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BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB

BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB is what HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN (the DVD of which was reviewed here last week) has been called but is not: a colossal misfire. Intended as a moody adaptation of Bram Stoker's Jewel of the Seven Stars (remade again nine years after this film as the very different THE AWAKENING), BFMT manages to combine the gore of early seventies Hammer with the plotting of those drawing-room films made in the thirties where everyone stood around a lot and eventually someone died offscreen. Here, victims die onscreenusually having throats torn out by a malevolent wind (!) but the movie itself never quite kicks in. One gets the impression it's starting over, over and over, until it ends.

Oh, I know. BFMT has its fans, often due to the wonder that the thing is viewable at all. The film went through two male protagonists (the satisfactory Andrew Keir replaced the always-enjoyable Peter Cushing, who dropped out suddenly due to his wife's illness). It also went through two directors, as the first, Seth Holt, died shortly before filming's end, leaving studio head Michael Carreras to do last-minute pick-ups and reshoots. Screenwriter Christopher Wicking reports that he was suddenly barred from the set (while the lovely star Valerie Leon reports cryptically that she was barred from the director's funeral).

Briefly, as far as this reviewer can make out, the plot tells us the story of the unfortunately-named and highly pneumatic Margaret Fuchs, who is channeling the spirit of an evil Egyptian Queen whose perfectly-preserved corpse her father has kept stashed in the basement for twenty-one years. It seems old Professor Fuchs led the expedition that found Queen Tera, and now all the expeditioners have sworn secrecy, each holding onto at least one valuable artifact from Tera's tomb. Now, on the daughter's birthday, evil archaeologist Corbeck returns to help the spirit of Tera gather up the needed artifacts and bring the queen back to life. That endeavor involves the increasing possession of Margaret and the murder of the other archaeologists (one is in an asylum, one is a simpering coward at a university). The weapon of choice is the aforementioned evil, throat-slitting wind.

It's all intended to be dreamy and hallucinogenic, but it never really isHammer produced some good dream sequences (such as the strange nightmare that marks PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, with its proto-Romero dead) but here, all the directors can manage are some odd camera angles and weird noises. There's one good moment, when the possessed Margaret walks toward the screen like a wraithbut the rest is a mess, and a boring, hard-to-follow mess at that.

Travis Crawford's liner notes in the DVD try to uphold the thesis that BFMT is an attempt at an older kind of horror, unmarked by the luridness of contemporary Hammers like LUST FOR A VAMPIRE, but I'll take the energy in that awful film any day. Besides, it's not true; the throat-cuttings here are among Hammer's goriest moments.

It is handsome, thoughthe set designers do a nice job of rebuilding an entire Egyptian tomb, even if it makes no sense that the archaeologist could have moved the whole thing in secret to his own house. Valerie Leon is a wonder, with nearly incandescent eyes and a sturdy grace. The villain, Corbeck, is played by James Villiers as a foppish maniac, like a fey Rex Harrison. But aggh, it drags.

BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB is one of those movies that ends with a great ritual the heroes must free themselves to upset, as wind howls and the bad guy chants. By the time it comes around, you'll be howling at the screen in a desperate attempt to make out what's going on. Do the good guys win? I can't really tell, and I couldn't even tell you why.

Ah, but I watched it, because I'm a Hammer purist and had to see it, and because I deeply appreciate Anchor Bay's attempts to bring these specimens to DVD, if only for study. The DVD has a few treatsthe production of this film was so bungled that the documentary, which interviews screenwriter Wicking and star Leon, is more interesting than the film. Included in the Limited Edition I reviewed is an extra DVD, too, with a collection of 20 Hammer trailers, including DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS, the aforementioned PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, and a favorite of mine, LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES, the only kung fu Hammer horror.

You have been warned. BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB is a failed experimentit's a moody picture with no mood, and no fallback.