The Mummy's Shroud
                                
Director: John Gilling
Year: 1967
Rating: 5.5
Hammer never gave the follow-up films to The Mummy much respect. None of them have any connection to one another and this one like The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb was intended as the second film in a double feature - with Frankenstein Created Woman. Once you get past the plodding first half though this gets fairly enjoyable as it sort of turns into a serial killer with the murders well-done and almost Giallo like before Giallo. The serial killer is of course the Mummy who manages to walk through the streets of this Egyptian town without being noticed. Maybe Mummy's were a common sight. The Mummy is admittedly a hard subject to be creative with and as his only purpose in waking up is murdering the people who committed sacrilege by disturbing the tomb of a royal family - and then always being directed by a live person - real sequels are nearly impossible. You already killed nearly everyone in the previous film.



This film begins in terrible fashion - a lengthy narrated flashback to ancient times in which the brother of the Pharaoh kills the Pharaoh but his young son escapes with his loyal servant into the desert. The boy dies and the servant buries him in a makeshift tomb and later when he dies, he is swathed in bandages. That is all the film needed to tell us, but I expect they had some leftover sets and costumes from another film and so act this out pointlessly. Then a jump to 1920 where Hammer regular André Morell is leading an expedition to find the boy's tomb. This is to prove that the Mummy they have in a museum is not the boy's but his servant. They are of course warned not to go in and of course they ignore the man.



They find the bones of the boy covered with a shroud that has words on it that terrify the woman in the group who has the linguistic skills. They are words to bring the dead to life. The bones are brought back and put near the Mummy. Isn't that sweet. The shroud is then stolen and the words are said. And the murders begin. The ending is also quite imaginative as the Mummy dissolves into dust. In the group is also the financier played by John Phillips and his wife (Elizabeth Sellars). He is a pompous ass and you can be sure the Mummy will come for him.



 The director is John Gilling who helmed two of my favorite Hammer films - The Reptile and The Plague of Zombies - but this one has way too much stuffing in it. Lots of needless family acrimony. Once the killings begin and the crazy fortune teller (Catherine Lacey - the fake nun in The Lady Vanishes) sees it all in her crystal ball it gets quite good, but this all takes place in the last 30-minutes.  The Mummy is played by Eddie Powell who was often Christopher Lee's stunt man, the servant is played by Dickie Owen who was the Mummy in the previous film and Michael Ripper makes it three Mummy films in a row as the put upon and obsequious clerk to the financier. The romantic couple are David Buck and Maggie Kimberley.