Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is a 1955 film directed by Charles Lamont (Francis in the Haunted House) from a story by Lee Loeb and a screenplay by John Grant for Universal International. Obviously, it stars the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, plus Marie Windsor (Cat-Women of the Moon; The Day Mars Invaded Earth; Chamber of Horrors), Michael Ansara and Peggy King. Although Abbott and Costello were called “Pete and Freddie” in the script and in the closing credits, they used their real names onscreen during filming.
Plot teaser:
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are Americans stranded in Cairo, Egypt due to a lack of money. They happen to overhear Dr. Gustav Zoomer (Kurt Katch) discussing the mummy Klaris, the guardian of the Tomb of Princess Ara. Apparently the mummy has a sacred medallion that shows where the treasure of Princess Ara can be found. The Followers of Klaris, led by Semu (Richard Deacon), overhear the conversation along with Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor), a business woman interested in stealing the treasure of Princess Ara…
Reviews:
” … their material is pedestrianly hokey …” Hollywood Reporter
“Dreadful in every respect, with jokes that are older than the Mummy is supposed to be. The last of the classic Universal monsters to be killed off by Abbott and Costello and an unworthy end.” Alan Frank, The Horror Film Handbook
“The film is a cheap and miserable one. The studio backlot production values entirely fail to convince one that the locations are in any way Egyptian. The sets are cheap – there is one supposedly stout wooden door that can be seen to crinkle when it moves. The plot is a tedious, dull matter. Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy was the duo’s last film at Universal and second-to-last in total and, while they give it the good old college try, nobody around them seems to be making much effort. Proceedings are dragged to death by the endless, extended scenes of the two leads’ tomfoolery.” Richard Scheib, Moria
” … cult B movie queen Marie Windsor showed up here as the main villainess, and although she simply goes through the motions required of her, you know the type of thing, order the henchmen about, mock-seduce Lou and so on, she does it with her customary professionalism. Costello ends up swallowing the medallion required to, er, do something mystical with the Mummy, which is all the excuse the baddies need to take him along to the hidden temple in the desert for the climactic chase, a cliché but so often used to pick up the pace in the latter stages. Not an embarrassment by any means (aside from maybe the Mummy costume), this was the duo’s true swan song.” Graeme Clark, The Spinning Image
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