"Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" is a film that has its qualities - the doubtlessly most convincing one being the incredibly beautiful Valerie Leon in a double role. Yet I have to say that this film ranks among the lesser ones from my beloved Hammer Studios, as it is not very suspenseful and lacks the intense atmosphere that we all love about the films from this brilliant British production company. Based on the almighty Bram Stoker's novel "The Jewel of Seven the Stars", "Blood From the Mummy's Tomb" is one out of three Hammer films directed by Seth Holt, the others being the very good "The Nanny" (1965) and the presumably great "Taste of Fear" (1961) which I haven't yet seen. Sadly, Holt died in while he was working on this film in 1971, at only 48, and the film was completed by Michael Carreras, who must be seen as a pioneer for directing one of the earliest Eurowestern, "Tierra Brutal" in 1961. Being a huge fan of the Hammer Studios I tend to love their later films, such as "Vampire Circus", "The Vampire Lovers" or "Frankenstein and The Monster From Hell", from the early 70s especially, because they usually mix the elegant Hammer-typical Gothic atmosphere with 70s-typical sleaze and gore. This is also the case here - "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" has some of Hammer's goriest moments - but the suspense was obviously not sufficiently focused on here. It does have some highly atmospheric scenes, but then, there are hardly any outdoor shots and typical Hammer style elements such as foggy grounds etc. appear only a few times in the film.
The film tells a very classic Horror story, of a young beauty who happens to bear a stunning resemblance to a vicious she-demon - in this case a blood-thirsty Egyptian Queen... I love classic Horror material like this, but, sadly, it isn't delivered too well here. The film isn't too suspenseful, as one simply doesn't care about the characters. Valerie Leon ("Never Say Never Again") is stunningly beautiful (and shows some flesh) in her double leading role as the Egyptian Queen Tera and the archaeologist's's daughter Margaret Fuchs. Miss Leon is truly ravishing and her presence alone easily is reason enough to watch the film. The great Andrew Keir ("Quatermass and the Pit", "Dracula, Prince of Darkness") plays her father Prof. Fuchs. Funnily, Margaret's boyfriend's name is 'Tod Browning' - a tribute to the genius director of such gems as "Dracula" (1931), "Freaks" (1932) or "The Devi-Doll" (1936), the immortal Tod Browning. "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" has its moments - as said, Valerie Leon is by far the most convincing reason to watch it, and the film has some stylish moments as well as some very well done gory ones. However, it does get boring in-between, and that is something extremely rare with a Hammer film.
Overall it must be said that, while Egyptian Mummies are generally fascinating creatures, their representations in cinema are often quite weak. The only true Mummy-Masterpiece I've seen is Karl Freund's brilliant "The Mummy" of 1932 with the immortal Boris Karloff in the lead. My second-favorite is Hammer's 1959 remake "The Mummy" with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" is still 100 times better than these crappy new Mummy films which consist of CGI only, but it's definitely one of Hammer's weaker films and mostly interesting for the gorgeous Valerie Leon.
The film tells a very classic Horror story, of a young beauty who happens to bear a stunning resemblance to a vicious she-demon - in this case a blood-thirsty Egyptian Queen... I love classic Horror material like this, but, sadly, it isn't delivered too well here. The film isn't too suspenseful, as one simply doesn't care about the characters. Valerie Leon ("Never Say Never Again") is stunningly beautiful (and shows some flesh) in her double leading role as the Egyptian Queen Tera and the archaeologist's's daughter Margaret Fuchs. Miss Leon is truly ravishing and her presence alone easily is reason enough to watch the film. The great Andrew Keir ("Quatermass and the Pit", "Dracula, Prince of Darkness") plays her father Prof. Fuchs. Funnily, Margaret's boyfriend's name is 'Tod Browning' - a tribute to the genius director of such gems as "Dracula" (1931), "Freaks" (1932) or "The Devi-Doll" (1936), the immortal Tod Browning. "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" has its moments - as said, Valerie Leon is by far the most convincing reason to watch it, and the film has some stylish moments as well as some very well done gory ones. However, it does get boring in-between, and that is something extremely rare with a Hammer film.
Overall it must be said that, while Egyptian Mummies are generally fascinating creatures, their representations in cinema are often quite weak. The only true Mummy-Masterpiece I've seen is Karl Freund's brilliant "The Mummy" of 1932 with the immortal Boris Karloff in the lead. My second-favorite is Hammer's 1959 remake "The Mummy" with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" is still 100 times better than these crappy new Mummy films which consist of CGI only, but it's definitely one of Hammer's weaker films and mostly interesting for the gorgeous Valerie Leon.