Egypt, 1895: An expedition led by archaeologist Stephen Banning unearths the last resting place of the ancient princess Ananka, but the old man is driven mad by something else hidden within the tomb. Three years later, a mysterious Egyptian, who has sworn vengeance on the members of the expedition for their act of desecration, arrives in rural England, bringing with him a large crate of “relics”. The crate is lost when it falls from a cart into a bog and sinks, but that night the Egyptian returns to the scene and, unrolling a papyrus, begins to intone the sacred words of the Scroll of Life…..
Original trailer
Production Details
A Hammer film production released by Universal Pictures
Copyright MCMLIX by Hammer Film Productions – All rights reserved
MPAA Approved Certificate
RCA Sound Recording
Eastmancolour processed by Technicolor 88 mins
Filming Began: 23rd February 1959
UK Release: 2nd May 1957
Studios:
Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire
Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey – Princess Ananka’s Funeral
Stills from film
Click an image for enlarged slideshow
Cast & Crew
Cast – Verified complete
Crew – Believed complete
Red = Uncredited
Crew | Name | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | Uncredited | Total Hammer | |
Assistant Art Director | Don Mingaye | 30 | 1929 | 8 Nov 2017 | 88 | 28 | 15 | 43 | |
Assistant Director | John Peverall | 28 | 1931 | 3 Oct 2009 | 78 | 21 | 21 | ||
Assistant Editor | Chris Barnes | 21 | 1938 | 5 Jun 2009 | 71 | 21 | 13 | 34 | |
Associate Producer | Anthony Nelson-Keys | 47 | 13 Nov 1911 | 19 Mar 1985 | 73 | 43 | 43 | ||
Boom Operator | Jim Perry | 9 | 9 | ||||||
Camera Operator | Len Harris | 43 | 19 May 1916 | 21 Feb 1995 | 78 | 63 | 2 | 65 | |
Cashier | Ken Gordon | 10 | 10 | ||||||
Casting | Dorothy Holloway | 61 | 7 Mar 1898 | 1972 | 73 | 4 | 6 | 10 | |
Chief Electrician | Jack Curtis | 3 | 24 | 27 | |||||
Clapper Loader | Alan McDonald | 21 | 1938 | 01.01.1938 | 87 | 14 | 14 | ||
Construction Manager | Mick Lyons | 58 | 1901 | 22 Jun 1959 | 58 | 10 | 10 | ||
Continuity | Marjorie Lavelly | 38 | 12 Apr 1921 | 22 Sep 2006 | 85 | 8 | 8 | ||
Director | Terence Fisher | 55 | 23 Feb 1904 | 18 Jun 1980 | 76 | 31 | 31 | ||
Director of Photography | Jack Asher BSc | 43 | 29 Mar 1916 | Apr 1991 | 75 | 13 | 13 | ||
Editor | Alfred Cox | 34 | 1925 | 2005 | 80 | 21 | 5 | 26 | |
Egyptologist | Andrew Low | 4 | 1 | 5 | |||||
Focus Puller | Harry Oakes | 38 | 16 Jan 1921 | 11 Dec 2012 | 91 | 3 | 56 | 59 | |
Hair Stylist | Henry Montsash | 54 | 17 Sep 1905 | 29 Sep 1974 | 69 | 16 | 16 | ||
Make-up Artist | Roy Ashton | 50 | 16 Apr 1909 | 10 Jan 1995 | 85 | 36 | 4 | 40 | |
Mask Maker | Margaret Robinson | 39 | 31 Jan 1920 | 3 Oct 2016 | 96 | 4 | 4 | ||
Master Carpenter | Charles Davis | 9 | 9 | ||||||
Master Painter | Lawrence Wren | 12 | 12 | ||||||
Master Plasterer | Arthur Banks | 19 | 29 | 48 | |||||
Music Composer | Frank Reizenstein | 48 | 7 Jun 1911 | 15 Oct 1968 | 57 | 1 | 1 | ||
Musical Supervisor | John Hollingsworth | 43 | 20 Mar 1916 | 29 Dec 1963 | 47 | 37 | 3 | 40 | |
Producer | Michael Carreras | 31 | 21 Dec 1927 | 19 Apr 1994 | 66 | 98 | 11 | 109 | |
Production Designer | Bernard Robinson | 47 | 28 Jul 1912 | 2 Mar 1970 | 57 | 46 | 4 | 50 | |
Production Manager | Don Weeks | 54 | 15 Nov 1904 | Mar 1988 | 83 | 31 | 31 | ||
Property Master | Tom Money | 42 | 1917 | 1974 | 57 | 2 | 21 | 23 | |
Props Buyer | Eric Hillier | 39 | 1920 | 1975 | 55 | 17 | 17 | ||
Publicist | Colin Reid | 6 | 6 | ||||||
Screenplay | Jimmy Sangster | 31 | 2 Dec 1927 | 19 Aug 2011 | 83 | 66 | 2 | 68 | |
Second Assistant Director | Tom Walls | 47 | 31 May 1912 | 28 Nov 1992 | 80 | 1 | 10 | 11 | |
Sound Camera Operator | Alan Thorne | 1 | 8 | 9 | |||||
Sound Department | Claude Hitchcock | 40 | 8 Nov 1918 | 4 Oct 2010 | 91 | 14 | 4 | 18 | |
Sound Editor | Roy Hyde | 39 | 15 Feb 1920 | 28 Jun 1985 | 65 | 30 | 1 | 31 | |
Sound Maintenance | Charles Bouvet | 52 | 27 Oct 1906 | 1978 | 71 | 8 | 8 | ||
Sound Recordist | Jock May | 54 | 1905 | 8 Jan 1991 | 86 | 31 | 1 | 32 | |
Special Effects | Bill Warrington | 49 | 1910 | 11 Sep 1981 | 71 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
Still Photographer | Tom Edwards | 1999 | 27 | 27 | |||||
Studio Manager | Arthur Kelly | 4 | 4 | ||||||
Stunts | Eddie Powell | 32 | 9 Mar 1927 | 11 Aug 2000 | 73 | 2 | 14 | 16 | |
Supervising Editor | James Needs | 39 | 17 Oct 1919 | 4 Feb 2003 | 83 | 113 | 1 | 114 | |
Technical Advisor | Andrew Low | 4 | 1 | 5 | |||||
Third Assistant Director | Hugh Harlow | 20 | 17 Jun 1939 | 17.06.1939 | 85 | 6 | 34 | 40 | |
Wardrobe Assistant | Rosemary Burrows | 36 | 5 | 41 | |||||
Wardrobe Mistress | Molly Arbuthnot | 50 | 19 Dec 1908 | 31 Oct 2001 | 92 | 48 | 5 | 53 | |
Cast | Name | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | Uncredited | Total Hammer | |
Attendant | Stanley Meadows | 28 | 14 Jul 1931 | 14.07.1931 | 93 | 1 | 1 | ||
Bill | Frank Sieman | 51 | 7 Aug 1908 | 9 Mar 1992 | 83 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Coroner | John Stuart | 61 | 18 Jul 1898 | 17 Oct 1979 | 81 | 8 | 1 | 9 | |
Dr Reilly | Willoughby Gray | 42 | 5 Nov 1916 | 13 Feb 1993 | 76 | 1 | 1 | ||
Flashback Slave | Roy Stewart | 34 | 15 May 1925 | 27 Oct 2008 | 83 | 1 | 4 | 5 | |
Head Porter | Frank Singuineau | 46 | 8 Apr 1913 | 11 Sep 1992 | 79 | 1 | 1 | ||
Inspector Mulrooney | Eddie Byrne | 48 | 31 Jan 1911 | 21 Aug 1981 | 70 | 2 | 2 | ||
Irish Customer | Gerald Lawson | 62 | 30 Apr 1897 | 6 Dec 1973 | 76 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Isobel/Ananka | Yvonne Furneaux | 33 | 11 May 1926 | 5 Jul 2024 | 98 | 1 | 1 | ||
John Banning | Peter Cushing | 46 | 26 May 1913 | 11 Aug 1994 | 81 | 24 | 1 | 25 | |
Joseph Whemple | Raymond Huntley | 55 | 23 Apr 1904 | 15 Jun 1990 | 86 | 3 | 3 | ||
Man at Inquest | Ernest Blyth | 49 | 1910 | 1981 | 71 | 12 | 12 | ||
Man at Inquest | George Spence | 4 | 4 | ||||||
Man at Inquest | Arthur Dibbs | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Mehemet Bey | George Pastell | 36 | 13 Mar 1923 | 4 Apr 1976 | 53 | 5 | 1 | 6 | |
Mike | Denis Shaw | 38 | 7 Apr 1921 | 28 Feb 1971 | 49 | 4 | 3 | 7 | |
Pat | Harold Goodwin | 41 | 22 Oct 1917 | 3 Jun 2004 | 86 | 4 | 3 | 7 | |
Poacher | Michael Ripper | 46 | 27 Jan 1913 | 28 Jun 2000 | 87 | 34 | 2 | 36 | |
Police Constable | George Woodbridge | 52 | 16 Feb 1907 | 31 Mar 1973 | 66 | 10 | 1 | 11 | |
Police Sergeant | David Browning | 37 | 10 Aug 1922 | 10.08.1922 | 102 | 2 | 2 | ||
Priest | John Harrison | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Priest | James Clarke | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Stephen Banning | Felix Aylmer | 70 | 21 Feb 1889 | 2 Sep 1979 | 90 | 2 | 2 | ||
The Mummy/Kharis | Christopher Lee | 37 | 27 May 1922 | 7 Jun 2015 | 93 | 22 | 22 | ||
With | Frederick Rawlings | 44 | 19 Aug 1915 | 2003 | 87 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
Original Poster
Click to enlarge
Footnotes
This is the only Hammer film in which their three most prolific actors, Michael Ripper, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, appear together. Their only other appearance together was in Tigon’s The Creeping Flesh 1973.
The Mummy had originally been made in 1932 from a screenplay by John L. Balderston, with Boris Karloff in the title role. Following the success of Dracula (1958), Universal were more than happy to hand over the script of their old classic to Hammer for similar treatment.
The scene in which Peter Cushing plunges a spear right through the body of the mummy was not in Jimmy Sangster’s original screenplay. It was added at Cushing’s suggestion after he had seen the artwork for the film’s poster, which showed a beam of light shining through a hole in the creature’s stomach.
Actor Eddie Byrne was no stranger to horror films. In 1958, he was in Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman’s Jack the Ripper and later made two movies for Tom Blakely’s Planet Films – Devils of Darkness (1964) and Island of Terror (1966, with Peter Cushing and directed by Terence Fisher).