening with and not feel it has been time wasted. 6.5/10
There's nothing really wrong with this entry in Hammer's Mummy series - there just wasn't really anyplace further to go with these stories (the Universal ones in the 1940s got progressively worse and inane) - this one's almost a remake of Hammer's previous entry, CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB, without the bombastic performance of Fred Clark. But there are good performances here - Andre Morrell, John Phillips, David Buck, Catherine Lacey and the ever-reliable Michael Ripper (in a larger-than-usual role), and the production maintains the good Hammer standards. It's really nothing to be ashamed of, and quite enjoyable - this was my second viewing (the first was five years ago, though I first heard about the film when it was released in 1967) and the beauty of most Hammer productions is that they can be re-watched at intervals of several years with no loss of enjoyment - 'comfort films' indeed.
***SPOILERS*** The usual Mummy movie with the Mummy's shroud used to activate the Mummy by reciting the ancient Egyptian writing on it. It was the fact that the Mummy's Tomb was violated by a number of British archaeologists that brought the Mummy back to life. The Mummy then went to work in punishing those who violated it with a violent and torturous death. In protecting the remains of it's master the boy Pharaoh Kah-to-Bey the Mummy being his loyal manservant Prem back in ancient Egypt must have been out to lunch when Kah-to-Bey Tomb was entered by the head man of the archeology team Sir Basil Welden. In fact Sir Basil on entering the Mummy's tomb was immediately bitten by a poisonous snake leaving him near death until help arrived. It was really Sir Basil's boss Egypt expert Stanley Preston, John Phillips, who started things going on the wrong foot by having Sir Basil committed to a lunatic asylum, not a hospital,in order to take all the fame and glory away from him! That's in Stanley not Sir Basil being the one getting all the credit of finding the Mummy.This didn't go too well with Stanley's son Paul who together with his girlfriend Chair De Sangre, an interpretor of ancient Egyptian writings, who both decided to stay in Cairo and get to the bottom of all this Mummy business and be even willing to face the music when the Mummy comes looking for them! As for Stanley he together with two of the members of the Mummy expedition team end up getting whacked by the Mummy who was guided to do his dirty work by his and Kah-to Bey's guardian of he Mummy's Tomb the crazed Bedouin tribesman wild eyed and spaced out looking Hasmid Ali. It was Hasmid who recited the curse, written in ancient Egyptian, on the Mummy's shroud that got him into kill mode. ****SPOILERS*** In the end it was Chair who finally stopped the Mummy by finding out the words, on the shroud, to put a stop to its carnage and murder by having it disintegrate into a pile of dust and bones when the movie finally ended. The Mummy in the movie was a lot more agile, like a gymnast or professional wrestler, that what your were used to seeing Mummy's depicted on the screen as well as far more well dressed! In fact the Mummy's clothes or bandages were so neat and tapered that you would think that he just got them laundered and dry-cleaned at the nearest Chinese laundry.