Ahem.
This was actually supposed to be my second entry in the last Roundtable, but when I lose a DVD somewhere in the house, it stays lost…
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In which John Carradine is sent to Mapleton, Massachusetts, to clean up the mess made by Turhan Bey, and ends up fouling the nest even more thoroughly.
Meanwhile, Kharis decides that he’s had enough of High Priests interfering in his love-life…
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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
#1 by Richard on April 12, 2014 - 8:58 pm
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I am going to have to start collecting all these screen caps of mock-up newspapers….just because….
#2 by RogerBW on April 13, 2014 - 12:24 pm
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The thing that strikes me as most interesting about this is the ageing of Amina; we’ve seen hair turned white from fright, but here it seems to be, what? A consequence of spiritual contagion from Kharis himself? An intriguing idea in an otherwise fairly perfunctory variant on rar-rar-argh.
#3 by Supersonic Man on April 13, 2014 - 12:38 pm
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Yeah, the aging is an odd twist, and in general the conclusion seems awfully inconclusive.
Nameless — okay, he ain’t nameless. Fleshless? That’s just a special effects failure. Deathless? Ain’t been disproven yet.
#4 by ronald on April 14, 2014 - 2:05 pm
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Why no screencap of the farmer’s dog? He may not have been as good an actor as the cat, but still, credit where it’s due…
#5 by ronald on April 14, 2014 - 2:42 pm
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1944 is also the year “I Accuse My Parents” first hit the theaters. Who knew?
“We find Professor Norman lecturing a group of frankly rather elderly-looking university students. Let’s be charitable and suppose that these are returned servicemen taking advantage of the provisions of the G. I. Bill.”
Or let’s just finally, at long last admit that adults, people over the age of eighteen, can enroll in college at ANY subsequent age. Twenties, thirties, forties…during the last year of his life, GEORGE BURNS could have enrolled in college had he so desired. Seriously, what is the DEAL, film reviewers and riffers of the world?
Ahem. Well, anyway…
Moving along, let’s have a look at the other headlines in that newspaper:
Trio Arrested, $200 Robbery: Held After Saddlery Burglarised
State Man Held Captive 30 Hours by Three Bandits
No Precedent for Handling Certificates (“There’s no precedent, baby!”)
Restricted Load Ban Modified on Main Roads
Victory Sighted in Fight Against Yellow Fever
Oceans at Last Yields Its Gold and Its Silver (sic)
#6 by Banjoman on April 18, 2014 - 10:08 am
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Well, sure, anyone can go to college. But in practice, the vast majority of undergrads are in the 18-23 range. Dawson Casting makes movie colleges look fake, not because 35-year-olds couldn’t theoretically pack out a campus, but because they don’t.
#7 by Jason Farrell on April 15, 2014 - 2:30 pm
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John Carradine looks about as Egyptian as …well, John Carradine
#8 by ronald on April 16, 2014 - 4:11 am
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Shrug. All you have to do to be Egyptian is be born in Egypt. You don’t even need to walk like one.
Egypt became a British protectorate in 1882. John Carradine (and thus, one might reasonably presume, any mortal character played by him) was born in 1906. I’d imagine that there were at least a FEW interracial sexual encounters (and births therefrom) over a period of twenty-four years, and some people just plain take more after one parent than another. Yet, appearance notwithstanding, if Yousef Bey had an Egyptian father and a British mother, he would almost certainly have been raised Egyptian.
Again, shrug.
#9 by blake on April 16, 2014 - 10:58 am
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I’m still mad at myself for buying the Universal Mummy collection and then forgetting to pack it in my suitcase when I moved to Brazil. I never got to watch anything on the DVD. Stupid Blake! Stupid!
#10 by ronald on April 18, 2014 - 5:21 pm
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#6
We obviously attended different colleges. I’ve attended classes where nearly half the students were older than their mid-twenties. Shrug.
#11 by lyzard on April 18, 2014 - 6:41 pm
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Richard – nice to see someone shares my passion for mock-up newspapers! I always pause the film and study the other headlines carefully. (Carefully enough that I caught that the mock-up used in The Mummy’s Tomb was later reused in Gigantis, The Fire Monster!)
Roger – the ending is another example of something making emotional rather than logical sense. I rather like that no attempt is made to explain it. And that Kharis gets the girl, of course!
Supes – definitely not nameless, and since he’s still able to commit murder, abduct girls and climb ladders, presumably not fleshless either. In The Mummy’s Hand it was specified that Kharis was buried alive – I don’t think you go to that much trouble unless you’re set on someone dying horribly, even if you plan on resurrecting him later; so I think we can conclude he’s been dead at least once, whatever he is now.
Ronald – sorry, I’m an equal opportunity screen-capper! (I wonder if the same person who thought of that ending also came up with the cat? Both moments have a wonderful WTF!? quality.)
Didn’t mean to start a ruckus over average college age! Don’t forget, though, we’re talking about 1944 – there’s no suggestion that this isn’t meant to be contemporary. At that time college was predominantly a post-high school activity; it was the passing of the G.I. Bill (which actually did occur in 1944 – good guess, me!) that changed the profile of college enrolments.
For the record, Robert Lowery was 31 when he made this film. That’s not the problem so much as, as so often happens, all the effort went into photographing Ramsay Ames attractively, whereas Lowery got done no favours. The scenes of him in his pennant-strewn room and putting on his varsity jacket put me rather in mind of Humphrey Bogart at the end of Sabrina.
(I don’t know why this film keeps reminding me of Humphrey Bogart movies…)
I would suggest that the makers of the mummy films knew (and cared) exactly as much about recent Egyptian history as they did about ancient! 🙂
Oh, Blake – tsk, tsk!
#12 by ronald on April 19, 2014 - 12:45 pm
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So (to repeat what might have gotten snowed under by the age stuff), what did you think of the other headlines used in this film?
Trio Arrested, $200 Robbery: Held After Saddlery Burglarised
State Man Held Captive 30 Hours by Three Bandits
No Precedent for Handling Certificates (“There’s no precedent, baby!”)
Restricted Load Ban Modified on Main Roads
Victory Sighted in Fight Against Yellow Fever
Oceans at Last Yields Its Gold and Its Silver (sic)
BTW, you may or may not know this, but when did “New Petitions Against Tax” and “Building Code Under Fire” first appear as film newspaper headlines? Because, obviously, they’ve been used nearly non-stop ever since. Just one of those things that I for whatever reason wonder about, not unlike how many films were filmed at Bronson Canyon. Thanks.
“Scenic Bronson Canyon: Preferred Landing Site of Alien Invaders Since 1953. Conveniently Located Near Silver River, Green Hell, AND the Purple Sage.”
#13 by lyzard on April 19, 2014 - 6:49 pm
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The real question is, when did they realise that they would have to retire the mock-up with “Saddlery Burglarised” as a headline?
You can’t possibly know when these things start, although its easy enough to spot when an old favourite reappears: “Oceans at Last Yields Its Gold and Its Silver” is one I know I’ve seen several times, but unlike the “Living Buddha” headline in The Mummy’s Tomb and Gigantis, not close enough together for me to name another film that used it. “Victory Sighted In Fight Against Yellow Fever” probably dates from the introduction of the vaccine in 1937.