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Blood from the Mummy's Tomb

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Blood from the Mummy's Tomb
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySeth Holt
Michael Carreras (uncredited)
Written byChristopher Wicking
Based onThe Jewel of Seven Stars
by Bram Stoker
Produced byHoward Brandy
StarringValerie Leon
Andrew Keir
Mark Edwards
James Villiers
Hugh Burden
Aubrey Morris
CinematographyArthur Grant
Edited byPeter Weatherley
Music byTristram Cary
Production
company
Distributed byMGM-EMI Distributors
Release date
  • 14 October 1971 (1971-10-14)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£200,000[1]

Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is a 1971 British horror film starring Andrew Keir, Valerie Leon and James Villiers.[2] It was director Seth Holt's final film, and was loosely adapted by Christopher Wicking from Bram Stoker's 1903 novel The Jewel of Seven Stars.[3] The film was released as the support feature to Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.

Besides providing a rare leading role for Valerie Leon, the film is notable for its troubled production.

Plot

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An expedition led by Professor Fuchs locates the unmarked tomb of Tera an evil Egyptian queen. A cabal of priests drugged her into a state of suspended animation and buried all of her evil relics with her. Fuchs is obsessed with Tera and takes her mummy and sarcophagus back to England, where he secretly recreates her tomb under his house. Four days "before her birthday", his daughter Margaret – who bears an uncanny resemblance to Tera and was born at the instant they recited her name - has recurring nightmares. Fuchs gives her the old queen's ring and tells her to "wear it always". Of course, this only makes matters worse. Queen Tera's evil power begins to tempt Margaret, as she learns how she's feared by her father's former colleagues.

Margaret notices a man lurking in the vacant building across the street. He is Corbeck, an expedition member who's now her father's rival. Corbeck wants to restore Tera to life and he persuades Margaret to help him gather the missing relics. The problem is, each time one is given up the person who'd held it dies. When they have all the relics, Corbeck, Margaret and Fuchs begin the ancient ritual to reawaken Tera. At the last moment Fuchs learns that the queen's revival will mean Margaret's death. Together Fuchs and Margaret overpower and kill Corbeck, as the house quakes above them. Queen Tera awakens and kills Fuchs, but not before Margaret stabs her. Margaret and Tera are grappling over an ancient dagger when the house finally collapses on them.

Later in the hospital, a woman's face is wrapped in bandages. She's the sole survivor, and that all the others in the Professor's basement were "crushed beyond recognition". The bandaged woman slowly opens her eyes and struggles to speak, leaving the film scene ambiguous as to whether she is Margaret Fuchs or Queen Tera.

Cast

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Production

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Development

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Writer Chris Wicking said the film was one of the last projects that James Carreras brought to Hammer. Wicking wanted to use the title of the book but Carreras did not. They brainstormed titles and came up with Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, which Wicking thought they would never use, but they did.[4]

The job of directing went to Seth Holt, whose films were admired by producer Howard Brandy. Holt had a strong critical reputation for making such films as The Nanny, but had not made a movie in two years. As Holt said in 1971: "I haven't been directing because I haven't been offered anything to direct".[5]

Wicking worked with Seth Holt on the script. The film had to go into production early because there was a gap in the production schedule. Wicking said he had a falling out with producer Howard Brandy and was barred from the set but he continued to work with Holt in the evenings.[4]

Brandy later claimed Wicking's script was "unshootable" and that Holt constantly rewrote it. He also says he and Holt wanted to cast Amy Grant in the lead but Sir James Carreras insited on Valerie Leon.[1]

Shooting

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Peter Cushing was cast in the film and completed one day's filming before leaving the production after his wife was diagnosed with emphysema. Cushing was replaced by Andrew Keir.[6] The R1 DVD of the film released in the United States by Anchor Bay Entertainment contains still photographs of Cushing's day on the production.

Director Seth Holt died of a heart attack five weeks into the six-week shoot, collapsing into cast member Aubrey Morris's arms and dying on set. Michael Carreras asked Don Sharp to take over but the director was unable to as he had signed to direct a film in Israel for the producer of Puppet on a Chain (this film was ultimately not made).[7]

Michael Carreras directed the final week's filming. He said Holt's footage did not cut together.[8]

According to the book Hammer, House of Horror: Behind the Screams by Howard Maxford, the budget for the film was £200,000.[9] The film was shot at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.[citation needed]

Release

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In January 1972, AIP bought the US distribution rights.[10]

Critical reception

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The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Seth Holt died while shooting Blood from the Mummy's Tomb; the final week's work was directed by Michael Carreras, who obviously made every effort to adopt Holt's visual style. Holt, however, was apparently revising his script day-by-day, and the stylistic consistency of the completed film cannot mask a number of unresolved themes and ideas. For all that, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is Holt's most distinctive work, and effortlessly the best of Hammer's recent attempts to 'develop' the classic horror themes. The explanatory background that conventionally emerges in a few garbled words during or after the climax in horror movies, here becomes the substance of the whole first half of the film: a mythic, amoral deity is built up, and an entire attendant cosmogony suggested, through astrological references and other choice details. After this, the main drama of the film centres on the debate between Fuchs and Corbeck on the morality of releasing power like Tera's in a world like ours. 'Our world' is in turn the subject of Holt's most characteristically jaundiced view. A surface of perversity and fear barely contains undergrowths of madness, chaos and destruction. Several of the film's scenes occur in a lunatic asylum (where George Coulouris is victim to two of the most gleefully sadistic warders since Lost Weekend); other characters are frequently seen alone in moments of private mania. The young hero (name of Tod Browning, so that you know he's all right) is killed before he has a chance to do anything effectual. And in a breathtaking reversal, Holt saves his all-too-human 'mummy' for his final shot: where she is Margaret, swathed in hospital bandages after the catastrophe. It's all as if Holt had superimposed the psychological-suspense methods of his thrillers on to the Gothic mechanics of the genre; the result (as in the work of all true pioneers) makes the genre seem like new."[11]

AllMovie's review of the film was favourable, commending its "glamorous style" and "creepy atmosphere".[12]

Empire magazine gave it three out of five.[13]

The New York Times called it "tremendous fun, skilful and wonderfully energetic".[14]

Variety called it "polished and well-acted but rather tame".[15]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Klemensen, Richard (Summer 1994). "Hammer Films unearth the mummy". Midnight Maquee. No. 47. pp. 85–86.
  2. ^ "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  3. ^ Gary A. Smith, The American International Pictures Video Guide, McFarland 2009 p 28
  4. ^ a b All's Well That Ends: an interview with Chris Wicking Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 55, Iss. 658, 1 November 1988: 322.
  5. ^ Daddy of the mummyscene, The Guardian (1959-2003); London (UK), 18 Jan 1971: 8.
  6. ^ Gaughan, Gavin (6 February 2009). "Guardian, 6th February, 2009". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  7. ^ Koetting, Chris (June 1994). "Costume Dream". Hammer Horror. p. 12.
  8. ^ Swires, Steve (1992). "Fall of the House of Hammer". Fangoria. p. 55.
  9. ^ Maxford, Howard, Hammer, House of Horror: Behind the Screams, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1996, ISBN 0-7134-7768-7
  10. ^ MOVIE CALL SHEET: Fox Signs Pact for Distribution Murphy, Mary. Los Angeles Times, 29 Jan 1972: b9.
  11. ^ "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 38 (444): 216. 1 January 1971 – via ProQuest.
  12. ^ Brian J. Dillard. "Blood From the Mummy's Tomb - Review". Allmovie. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  13. ^ William Thomas (2000). "Blood From the Mummy's Tomb". Empire.
  14. ^ Greenspun, Roger (18 May 1972). "Horror Double Bill Pairs a Dr. Jekyll With Mummy's Tomb". The New York Times.
  15. ^ Variety Staff (1 January 1971). "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb". Variety. Director Seth Holt died suddenly a few days before shooting was completed.

Notes

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