Directed by Charles
Lamont, written by John Grant
Starring Bud Abbott, Lou
Costello and Marie Windsor
1955
Everyone’s after a sacred
medallion that leads to the buried treasure of an ancient Egyptian princess.
Unfortunately a resurrected mummy guards her tomb!
Abbott and Costello are
back and I’d say behind MEET FRANKENSTEIN, this is probably the best of their
meetings with monsters. They work better as fish-out-of-water Americans in
Cairo than they do in some of their other roles, and they have the luxury of
going by their real names, so we get lots of Costello yelling, “Hey, Abbott!!!”
Also, they get to do some pretty funny routines, including one where they keep
switching hamburgers, trying to trick each other into eating the one with the
medallion hidden in it, ultimately leading to a nice gimmick, which is Costello
running around with the medallion in his stomach.
Once again, we get a
monster but it’s not played by any of the famous horror actors who originally
brought it to life – no Boris Karloff or Lon Chaney, Jr. here. But, the Mummy
(aside from in his first outing) was always devoid of personality, anyway, so
unlike the Invisible Man, anyone could play him. In this case, stuntman Eddie
Parker does it, and he’s doubled for the Mummy before, so it’s sort of like
getting an authentic monster!
Also, keep your eyes out
for not on but two amazing dance troops that put on crazy performances, the
Mazzone-Abbott Dancrs and Chandra Kaly and His Dancers.
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