Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed (2000)

That was an excellent one.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

I have so far only seen a couple of the making of featurettes that were made for inclusion in the Universal Classic Monster Collection and the Monster Legacy Collection and the first, about the film "Dracula" was perfection in every way. In contrast, while this featurette on "The Mummy" is enjoyable, it's also a bit lame due to the host as well as some lame jokes he tries (in vain) to make which make the film seem a bit lame at times. Fortunately, there is enough behind the scenes info about the film that it IS worth seeing...particularly if you adore the classic Universal monsters. In addition to Belmer (who was a disappointment), special effects master Rick Baker and several others appear in the documentary to explain the story of this 1932 classic.

Interesting and highly informative documentary short about the making of the classic Universal horror film, The Mummy. This, and other excellent shorts like it, were featured on the original DVD releases of the Universal horror classics. I believe they have been included on subsequent re-releases as well. It goes into great detail about the history of the film's production from its original starting point as a story about Cagliostro through the behind-the-scenes of filming. It focuses a little more on actress Zita Johann than it does on Boris Karloff and practically nothing about the other actors, such as Edward Van Sloan and David Manners. But they had a short runtime to deal with and this is Johann's only Universal horror film so I will cut them slack on that. The other complaint I have is one that I see many others seem to have -- they don't spend much time on the later mummy films. They don't cover them until the last few minutes when narrator Rudy Behlmer quickly runs through them. Perhaps if they had added ten or fifteen minutes to the runtime they would have had a more in-depth film about the entire Mummy series, not just the first film. But anyway, as a documentary about the first film it's excellent and I'm sure Universal horror fans will eat it up. I've watched these DVD docs many times over the years. I'm a big fan of the Universal monsters so I never get tired of watching stuff like this.

Exceedingly well-done documentary on the making of The Mummy with lots of great stories about some of the stars and makers of that film. Zita Johann is examined in great detail(greater than Karloff I believe), and we get lots of second-hand stories about her spiritualism, her fights with Karl Freund the director, and her wit. Film historian Gregory Man details a couple of the stories with great clarity, wit, and even does an impression of Freund! There are other stories about Karloff and the arduous make-up he endured for Jack Pierce. There is a whole exposition done on where the concept of the story came from and then the documentary moves to a point by point and scene by scene comparison of The Mummy and Dracula. Even more might have been examined by giving actors like David Manners and Edward Van Sloan(who seems never to get any love in these things but was crucial in those early Universal greats!)some talk. The documentary then moves to the sequels and gives them some time, but it really just goes over them in a somewhat cursory manner. Producer/director David Skaal once again has given the Mummy as well as all the other Universal monsters in the stable their due.

Universal gave the classic horror fan a real treat with their series of short documentaries. While I don't necessarily thing that Mummy Dearest is the best of the bunch, it's informative and entertaining. My only complaint is that not enough time was spent on the sequels to The Mummy. I would have loved to see more on these lesser known films.Through interviews with films experts and surviving relatives, Mummy Dearest presents some fascinating insights into the making of The Mummy. One of my favorites was the story of the feud between star Zita Johann and director Karl Freund. Good stuff. Another highlight is the interview segments with special effects wizard Rick Baker. His insights into what Karloff went through to be made-up as the mummy are very interesting.Mummy Dearest, and the other documentaries in the series, are some of the best DVD extras I've seen. Good work Universal!