The Worst Film Ever

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I was hoping this was going to be one of those so bad but so much fun to watch film but it isn't. Nice Egyptian sets and only a couple of scenes that are interesting and that's it. The movie is drab, the story is below average. The mummy isn't your bandage wrapped mummy instead it's old age of one of the characters (one of the curses).There are many older mummy movies that are actually very fun to watch - and I can easily recommend most any of them but not this film Pharaoh's Curse of Boredom. I still recommended one to watch the older Universal Mummy movies and the Hammer Mummy films - those are actually enjoyable, fun to watch movies with more mummy action going on, plus the stories are not so dull.3.5/10

For some reason, this film wasn't on DVD until this year, but it was shown a LOT on late night television back in the day. I saw it as a little kid and thought it was frightening and effective back then. Of course I am older now, but some of the veneer of seeing it back then still holds up.The mummy is dressed a little odd (no bandages), but his face is certainly hideous enough, and there is a reason for his strange garb which is unveiled later on. A fair number of people get killed, and we see the mummy quite a bit, really.Some people complain we don't see it for the first half of the film, which I guess is true, but on the other hand, the film is only 66 minutes long for Pete's sake. We don't see the monster in the first half hour of many movies, and this is no exception.If the movie dragged on for 90-120 minutes, it would be a disaster, but for only 66 minutes, it holds up. I pine for the days when a film-maker felt free to make a shorter subject, particularly when the topic doesn't hold up for a longer time. I wish the makers of Pearl Harbor had had the guts to cut THEIR movie back.

Pharaoh's Curse (1957) * 1/2 (out of 4) Disappointing horror film about a group of American scientist who find the tomb of Pharaoh. Of course, there are warnings not to open it but they do and this causes one member of their party to age rapidly into a mummy like creature. The film runs just 66-minutes but it feels like much longer. The mummy creature doesn't show up until after the forty-minute mark and none of the human characters are too interesting. The best scene in the movie is where the mummy gets his arm ripped off. The make up of the creature is also quite nice but I'm not sure those two things are worthy enough for you to search this film out.

I watched this movie often when I was a lad and "Chiller Theatre" ran it on Saturday nights. Even then I sensed there was something different about it, the mummy looked like he was walking around in his pyjamas! Oh I had already seen THE MUMMY (1932) and THE MUMMY'S HAND (1940) and those other mummy movies done by Universal in the 30's and 40's but this film was lots different from them! This was no bandage wrapped monster; to my young eyes the mummy looked like a very old man wandering around an underground tomb. I could not figure out why everyone else in the movie was afraid of him; of course there was that scene where someone tried to grab the mummy and only succeeded in pulling his arm off!This is not an easy movie to find these days but I did manage to locate it on late night TV once. Knowing it might be my only chance for a long time I videotaped it. After watching it carefully I learned all the nuances that had escaped me back when I was 7. The mummy of the Pharaoh does not come to life, its spirit takes over the body of a young Egyptian man (Alvaro Guillot) and uses him to get revenge on those who have desecrated the tomb. An original idea, I must say. The downside of this is the young man begins to age at an accelerated pace until he looks no better than the mummy itself. His method of execution was different too. Instead of strangling his victims leaving a telltale mark of mold on their necks he bites their throats (admittedly a difficult thing to do when his teeth get more and more rotten by the minute!) and drains their blood.Let's not forget the mysterious woman (Ziva Rodann, using the name Ziva Shapir in this movie) who appears out of nowhere and joins the expedition. She treks through the scorching desert and never takes a drink of water or gets tired. She also seems to know what is going to happen before it happens. Is she the cat goddess Bast in human form? Perhaps!The moral of this story, if scary movies are meant to have morals, is Stay Out of Egyptian Tombs. They don't want to be disturbed and you probably have better things to do anyway.Director Lee "Roll 'Em" Sholem also directed movies like TOBOR THE GREAT and SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN. He knew how to get a movie done on time and under budget and still make it look good.