The Eyes of the Mummy (1922)

It has its moments

Perhaps the main reason why "The Eyes of the Mummy" is billed as a Silent Classic nowadays is for its impressive cast and crew, namely Emil Jannings, one of Germany's finest character actors, the popular Polish actress, Pola Negri, and highly esteemed director, Ernst Lubitsch. This 1918 Silent was made by the prolific German UFA studio before Ernst Lubitsch went to Hollywood a few years later to find more fame and fortune with popular productions in both the silent and sound era. But "The Eyes of the Mummy" seems to be a low budget production, no doubt intended to capitalize on the popularity of Ancient Egypt and legends about mummies' curses among Europeans at that time. With our modern-day familiarity with Ancient Egypt, some sets and the actual `eyes of the mummy' will probably make quite a few viewers laugh, and a dark-skinned Arabian Emil Jannings also takes a little getting used to. Nevertheless, I still found "The Eyes of the Mummy" intriguing and entertaining. Both Jannings and Negri put in a good performance, although for some it might appear over-dramatic at times. The story is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the film, and the plot moves along very quickly in this version which is just under one hour in length. Jannings is very effective as the villainous Radu who abducts Pola Negri and uses her to create the illusion of the eyes of the mummy, but when she is rescued by a European visitor who takes her back to Europe with him, Radu swears to avenge her betrayal and get her back. More than half the film is set in Europe, in high society circles and variety shows where Pola Negri becomes a popular oriental dancer. It is at one of these shows that Radu sees her again and with his apparent hypnotic power over her, almost gets her back.

The overall picture quality is reasonably good, although some scenes appear blurry and others too light. The accompanying music is a somewhat repetitive modern-sounding piano score which feels dramatic and heavy, but is probably not all that unsuited to this film. Keeping in mind that this is only a low-priced DVD, the general presentation is not too bad, and it would certainly be of interest to silent film enthusiasts and fans of either Jannings, Pola Negri or Ernst Lubitsch.

April 12, 2006

The mummy

For an old film this is not bad and Alpha Video did a great job on the restoration of this one. I expected this movie would be scary, but I felt that the musical tone changed the mood to a more serious picture. New score by Rachel Gutches. If you like these kind of Underground movies definetaly pick up a copy. April 5, 2006

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