Episode 102 - Mummies in Pop Culture

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Hello everyone.

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And welcome back to another episode of the lunatic radio hour podcast.

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I'm Abby Brer. I'm here with Alan Codan. Hello. And today again, we are joined by the infamous Bob Don to talk about mummies in pop culture.

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It's been really fun, like sitting here, hanging out with you guys for an entire week waiting to do this next episode.

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<Laugh> I know, right.

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Bob has not left his station. He is just ready to go. <laugh> yeah.

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He's dedicated to the craft.

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Yeah. During, during editing, we're gonna have to scrub through six days of silence.

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<Laugh> we? So last week, if anyone missed it, we came back from hiatus and we are kicking off the continuation of our universal monsters exploration.

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And so last week we talked with Bob about the history of mummies throughout humanity, which was really eye opening and interesting for me. Uh, and I hope for everybody else as well, some really fascinating ways that humans have been mummified, um, whether accidentally or on purpose, but today is really kind of the core of, of this, where we're going to talk about when we say pop culture, right? We mean film, we mean novels. We mean comic books. Anyway, that mummies have sort of become entertainment. And again, I'm just going to say this at the beginning of this episode as well.

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This is kind of complicated because the plots of a lot of these things are really about Westerners taking artifacts from countries that, uh, they have no claim over and kind of quote, unquote, discovering things that do not belong to them and were not lost.

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So we just wanna call that out at the beginning of this, because it definitely shapes the way we should think about and talk about things like the mummy, right? But also Indiana Jones. Uh, it's kind of a very common trope that I think we're all fairly used to.

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The sources for today actually are pretty minimal.

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So we have Wikipedia and IMDB for a lot of the movie, uh, information that we're gonna talk through.

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And then we have the sources themselves.

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So the movies we watched quite a few of them, Bob is an expert, as you all know in not only history, but also in the written works of humanity.

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So Bob, if anyone is unaware has several podcasts, one is called Bob's short story hour where he reads short fiction sometimes long fiction. Uh, Bob, I mean, I don't know why I'm saying this.

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Maybe you you're better to talk about it.

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No, I think you, I was like, oh man, she's gonna say, and I don't have to, this is perfect. <laugh> I want, I wanna hear you say it.

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Yeah.

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You're doing great. So Bob short story hour features all kinds of literature, you know, classic literature, public domain literature, but also the work of modern writers as well. Um, and Bob does an amazing job narrating it and also talking, talking about the implications of these works.

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And he also has a podcast called hidden Oaks, which both of these podcasts sort of align with us in different ways. Um, hidden Oaks is a horror podcast, which I would describe as sort of like a, uh, serialized nineties version, almost like of a stranger things, but maybe a little bit better and kind of like with some, uh, Eldridge horror built into it. So I don't know, Bob, you can correct any of those definitions if you'd like.

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I feel like you did a great job.

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The only thing I would correct is calling me an expert on anything I'm a fan of, of literature. And I, I read a lot, I have read a lot, uh, and I enjoy these things, but I am by no means a history or literature expert. <laugh>, that's sure that's.

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Very kind to us. You are to us that's we just.

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Prefer the term Sivan.

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<Laugh> so everyone, please check out hin Oaks and Bob short story hour.

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We're gonna kick things off with the early works. So when I say early, I, I don't mean really that early and Bob I'm sure you'll jump in here with, um, some additional things that I've left out of my research.

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But the first thing to talk about is from 1827, a work written by Jane C Loudin called the mummy or a tale of the 22nd century. And that's from 1827.

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If you're looking for it, you'll have, you might have an easier time, especially if you're looking for a copy. Um, and let's see, the one that I have, I think is maybe bound singly, but it was originally three it's like a trilogy, but I, I believe she was Jane Webb when it was published. Um, and her publisher married her after reading it like fell in love with her because of the book.

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Yeah.

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Typical Bob claiming he's no expert and then immediately jumping in <laugh> with so much interesting information. It's.

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A really cool story.

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It's interesting. Okay.

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So this and the next one that you're gonna talk about feature the same mummy in the same tomb. It's like she ops king, she ops or whatever.

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And the, I, the really interesting thing here is I know that this thing I'm about to mention is not a mummy <laugh>, but it does play a significant role in this like creation of this original stories of kind of the universal monster in this case. Uh, but like Mary Shelley plays a role here, you know, in, in 18, 18, she writes.

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Frankenstein.

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The modern Prometheus.

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And that is definitely what inspired Luisa may Alcot in, in this story, uh, this story, Jane Webb to write the mummy exclamation point.

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And both of those authors mentioned that at various points, that that was kind of their jumping off point. But interestingly enough, the, um, I don't know, have, have, have either of you guys read any of these original classic books? No stories, no. Okay. So in this one that you're bringing up, this is very much like not the mummy that we're thinking of in horror, the, the mummy or the story of the 22nd century is like not a horror story at all. It's like, imagine, imagine more of like a Frankenstein's monster, but who is a mummy from ancient Egypt who is raised by less science and more religious practices, and then like joins with Mr.

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Smith goes to Washington because the, the like mummy who comes into the future, he's just like this posh guy that everybody that meets him is friends with him.

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And he basically goes to like give a bunch of philosophy and politics talks to different people and like changes, changes the understanding of the modern political with the, you know, ancient, philosophical stuff.

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It's really bizarre. Huh.

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And fascinating. Well.

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Yeah, the, the trope of the mummy, just kind of my understanding across the board is you have someone from the past kind of being forced into the future and it's just them kind of grading against the society and usually imposing some kind of will from the past on the people of that era. Um, in that case, it sounds like it's almost benevolent where it's like, yeah.

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Wisdom from the past, helping out all these wayward souls, uh, as, instead of like, well time to bring back slavery.

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<Laugh>, that's true.

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And it's interesting because I suppose it just kind of depends on what your, like, what your political spectrum is or where you fall on the political spectrum to kind of decide whether or not that's an insidious, scary thing to you. Mm.

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Well, as soon as you said, very early, like mummy stories that got me thinking like, so we have stories about the dead coming back to life, right?

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Mm-hmm <affirmative> what were those stories like in ancient Egypt?

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Like they see all this stuff that goes into the practice of these bodies, right? There must have been Egyptian, campfire tales of the guy that they just buried coming back to life or something. I would love to know what that, like, what those were.

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Well, I don't know, but I do know that reincarnation, I believe was a fairly common belief then, which will come up today and, and it's been kind of adopted into some of these works that we're gonna talk about, but I don't know. I don't, I wonder, I mean, it is see.

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What I'm saying though. Sure. I.

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But I, I don't know if that conflicts with their belief that, um, you know, like for us, I think we're, we have less of a unified, like religious belief system about what happens in the afterlife mm-hmm<affirmative>. And I think in ancient Egypt, they had a very defined belief system about what happens.

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And I don't know that the body being reincarnated, like as is, was part of that, you know.

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We have a very diverse belief system, but geographically we're much larger.

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You know, what percentage of Egypt was established cities?

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You know, is, is it like the, the mytho of something, the size of New Jersey?

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I don't know.

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Yeah. I don't know either.

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So Bob mentioned this, but in 1869, Louisa may Alcot published a story called lost in a pyramid or the mommy's curse usually thought of to be the first work, featuring a mummy's curse, which again, just to refresh your memory, we talked last week about the actual belief in a mommy's curse, which is, you know, this idea that archeologists, especially Westerners or, or grave diggers, as they try to open up these tombs for various reasons, you know, and either being killed on the spot or actually years later finding like severe illness and death, those sorts of things.

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Hmm. And.

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That's, we obviously see the, the line there between a lot of this pop culture.

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Yeah. That's basically, I mean, the, the mummy's curse by Alcot is very similar to like, basically just kind of true events of the Howard Carter party.

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Who discovered king toin commons.

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Right. To just for everybody.

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Who didn't listen to the history part.

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That's right.

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<Laugh>.

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Shame on you.

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There are two other works from the mid 18 hundreds with similar plots, the mummy soul from 1862 and after 3000 years by Jane Austin from 1868.

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I don't know. Jane Austin did a mummy book. That's kind of cool.

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Hell yeah, she.

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Did. Wasn't any good <laugh> I don't know. You love Jane Austin.

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I love a lot of these women and I actually really love, I mean, as expected that there's so many women who are early in this genre, you know.

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Not to mention all those written by anonymous.

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<Laugh> Bob, do you have a favorite kind of like mummy themed work from this era?

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Well, first of all, I think I'm gonna have to go back I've I was planning on doing like a women of classic literature month or two on Bob's short story hour, and I have it all set up right now.

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I just haven't been in front of the microphone for a minute, but I think I might have to add at least one or two of these, the ones that are a little shorter to that list.

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Cuz the Luisa Alcot story is great. Yeah. Um, it all centers around like these, these seeds that come back from this king Chios is tomb and then like get planted and grow into flowers and the flowers are cursed and it it's super neat.

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But I think when it comes to the, the mummy that I think I grew up, I remember reading and, and you know, thinking of as kind of the universal mummy, right.

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We're thinking of like tattered, rags, reanimated, dead thing that chases people in the night. Yeah. I get that. That's that's my, my thought or whatever.

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And it goes back to lot.

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Number 2 49 was the first time I encountered it.

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And like I had thought that was the one of the oldest mommy stories, which is, oh, I hope I'm not wrong. I think that's Arthur Conan Doyle. Yeah. Um, and I did, I did that story for a Halloween episode.

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I think it's like 32 episode 32 about shirt, story hours. Really?

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One of my favorite stories because it just is that like, oh, we're a bunch of posh, British people bringing, you know, mummies to England and then reanimating them to do our bidding kind of thing. And it, everything goes into chaos and like that's, that's what I remember. Yeah.

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Another one that I encountered later and interestingly enough, like I ended up using segments of the lore in that directly in hidden Oaks when I created this like fire elemental for season two was by Algernon Blackwood. Yes.

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Same guy that wrote the Wendigo story.

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Yeah. And the willows, which is great.

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It's called the nemesis of fire. And Abby, you would really like this. Uh, he's got this series of books, the John silence stories.

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And it's like, you combine Sherlock homes with like a parent, like, or like a, uh, like a supernatural physician. <laugh> like, he's, he's called the physician extraordinary.

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And it's his job to investigate some paranormal things kind of in line with William ho Hodkins Thomas Carnie, but a little bit different.

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He does a lot more like P and psychic type stuff. Cool.

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And he goes to investigate like these weird fires that are starting at this one place. And it ends up being this fire elemental and they find all this stuff, but it traces back directly to this family had stolen a Queen's body from Egypt. And, and so even in the time it's like kind of taking to task the whole idea of the, the British fascination with ancient Egypt and basically grave robbing, which is what they were doing. Um, and makes all of this terrible stuff happened to this estate because they did these bad things. Um, but it's, but it it's the mummy like doing all of these things. It's really pretty neat.

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Man.

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I'm so glad you said all of those things because all of those writers you just mentioned, I feel like I have these notes from listening to your show or, uh, Fido and all like, especially William ho Hodgson, who we did a story.

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Um, we featured his story, I think during the disaster episode. And mm-hmm,<affirmative>, they're just so good. And it's, it's always just like I it's on my list to get to them and I'm reinspired now.

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So I'm glad that all of those names just came up. Good.

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So transitioning here from some of these early written works into film, there's actually several silent films from the very early 19 hundreds titled the mummy like several. Um, but I'm gonna talk briefly about a French film from 1908.

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Again, all of these are called the mummy.

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It's a comedy that tells the story of an antiques professor who purchases a mummy as, I guess you do, and proceeds to cut it open.

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He brings it home and he kind of is dissecting it.

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And his land lady sees what he's doing from the window, but assumes right.

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That it's a live person or he just killed a person.

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Not that it's an antique mummy, what an idiot. And so chaos ensues, but it's just like, that's just such a, like I understand the comedy of it and I don't dislike the comedy of it, but kind of like reverting back to last week, Bob, when we were talking about the ritual of mummification right, and the, how meaningful these ceremonies were that went into mummifying, these bodies and, you know, and then Western culture comes into either, you know, turn them into Mumia to eat them, put them into museums, uh, or like make these short comedies about people, you know, butchering mummies, open mm-hmm<affirmative>. So it's, it's I, again, I understand the comedy of it and um, on a stance against those things, but it's, it's kind of, they're very juxtaposing, those two kind of the intention of what mummies were meant to be and kind of how they appear now to us. Yeah. It's a.

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Little weird. Oh, for sure. I mean, yeah.

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You think about like what was going on?

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Like people could just buy a mummy that probably wasn't just a film thing like that probably happened. Oh, oh yeah.

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And they could just do whatever they want. It's just like, wow.

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Let's just our living room. We hang coats on that. You know, it was cool maybe like 12 years ago, but now it's just kind of there and we're not into the whole Egypt thing anymore. So we just, I mean, I don't know, we couldn't get rid of it.

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So we just it's there <laugh> we hang coats on it. <laugh> well, you know, know what I mean?

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Seems like a good, so.

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Disrespect expression.

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<Laugh> so shall we now talk about the universal studios, BU film? We.

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Skipped over a very important book. Okay. Well, uh, please, that it's not actually that important because it was, I personally didn't like it. Uh, but it was jewel of the seven stars. Um, oh yes. Drum Stoker's mum book.

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Stoker, amazed that I forgot <laugh>.

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It's so forgettable. It just, it was so boring.

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Like I loved Dracula. Um, and when I found out he was just tackling another universal monster, I'm like, sign me up, sign me up Brom. Right.

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Beat me up.

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Brom. But no, it, it, it wasn't for me.

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Yeah. It was just, it was again, like, it was just kind of about these posh Brits who like, there was some kind of like relationship stuff in there and it was just nothing like what we saw in Dracula. It was, yeah.

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I remember really not feeling engaged by that. No.

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That book it's it's pushed. Like they tried to push it was a flop, I believe.

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Yeah. Um, which is why it was supposed to kickstart a whole series and just didn't.

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Oh, okay.

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But it's like pushed as a horror novel and there's nothing scary that happens.

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No, Uhuh.

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It's actually really, uh, well timed though that you brought that.

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Up. Why is that?

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You'll.

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See why? Because they made it into a movie that was equally as bad.

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They made it into a movie, but we'll see which one now<laugh> so let's talk about the universal studios versions of this.

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Alan and I have been particularly interested, I would say, in the universal monster films over the years. Yes.

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They were big in my household growing up. And I think, you know, you also really enjoy watching them. So when we talk about universal monsters, we're talking about the original films, you know, from the early days of, you know, the 1920s, thirties, forties, that's really what we're talking about here.

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Not to be confused with the 2017 reboot of the mummy, which.

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We will get to all in due time.

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I and universal has had a huge impact on how the world thinks, not only about mummies, but Egyptian culture and history.

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And I would say not only about Egyptian culture and history, but sort of all of these different mythologies that exist behind these horror creatures, which is part of the reason why, you know, I would say our podcast even has like pivoted to the history of horror because we're so versed with things like vampires and werewolves. Um, but we're not as versed with the actual mythologies and beliefs, you know, that have dated back thousands of years that led to universal taking those and turning them into, or, you know, and not just universal, but, um, really Appropriating really. Yeah, I think popularized them there.

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The first installment of Universal's mummy franchise was a film from 1932 called the mummy, starring none other than Boris Karloff in the title role. And of course, Boris Karloff is an incredibly prolific, uh, actor, but you probably are very familiar with him. Um, as the actor who played Frankenstein's monster in the original Frankenstein film, Zita Johan was cast as the female lead in the mummy.

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She also in real life believed in reincarnation, which would come to sort of help her in her role.

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They had filmed a fairly extensive reincarnation scene, but it actually didn't make it into the final cut of the film, which had upset Zita, uh, kind of like indefinitely.

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There was a lot of bad blood between her and the filmmakers.

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Do you know anything about that scene? Like what, what was it?

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I don't know.

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Hmm. Yeah. I'm just curious what a fairly elaborate reincarnation.

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Scene. I think, meaning that it was like seven or eight minutes long.

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Oh, actually what am I saying?

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Like there's a fairly elaborate reincarnation scene in the Brennan Frazier mummy. Yeah. So just go watch that.

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It's the superior movie. Anyway.

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Carl Freud, who was the cinematographer of the original DRAC and metropolis, which was a big film by Fritz Lang.

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If you've been to film school, you've seen it 10 times. Um, so Carl FRD was brought on as the director for the mummy.

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And this was sort of like his big moment, right?

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Because it was his directorial debut, I believe, and a little behind the scenes drama, apparently FRD and Zita Johan did not get along at all, which created a really tense set for, for everybody. Wow. Oh yeah.

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So here's a little quote from Zita that, and I'll just say this, some people question the valid, the validity of this quote, but I think it gives us a little bit of flavor.

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Carl FRD made life very unpleasant.

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It was his first picture as a director and he felt he needed a scapegoat in case he didn't come in on schedule 23 days. I believe. Well, I was cast as a scapegoat and I saw through it right away before shooting started, I asked fr and his wife over for dinner. He told me for one scene, I would have to appear nude from the waist up.

00:22:59.940 --> 00:23:09.440
He expected me to say the hell I will and said, I said, well, it's all right with me. If you can get it past the sensors, knowing very well that the sensors of the time were very strict.

00:23:09.779 --> 00:23:10.640
So I had him there.

00:23:11.309 --> 00:23:11.799
<Laugh>.

00:23:11.799 --> 00:23:17.509
The plot of the mummy is probably familiar to you. And again, we're talking about the film from 1932.

00:23:17.730 --> 00:23:19.789
Not to be confused with the BRN Frazier version.

00:23:20.529 --> 00:23:35.079
Or the Tom cruise version. Even if you haven't seen the film, a team of archeologists in Egypt accidentally bring back emote. Uh, and that is the name of the mummy, which you'll see repeated again and again and again, in many films.

00:23:35.430 --> 00:23:37.759
Fictional person, right? Yeah.

00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:42.200
Fictional. Okay. I believe, um, maybe based on something but largely fictional.

00:23:42.740 --> 00:23:46.480
Um, and so they do this by accidentally reading from an ancient scroll.

00:23:47.210 --> 00:23:57.119
Emote thinks his long lost love has been reincarnated as well and tries throughout the film to find her though, the modern remakes feel more like action films.

00:23:57.420 --> 00:24:01.640
The original films are very much horror. Uh pre-code horror in fact.

00:24:02.140 --> 00:24:03.670
And despite what, um.

00:24:04.109 --> 00:24:04.942
Pre-code.

00:24:05.019 --> 00:24:25.339
Yeah. So despite what Zita just said about in that quote about the CS pre-code was a period of time in the, uh, 1920s, early 1930s before the, the censorship board I think existed, but it wasn't as established and there wasn't, uh, as much strict ruling over things. Mm.

00:24:25.720 --> 00:24:46.930
And so pre-code films are notorious from this era for drug use sex, abortion, and fidelity showing. Oh, cool. Like, you know, queer couples showing couples of different races. All of these things that, you know, are that were totally like whitewashed and controlled when the censorship board kind of put down its iron fist.

00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:52.250
Lame. Yeah. <laugh> yeah.

00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:54.130
Where would we be now? If the, the rains had been off the entire time?

00:24:54.569 --> 00:24:57.210
I know, right. We'd be in it for another flood.

00:24:57.690 --> 00:25:01.480
I know people would like married couples would sleep in the same bed together.

00:25:01.940 --> 00:25:04.759
Ah, I mean, I don't know if they'd go that far. <laugh>.

00:25:06.059 --> 00:25:13.319
The original mummy film was directly inspired by the opening of king Tuin commons tomb from 10 years before.

00:25:13.819 --> 00:25:24.390
And the subsequent rise in reports of the mum's curse. So again, this film comes out in 32, 10 years before in 1922 is when archeologist opened king tuts tomb.

00:25:24.529 --> 00:25:30.950
That's like us making Stu like making a movie now in something that happened in 2012. That's.

00:25:30.950 --> 00:25:34.349
Right. Yeah. Like we could make a movie about the curse of, uh.

00:25:35.329 --> 00:25:36.779
Uh, rapture, captain.

00:25:37.420 --> 00:25:42.299
Franklin's ghost, you know, sailors, cuz they just found the ship like 10 years.

00:25:42.299 --> 00:25:43.460
Ago. That's right. Maybe.

00:25:43.460 --> 00:25:46.460
We should do, can we, is that on the table? Has that been optioned yet?

00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:47.633
We can look into it.

00:25:47.740 --> 00:25:49.779
I don't think there's like a rights to that. Is there.

00:25:50.359 --> 00:25:53.180
Uh, probably I don't know. <laugh> okay.

00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:56.410
But let's just keep it a secret between the three of us and everyone listening.

00:25:56.480 --> 00:25:57.313
Yeah.

00:25:57.349 --> 00:26:10.089
Scouts honor. Before the film was written, the producer asked Richard Cher to find a novel on which they could base the film, which was common practice at the time. Right? Because you have, that's what we did with Dracula and other films.

00:26:10.339 --> 00:26:12.049
Those Cher came up empty handed.

00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:20.680
Many people point out that the plot is very similar to a short story written by sir. Arthur Conan Doyle called the ring of Toth.

00:26:20.980 --> 00:26:23.599
Mm-hmm <affirmative> little suspicious, eh mm.

00:26:24.279 --> 00:26:37.670
Cher. Along with writer, Nina Wilcox, Putnam wrote a treatment, a short story that took place in San Francisco about about a 3000 year old magician who quote survived, injecting nitrates quoting from Wikipedia.

00:26:38.059 --> 00:26:42.150
John L Baldin was brought on to write the script.

00:26:42.650 --> 00:26:50.599
He had contributed to Dracula and Frankenstein and king Tut's tomb for the New York world when he was a journalist.

00:26:51.099 --> 00:26:54.400
So he was more than familiar with the well publicized tune on earthing.

00:26:55.400 --> 00:27:32.240
Baldon moved the story to Egypt and renamed the film, its title character emote after the historical architect. Oh, so it is named after an architect. Oh, he also changed the story from one of revenge upon all the women who resembled the main character's ex lover to one where the main character is determined to revive his old love by killing and mummifying, her reincarnation, her reincarnated self before resurrecting her with the spell of the scroll of Toth Balderson invented the scroll of Toth, which gave an aura of authenticity to the story. Mm.

00:27:32.549 --> 00:27:33.383
Very clever.

00:27:33.509 --> 00:27:48.950
Toth was one of the wisest of the Egyptian gods who when ocirus died, helped ISIS bring her love back from the dead Toth is believed to have authored the book of the dead, which may have been the inspiration for Baldon scroll of Toth.

00:27:49.460 --> 00:28:06.460
Another likely source of inspiration is the fictional book of Toth that appeared in several ancient Egyptian stories and quote, I know that was a big quote, but I like really wanted to establish the roots of this franchise and how it, you know, overlapped with, uh, history in certain ways here. Right?

00:28:06.819 --> 00:28:07.940
I found it very fascinating.

00:28:07.940 --> 00:28:11.259
Especially because again, this film goes on to inspire 20 films.

00:28:11.259 --> 00:28:14.819
There's 20 films in this, uh, mm-hmm<affirmative> in this whole franchise.

00:28:15.930 --> 00:28:37.170
The first day of shooting was of Boris Karloff as the mummy escaping from his sarcophagus, the makeup artist started at 11:00 AM, but Karloff wasn't ready for set until 7:00 PM, which meant he finished his scenes by 2:00 AM followed by two more hours of painfully removing the makeup.

00:28:33.210 --> 00:28:37.170
Geez, quoting Carl off himself.

00:28:37.750 --> 00:28:41.930
He dubbed this day, the most trying ordeal I had ever endured.

00:28:42.390 --> 00:28:43.222
Wow.

00:28:43.269 --> 00:28:48.982
The film's credit music is the same exact section of Swan lake that Dracula used the year before.

00:28:49.390 --> 00:28:51.490
Did they film all of his mummy stuff in one day?

00:28:52.109 --> 00:28:59.019
No, but that was like the first day when they didn't realize how long the makeup would, you know, how long it would all take. Got it. Trying. It was gonna be, yeah.

00:28:59.019 --> 00:29:01.160
I'm sure it went through a bunch of revisions as they did.

00:29:01.160 --> 00:29:04.640
It. Yeah. That was just the opening of the SAR scene on the first day.

00:29:04.660 --> 00:29:05.559
That's crazy. Crazy.

00:29:06.630 --> 00:29:12.440
The first film was a box office success in both the us and the UK though.

00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:22.079
And I like kind of adding in some of these original reviews from newspapers because I think they're kind of funny mm-hmm <affirmative> um, but this was the New York times review who wasn't quite as thrilled with it.

00:29:23.319 --> 00:29:38.660
Quote for purposes of terror, there are two scenes in the mummy that are weird enough in all conscious in the first the mommy comes alive and a young archeologist going quite mad laughs in a way that raises the hair on the scalp.

00:29:39.160 --> 00:29:42.059
And the second emote is embalmed alive.

00:29:42.519 --> 00:29:50.779
In that moment when the tape is drawn across the man's mouth and nose leaving only his wild eyes staring out of the coffin is one of decided horror.

00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:55.140
But most of the mummy is costume Melo drama for the children and.

00:29:55.660 --> 00:29:57.920
<Laugh> wow. Skiing.

00:29:58.769 --> 00:30:01.930
Seriously. Right. I love these old reviews. They're so funny.

00:30:02.549 --> 00:30:05.210
Modern audiences tend to view it favorably.

00:30:05.630 --> 00:30:13.680
It currently has an 88% on Roten tomatoes. And this is uh, one of the most kind of famous fun facts from this film. Mm.

00:30:14.220 --> 00:30:34.349
The original movie poster is like notoriously one of Universal's best and people love it. They think it's incredible. I think it's, it looks kind of standard to me, but it's sold at auction and like was set the record for the most expensive movie poster of all time. Can anyone guess what it sold for?

00:30:35.450 --> 00:30:37.309
I'm Googling it now to take a quick look.

00:30:37.980 --> 00:30:39.619
That you were gonna say Googling the answer.

00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:44.660
I'm gonna, so this is why the original post, the original design, like what is this? There just a poster.

00:30:45.210 --> 00:30:47.059
Like yeah. And one of the original posters.

00:30:47.369 --> 00:30:51.450
Okay. I'm going to say $30,000.

00:30:51.960 --> 00:30:55.529
$453,000. 500. That's.

00:30:55.529 --> 00:30:56.920
A lot more money than I guessed.

00:30:57.259 --> 00:30:58.319
Yep. A lot more.

00:30:59.029 --> 00:31:03.400
Geez. For just piece of paper.

00:30:59.029 --> 00:31:03.400
Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong.

00:31:03.779 --> 00:31:05.319
Not all paper is created equal.

00:31:05.940 --> 00:31:08.720
I'm sure like the declaration of independence would go for even more.

00:31:09.029 --> 00:31:09.339
Yeah.

00:31:09.339 --> 00:31:12.359
If maybe we should try to auction it to pay off some of our debts as a country.

00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:17.630
I, I know I, I saw this great documentary about how to get it <laugh>.

00:31:23.460 --> 00:31:24.292
This is Dr.

00:31:24.549 --> 00:31:32.509
X H Bezo I'm broadcasting the hopes of reaching an audience with an interest in my field of study.

00:31:29.410 --> 00:31:36.700
Through my years of research, I have scoured the globe in search of the unordinary and uncanny.

00:31:36.970 --> 00:31:51.740
Some of you may call those fines, myths, folk law, or even urban legends, but I can assure you, there are nothing of the sort new episodes every Friday, listen to fear frequency, wherever you get your podcasts for more info, go to historic media.com.

00:31:56.619 --> 00:32:04.029
However, of course, get back on my soapbox. The film right. Especially when examined through a modern lens.

00:32:04.730 --> 00:32:11.539
The basis of all of these films is essentially that Westerners have come to claim the artifacts of Eastern cultures.

00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:25.539
And these films also tend to paint Egyptians in a more primitive light, um, and Westerners as the great scholars and thinkers, you know, uh, similar again to an Indiana Jones.

00:32:20.579 --> 00:32:25.539
Mm though, there are 19 more films.

00:32:26.130 --> 00:32:43.039
None of them are technically sequels to the first eight years later in 1940, the film was remade and called the mummy's hand and the following films are sequel to that films. So the first film is sort of this standalone thing.

00:32:44.269 --> 00:32:51.450
The mummy's hand includes footage from the mummy and interestingly, almost the entire score from the son of Frankenstein.

00:32:51.829 --> 00:32:58.400
So a lot of the Boris Karloff mummy footage from the first film is reused in these films to save money.

00:32:59.259 --> 00:33:00.160
Sneaky, sneaky.

00:33:00.460 --> 00:33:01.319
Sneaky, sneaky.

00:33:02.130 --> 00:33:23.170
The plot follows an Egyptian mystic who is watching over a mummy that can be easily revived with a specific type of plant. And of course, things get complicated when some Western archeologists come poking around because of the recycled footage, Karloff technically played the mummy in this film, but he didn't actually shoot anything new for it.

00:33:23.490 --> 00:33:24.849
<Laugh> so he still got his royalties.

00:33:25.329 --> 00:33:26.160
I would hope so.

00:33:26.160 --> 00:33:28.289
What? That that's smart business <laugh>.

00:33:29.579 --> 00:33:49.423
The mummy's hand has a 67% on rotten tomatoes and it spurred the sequels, the mum's tomb from 1942, the mom's ghost from 1944, the mom's curse from 1944 as well, which is interesting. Um, and all three of these films feature Cheney as the mummy the Wolfman.

00:33:49.630 --> 00:33:52.549
I was hoping LA Cheney would make an appearance in this episode.

00:33:53.250 --> 00:33:54.083
Oh, always.

00:33:54.289 --> 00:33:57.019
What's the other lawn Channey movie that we watched.

00:33:57.630 --> 00:33:58.579
We've watched so many.

00:33:58.759 --> 00:34:05.613
No, I know, but we, it was in your last apartment <laugh> it was one of the movies that Dan gave us.

00:34:05.640 --> 00:34:09.059
Oh, it was like a horror or a, like a murder mystery.

00:34:10.190 --> 00:34:13.550
I don't remember, but I I'll try to put it in the show notes. If I can find it.

00:34:13.719 --> 00:34:14.780
Please do it was.

00:34:14.780 --> 00:34:20.539
Fun. Was it like a noir, like a detective murder mystery thing? Yeah. Oh, okay, cool. That would be really neat.

00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:26.929
Yeah. Our friend Dan Roberts, I think I was sick or I don't, maybe it was my birthday, but he gave me a DVD of.

00:34:27.070 --> 00:34:29.849
No, there was no reason he just gave it to you cuz he likes you.

00:34:29.989 --> 00:34:42.882
Oh, it was very sweet. Um, and of course the comedy crossover Abba and Costello meet the mummy from 1955, which casts Eddie Parker as mummy and is a family favorite in the Brer household.

00:34:43.250 --> 00:34:44.929
<Laugh> I have yet to see it.

00:34:45.369 --> 00:34:49.849
<Laugh> these my, well, my family is a big Abbot in Costello, especially my dad, but my mom as well.

00:34:50.780 --> 00:34:58.710
So these six films round out the first installment of the franchise, which was rebooted with the hammer series, which is what I'm calling it.

00:34:58.710 --> 00:35:02.429
The hammer series starting Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

00:35:02.769 --> 00:35:04.030
Why is it called the hammer series?

00:35:04.940 --> 00:35:06.420
I forget why I said that. <laugh> no.

00:35:06.420 --> 00:35:07.460
No, no. We need a reason.

00:35:08.119 --> 00:35:13.610
If anybody listening figures out, why, why Abby decided to call it the hammer series?

00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:15.929
There's a massive cash reward.

00:35:16.309 --> 00:35:18.409
An original mummy poster printed out.

00:35:18.840 --> 00:35:19.449
What.

00:35:19.449 --> 00:35:33.730
<Laugh> and sent to you. So these films are called a reboot, but in many ways, kind of more of a remake of the original series, they use much of the same plot and they use identical characters from the mummy's hand, the curse and ghost.

00:35:35.070 --> 00:35:40.599
The first film of this era was released in 1959, again, called the mummy.

00:35:40.659 --> 00:35:53.809
So now we're up to four iterations or five followed by the curse of the mummy's tomb from 1964, the mummy's shroud from 67 blood from the mum's tomb in 1971.

00:35:53.909 --> 00:35:58.880
So again, this is like a third version really of the franchise.

00:36:00.269 --> 00:36:03.489
And that leads us Alan. Yes, to 1999.

00:36:04.440 --> 00:36:10.849
When the series was again, rebooted into the version, I would say our generation is probably most familiar with.

00:36:11.030 --> 00:36:12.489
Not rebooted perfected.

00:36:13.010 --> 00:36:15.519
<Laugh> the Brendan Fraser films.

00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:23.250
This reboot was directed by Steven Summers, but was first proposed to be directed by Clive Barker.

00:36:24.349 --> 00:36:25.182
Type a trip.

00:36:25.469 --> 00:36:31.280
Yeah. But, um, Barker's violent and hypersexual take did not spark interest with the studio.

00:36:32.380 --> 00:36:44.110
And so this is really where the franchise becomes more action versus horror in 1999, summers wrote and directed the mummy very loosely based on the original film from 1932.

00:36:44.659 --> 00:36:45.730
Which is for the best.

00:36:46.719 --> 00:37:03.929
Yes. And so in this version of the franchise, right, we have the mummy from 1999 followed by the mummy returns where the rock, uh, is introduced as the scorpion king. And then we have the mummy, colon tomb of the dragon emperor. And Alan, I know you have a lot to say about these films.

00:37:04.079 --> 00:37:06.809
Yeah. I can't believe you just steamrolled through all three like.

00:37:06.809 --> 00:37:11.130
This. Well, I just wanted to set up the, the, the, the scope of the franchise and then let you speak about each.

00:37:11.239 --> 00:37:14.239
One as if everyone doesn't already know this grandiose scope.

00:37:14.429 --> 00:37:16.400
Okay. There you go. Floor is yours.

00:37:16.860 --> 00:37:20.599
So, oh geez. I don't even know where to begin. Start at the beginning.

00:37:21.010 --> 00:37:35.750
First off, this is pro I it's interesting to rewatch, you know, movies from, from the nineties during like early CG, not early, early decent CG era. Right.

00:37:36.650 --> 00:37:45.480
And so this, this is very similar to like Titanic, but without Titanic's budget yet, the mommy has aged.

00:37:46.019 --> 00:37:50.710
So, so, well, I don't know the last time you've, you've all watched it.

00:37:51.570 --> 00:38:10.380
Uh, but we just did a rewatch for this, this episode and it just, it looks so good. They mix, they mix practical with CGI so seamlessly and like, yeah, there's definitely bits that are just pure CGI, like the giant sand head going through the desert. Right.

00:38:11.079 --> 00:38:13.260
But it just looks so good.

00:38:11.079 --> 00:38:13.260
And it's such a fun movie.

00:38:13.639 --> 00:38:20.659
Brenda Frazier is a national treasure agree. Uh, and it's, it's, it's a perfect action.

00:38:20.659 --> 00:38:23.900
Film as is Rachel Weiss, even though she's not American.

00:38:24.159 --> 00:38:37.059
And then they come back in the sequel and both of them come back in the sequel, which is great, but it doesn't capture the same grandiose scope.

00:38:37.059 --> 00:38:45.699
It felt the sequel felt like a classic case of studio of studio execs. Medling with plots.

00:38:46.480 --> 00:38:48.460
You had like, who's the real antagonist here.

00:38:48.460 --> 00:39:02.170
It should be Brendan Frazier or Rick O'Connell if you will, against the scorpion king, who just let's all take a quick note is billed as the rock, not Dwayne, the rock Johnson. He's just the rock.

00:39:02.280 --> 00:39:04.849
This is before he started using a real name.

00:39:05.289 --> 00:39:05.780
<Laugh>.

00:39:05.780 --> 00:39:09.489
Right. And I don't know. I don't know if this is his first foray into acting.

00:39:09.690 --> 00:39:10.523
I can't remember.

00:39:10.670 --> 00:39:12.480
No, he was this acting before this.

00:39:13.500 --> 00:39:24.260
I'm trying to remember what I'm trying to think of what he was, what he had done. I just remember like this smaller roles. This was like, he was like just popping up and him being in movies was such a novelty.

00:39:24.800 --> 00:39:27.179
He was in, uh, deep space nine before this.

00:39:28.159 --> 00:39:29.699
The rock was in deep space. Nine.

00:39:30.039 --> 00:39:31.489
No, sorry. Voyager.

00:39:32.090 --> 00:39:32.969
I don't remember that.

00:39:33.239 --> 00:39:40.309
Yeah. He was a, he was a fighter on a planet that had like battles like oh.

00:39:40.309 --> 00:39:49.320
Cool. Yeah. Yeah. As I don't remember that one. Yep. But yeah, regardless, it's, it's a little him in this role is a little bit silly. Also.

00:39:49.320 --> 00:39:57.849
This was before he had kind of like found his acting chops. Uh, and it's almost like watching early Schwartzenegger movies.

00:39:58.449 --> 00:40:01.250
<laugh> where it's just like, you know what? Just don't talk.

00:40:01.320 --> 00:40:10.719
Just stand there with your muscles. It's in, it's gonna print money. So yeah, this, but then the sequel is not just O'Connell versus the scorpion king.

00:40:10.829 --> 00:40:16.239
They bring back IMO tap for no other reason, except like, whoa, we have to have the villain from the first one.

00:40:16.659 --> 00:40:23.119
And no one's gonna watch this movie unless we have the bad guy from Titanic and they bring him back and just feels like too much is going on.

00:40:23.380 --> 00:40:25.719
Is it still a great movie?

00:40:23.380 --> 00:40:25.719
It still is a great movie.

00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:28.210
So I have a few thoughts. Yes.

00:40:28.309 --> 00:40:35.960
The first is that the money returns to me feels like Indiana Jones meets back to the future.

00:40:36.099 --> 00:40:39.760
It has like a much different vibe than the mummy from 1999.

00:40:40.380 --> 00:40:44.280
It, it does. And especially a back to the future sequel. Yes.

00:40:45.130 --> 00:40:56.780
The other thing I wanna say, and I'm not gonna put you on the spot here, but Alan has based D and D characters on Benny from the original mummy. And I just want the listeners to know that.

00:40:57.219 --> 00:40:58.739
<Laugh>, that's awesome.

00:40:59.219 --> 00:41:03.500
I will not confirm nor deny, but it's a hundred percent true. There you go.

00:41:03.690 --> 00:41:13.530
Yeah. Again, there's just like the, the movie is so fun and then you get to tomb of the dragon emperor, which is not an amazing movie.

00:41:14.420 --> 00:41:17.710
However, I love what they started to do with the series.

00:41:18.260 --> 00:41:33.880
They took it outta Egypt and they start just going to different pockets of the world. And we talked about this during the history portion, how, you know, mummies are from all around the world. So many, there's nothing inherently Egyptian about mummifying a corpse.

00:41:34.739 --> 00:41:43.199
And so in this case, you're talking about Chinese mummies. The, the biggest tragedy of this entire mummy series is that it doesn't continue.

00:41:43.659 --> 00:41:47.599
The third was kind of a box office flop because it was very expensive to make.

00:41:47.780 --> 00:42:21.380
It looks absolutely spectacular. It's tons of fun, but it doesn't capture the magic that the first one did, which is true to form. It's really hard to make a successful, a massively successful franchise that gets better and better. It's very, very rare, but the, the big tragedy is that it stopped because the next one, mummy four, which was supposed to be made just a, uh, a few years after to of the dragon emperor, uh, was supposed to start, was supposed to move, uh, down to south America.

00:42:21.960 --> 00:42:25.699
And it was gonna be Rick O'Connell battling Aztec mummies. Mm.

00:42:25.849 --> 00:42:38.530
That would've been so fricking cool. You know, I, I wanna see, I wanna see Brendan Fraser in the jungle climbing Ts fighting Jaguar zombies.

00:42:35.130 --> 00:42:39.969
Like, that'd be amazing. Why, why were we robbed of this?

00:42:46.179 --> 00:42:48.630
My name is Tom buck, and this is the enthusiasm project.

00:42:48.980 --> 00:43:02.869
Join me each week for deep dives, exploring the world of what it means to be an independent creator on YouTube, starting your own creative business and keeping a positive, enthusiastic mindset along the way new episodes of the enthusiasm project are available every Monday, wherever you get your podcast.

00:43:11.789 --> 00:43:16.943
I think you, you told me about that the first time that we talked about this,<laugh>, it's.

00:43:17.650 --> 00:43:19.190
His very big passion about.

00:43:19.409 --> 00:43:27.539
It takes up a lot of mental bandwidth. I it's, it's really just a tragedy that we don't get to see that let's be honest.

00:43:27.730 --> 00:43:34.219
It's probably not gonna happen. However, Brennan Frazier is now getting back into acting.

00:43:34.599 --> 00:43:35.432
So we can help.

00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:50.730
Um, he's got a new movie coming out very soon, which is very exciting. I just, I just did some promos for it indirectly, which is why I know anything about it. Uh, he plays, uh, the villain in the new bat girl movie.

00:43:51.110 --> 00:43:51.943
No kidding.

00:43:52.199 --> 00:43:53.369
Yeah. He plays Firefly.

00:43:53.789 --> 00:43:58.449
Oh, that's exciting. I'm really looking. I like Brendan Fraser a lot.

00:43:58.719 --> 00:44:01.530
Yeah. I was sad when he kind of left acting, but.

00:44:01.760 --> 00:44:15.679
Yeah, it, it was a sad moment for everybody, but he left for all the right reasons. Yes. So glad, but still very glad he's coming back. And who knows, maybe we will get to see him reprise his, his role as Rick O'Connell.

00:44:15.679 --> 00:44:18.679
Maybe if we write enough letters next up, right.

00:44:18.860 --> 00:44:21.909
We have the scorpion king series. Oh boy.

00:44:21.909 --> 00:44:35.679
Which is a spinoff from the mummy 1999. There was one theatrical release, four straight to VOD releases and an upcoming film that is still T B D um, about like where, or when it will be released.

00:44:36.539 --> 00:45:01.139
All of the films have been directed by different people, but only the first was written by Stephen Somers, who again, wrote and directed, uh, the mummy from 1999. We have the scorpion king from 2002, the scorpion king two rise of a warrior from 2008 scorpion king, three battle for redemption from 2012, the scorpion king four quest for power from 2015.

00:45:01.800 --> 00:45:07.719
And then the scorpion king book of souls from 2018 reboot TBD.

00:45:07.719 --> 00:45:09.010
Are they all Dwayne Johnson?

00:45:09.829 --> 00:45:11.610
No, only the first one.

00:45:11.949 --> 00:45:13.130
Oh, seriously.

00:45:13.719 --> 00:45:14.650
Seriously. Well.

00:45:14.650 --> 00:45:15.650
That's kind of disappointing.

00:45:16.269 --> 00:45:19.489
It is disappointing, but it's also a disappointing franchise.

00:45:20.280 --> 00:45:24.849
I've only seen the first one. And is it fun? Ye yes.

00:45:25.690 --> 00:45:34.880
J is it the rock being his former wrestler persona just in like ancient times? Absolutely.

00:45:36.039 --> 00:45:47.929
And I don't know, it's kind of a missed opportunity, you know, there's like, you know, a hot woman will go by and he'll do his little high, high eyebrow, you know? Oh, it's just like, I, I don't, I don't need that.

00:45:48.030 --> 00:46:07.440
I'm I'm here for your amazing acting chops. <laugh> I, you know, and also it's, we're, we're mentioning this cuz it star obviously, cuz the character started in a very legitimate mummy film, but there's no mummies at all. There, there none whatsoever in the franchise or, I mean, I've always seen the first one, but I'm making assumptions.

00:46:07.579 --> 00:46:22.440
If that's what you're looking for with a Dwayne Johnson film is like that setting and environment and plot, but not just the kind of almost comically dramatic wrestler persona.

00:46:23.179 --> 00:46:28.773
Have you seen Dwayne Johnson when he played uh Herles or Hercules?

00:46:29.019 --> 00:46:33.260
I did. I think that was the better version of that same movie.

00:46:33.800 --> 00:46:37.579
So I feel like that maybe yeah, like meets the criteria that you're looking for.

00:46:37.760 --> 00:46:42.530
Dwayne Johnson actually acting in and in a like ancient history.

00:46:43.469 --> 00:46:53.969
So fortunately he redeemed himself<laugh> or rather I by yes, by basically doing a very similar role with very subtly different backdrops <laugh>.

00:46:54.699 --> 00:46:55.532
Right.

00:46:55.670 --> 00:47:04.039
Uh, and it's yeah, that movie was a ton of fun and honestly that for, so again, it really is just the same idea.

00:47:04.300 --> 00:47:25.070
You have a mythic legend and this is like the man behind the legend for both of these franchises. But in Hercules, I thought that was like super cool. You know, they, they made him who was just a guy that is just like a really, really good warrior, not divinely blessed or anything or officially he's not, he's not wielding crazy powers.

00:47:25.070 --> 00:47:25.590
Well, yeah.

00:47:25.590 --> 00:47:30.239
I like the way that they kind of showed how the myths came from the reality in.

00:47:30.239 --> 00:47:31.719
That it's a very interesting take on it. Yeah.

00:47:31.739 --> 00:47:39.159
And certainly better acting than another early Arnold movie of Hercules in New York. <laugh>.

00:47:40.460 --> 00:47:42.760
Not to mention Ian McChain is in it too. So.

00:47:43.619 --> 00:47:44.630
Everybody wins.

00:47:45.070 --> 00:47:45.902
<Laugh>.

00:47:46.880 --> 00:47:50.289
End of course we have to round us out here.

00:47:50.710 --> 00:48:03.480
The mummy from 2017, this film stars, Tom cruise, and it was meant to kick off Universal's dark universe series a revisitation to the original universal monster movies.

00:48:03.980 --> 00:48:06.989
But unfortunately it's since been scraped.

00:48:07.780 --> 00:48:14.679
Tom cruise plays a us army Sergeant who accidentally uncovers the tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess.

00:48:15.750 --> 00:48:23.159
Even though the film brought in over 400 million, it's assumed the studio lost almost 100 million on the project.

00:48:24.070 --> 00:48:33.909
However, after the success of the invisible man film from 2020, there is renewed interest in the dark universe project and rumblings of a Dracula reboot.

00:48:34.630 --> 00:48:36.670
I really hope so. Me too, me too.

00:48:37.090 --> 00:48:42.909
The Tom cruise reboot star, Sophia Botella as a female version of emote, which is interesting.

00:48:43.369 --> 00:48:52.699
And in 2018 it was nominated in eight worst of categories at the golden raspberry awards with Tom cruise, winning worst actor for his work.

00:48:52.920 --> 00:48:57.139
That's where the whole episode should just end like Tom cruise won worst actor.

00:48:57.809 --> 00:48:59.500
Okay. Everybody. Thanks byebye.

00:49:00.130 --> 00:49:03.489
It's literally where my research ends. It's the last word that I wrote.

00:49:04.599 --> 00:49:09.559
It's a shame cuz that, that would've been first off.

00:49:09.559 --> 00:49:16.559
It's not a bad movie. Like if you're watching that movie on a plane, you're gonna love it.

00:49:14.099 --> 00:49:27.469
You know, you're just, you wanna just be entertained for a little bit. Great. You know, Tom cruise does make a pretty decent action movie, but it's also the biggest hindrance to the film was that it was Tom cruise.

00:49:28.369 --> 00:49:55.619
The only way that like the mission impossible series they get bigger and crazier and really, really over the top where you're watching it. And you're like, wow, I can't believe I actually just saw that this is not breaking any new grounds just because he's already put the bar so high. Um, and you're also mixing in like, people didn't even realize that this wasn't like more when it came out. So like what a bummer.

00:49:55.980 --> 00:49:59.570
I know you're expecting Brendan Fraser.

00:49:55.980 --> 00:49:59.570
You get Tom cruise. Are you kidding me?

00:49:59.750 --> 00:50:01.489
No. Get me out of the theater. Get me.

00:50:01.760 --> 00:50:06.130
Even close. Uh, female emote.

00:50:01.760 --> 00:50:08.610
That was cool. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it was just cast poorly.

00:50:09.250 --> 00:50:14.090
I feel like had they put in like Nicholas cage, bam.

00:50:14.119 --> 00:50:23.559
That would've been a very fun movie will defo another crazy fun movie, but no, Tom cruise is just a little too sterile for the movie.

00:50:24.099 --> 00:50:28.280
Bob, did you, have you seen a lot of the films that we about today or any of them?

00:50:28.860 --> 00:50:39.159
No. Like I'm, I'm really bad about having seen any of the like classic, uh, films. Mm it's just, it's not something that I've done a whole heck of a lot of.

00:50:39.699 --> 00:50:42.559
Um, you have seen 1990 nines, Brenda Frager the mummy.

00:50:42.559 --> 00:50:45.710
However, I mean, I've seen that. I can't remember if.

00:50:45.710 --> 00:50:47.230
I watch you really concerned for a second Bob.

00:50:47.670 --> 00:50:52.190
<Laugh> I can't remember if I watched the, uh, the scorpion king or not.

00:50:52.510 --> 00:50:59.269
I don't think so. If I did, I didn't pay much attention to it, but no, like don't have to watch it, all of those old Boris Carla movies and stuff.

00:50:59.269 --> 00:51:12.340
Like I really want to get back, take some time for a couple of years maybe, and just go back and watch a whole bunch of those. But no, I haven't seen much before, you know, the 1960s in film just in general.

00:51:13.429 --> 00:51:27.550
Fair enough. Yeah. I, I definitely would recommend, you know, it's definitely a rabbit hole, cuz again, with all these franchises, there's so many installments, but watching the originals, especially I think around like in the autumn around Halloween is, is like a pretty fun.

00:51:27.550 --> 00:51:35.309
And the good thing about a lot of early films is that they're fairly short, very rarely are they much over an hour. So it's easier to watch them.

00:51:35.739 --> 00:51:37.869
Like if you think of them kind of as a TV show.

00:51:39.230 --> 00:51:52.880
Ye yes. However, um, I am someone that really loves monster movies. You know, I'll take a creature feature over a like paranormal thriller any day.

00:51:53.920 --> 00:52:02.920
Uh, however, I was, so I was really excited cause I'd never seen classic mummy and, but when we watched it, it's not, it's not a monster movie at all.

00:52:03.429 --> 00:52:06.239
He's just kind of like a creepy aristocrat.

00:52:06.760 --> 00:52:09.239
I mean, he is a monster, but he doesn't appear to be.

00:52:09.469 --> 00:52:18.039
Yeah. But he speaks, well, he just, maybe he does his little hypnotized thing sometimes, you know <laugh> but he just like, he doesn't do anything monstrous.

00:52:18.590 --> 00:52:22.750
Yeah. He actually has very like relatable intentions.

00:52:23.570 --> 00:52:27.670
Um, I'm gonna let that one go that you find his intentions relatable. No, he.

00:52:27.670 --> 00:52:34.300
Like he, no, he's, he's trying to find, he finds this woman that he loves, um, tries.

00:52:34.300 --> 00:52:37.650
To kill her so, and mummify her so he can reincarnate her.

00:52:39.210 --> 00:52:44.139
Yeah. But it's in, it's complicated. It's complicated.

00:52:44.289 --> 00:52:57.929
It's all based. It's all based on true love. And he's kind all honestly, in a lot of these stories, the mummy is if you take a big step back and the fact that they're all like weird looking, the mummies are the victims of the story.

00:52:58.679 --> 00:53:11.130
They were brought back against their will into forced into a society that they don't understand. And they are, they come from a place of power of being in control.

00:53:11.829 --> 00:53:25.880
And so they are just trying to make the world into something that they understand now, oftentimes that gets Uh, but sometimes it's just him just trying to get the woman he loves.

00:53:25.880 --> 00:53:28.280
Back. I mean, it's a good point.

00:53:25.880 --> 00:53:28.280
It is a good point. There's.

00:53:28.360 --> 00:53:44.000
A couple things here. Like first of all, the whole like, well he is trying to, he's trying to kill a woman so that he can reincarnate her. I mean, that's not really any different than any of the stuff that we see in the WOL and, and, and vampire movies and stuff too.

00:53:44.030 --> 00:53:54.710
Like they they're trying to convert people that they care about in, into SIM like similar life forms to them Twilight.

00:53:54.719 --> 00:53:56.989
Right. I was gonna say, don't even get me started on Twilight.

00:53:57.190 --> 00:54:43.380
<Laugh> and then so I mean, like I, I see that through line and it's it's even though it's creepy and weird, it's like, it is understandable. Maybe I wouldn't use the term relatable, like a, but like understandable<laugh>. Um, but the other thing too, just kind of a, maybe devil's advocate or challenge point to what you're saying about the, against your will, part of the mummies, maybe I'm misunderstanding aspects of the beliefs behind the process, but like at least some of the things that I've read, it seems to be that they are preparing themselves so that they can be reincarnated at some point, or like there's some belief that that could be a possibility, not just an afterlife situation, but like actually that they could come back through sorcery.

00:54:44.260 --> 00:55:17.409
I mean, that's always, for that for me was always like what a weird plot point of the 1999 mummy. So right now, so you, in this case, emote is a priest who gets cursed, uh, to be a mum, right? So he's basically, he's just gonna live forever. Um, because he was so bad, he touched the priestess mm-hmm <affirmative>, uh, and like this guy who we hate, so so much, we're gonna give him this horrible, horrible, uh, punishment.

00:55:18.510 --> 00:55:23.730
But if he ever happens to get outta the box, we're also gonna give him all these crazy strong powers.

00:55:23.730 --> 00:55:24.849
So he can take over the world.

00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:30.010
That seems like a bit of an oversight from whoever did the magic spell. Yeah.

00:55:30.070 --> 00:55:32.409
You don't punish people by making them into superheroes.

00:55:32.929 --> 00:55:36.369
Hmm. Yeah. I mean, I think Bob's 0.2 is one.

00:55:36.369 --> 00:55:40.159
We probably should have touched on more in the last episode, but totally.

00:55:40.320 --> 00:55:52.300
I mean, I, I think it makes perfect sense that the, you know, belief in reincarnation is why you want in the afterlife, your body to appear as human or as, you know, as it did when you were alive, you know, as much as possible.

00:55:52.829 --> 00:56:25.119
Right. Cuz the, I, my understanding was the idea is that you preserve the body so that when you're, so that you can take your body with you into the afterlife, not so much it in as, as is, you know, it's kind of like how, if someone gets their eyes stabbed out in the, in the, uh, afterlife they're blind mm-hmm <affirmative>, you know, mm-hmm <affirmative> if you desecrate the corpse in that way. So, you know, this is, I don't think it's so much like they're trying to resurrect them on the mortal plane, but then that's what all these movies are.

00:56:25.190 --> 00:56:29.360
They're just kind of like using a loop of like, well they're preserved, so let's bring 'em back.

00:56:29.360 --> 00:56:32.519
Well, maybe we should fact check that and uh, we'll let you know next time.

00:56:32.900 --> 00:56:36.199
If we can get Brendan Frazier on the, on the oh.

00:56:36.199 --> 00:56:39.320
Yes. The Egyptian expert.

00:56:36.199 --> 00:56:39.320
Yeah. Brendan Fraser. Yeah.

00:56:39.389 --> 00:56:43.909
He's I mean, he has dealt with more money mummies than any of us.

00:56:44.179 --> 00:57:17.980
It's true. Well, I think now that we have come to the end of mummies and pop culture, and next week, of course we have a lot to look forward to with the return of lunatic library and some very awesome mum stories there. And of course, maybe a guest appearance, again from our friend, Bob, Don. Um, but Bob, to, to send us off, if you were going to tell the listeners to look up one of the mummy, you know, stories or books that you're familiar with, just in case they're interested in, we, we gave them so many.

00:57:18.349 --> 00:57:20.969
Which one do you think is like a really good starting point?

00:57:21.690 --> 00:57:37.599
I mean, I think, I think I, I keep going back to the lot number 2 49 by Arthur Conan Doyle. It's a, it's a relatively short read, but also it's just, if you want that universal mummy feel that's, that's the story that you're gonna get it with.

00:57:38.269 --> 00:57:46.880
Well, Bob, thank you so much for being here again. This, these episodes were like a really long time coming, so it's very exciting to finally have recorded them.

00:57:47.389 --> 00:57:53.880
It's a, it's a blast. I love coming on the show and it's, it's just nice to kind of, I don't know, this doesn't feel like work.

00:57:53.909 --> 00:57:56.230
It's just hanging out with my buddies.

00:57:56.739 --> 00:58:01.710
Yeah. That's how we feel too. It feels really good to be back recording again.

00:58:01.750 --> 00:58:08.469
I definitely miss it a lot more than I thought I was going to while we had taken a few weeks off. And again, everybody, please check out.

00:58:08.480 --> 00:58:21.860
Bob's short story hour in the hiddens podcasts. If you haven't yet somehow, and we'll be back next week with our final installment on the topic of mummies until then stay safe. Stay well, stay spooky.

00:58:21.860 --> 00:58:23.420
And we'll talk to you soon. Bye.

00:58:23.599 --> 00:58:24.432
Bye.

00:58:31.250 --> 00:58:32.230
Thanks for listening.

00:58:32.530 --> 00:58:39.420
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00:58:39.690 --> 00:58:43.019
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