LA MOMIE SANGLANTE

This ain’t no hideous corpse in white bandages!

After relics are taken from a sorceress’ tomb in Egypt, she is somehow reincarnated in London (Valerie Leon) in order to get the artifacts back and worse. Andrew Keir and James Villiers play archeologists while Mark Edwards appears as the woman’s cool beau.

“Blood from the Mummy's Tomb” (1971) is the fourth and final Mummy film by Hammer, after “The Mummy” (1959), “The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb” (1964) and “The Mummy’s Shroud” (1967). While they all have similar plots, each can be enjoyed as a standalone movie and I prefer this one to the overrated first one, which overdid it with the dull Egyptian rituals and citations of sacred scrolls, amongst a couple other flaws.

The highlight of “Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb” is statuesque Valerie Leon, whose voice was dubbed by actress Olive Gregg. There’s a sense of artistry to the filmmaking, which I appreciate. But the story is kind of viewer-unfriendly in the first act due to jumping around to different time frames with little indication, yet everything is eventually explained so no worries.

Peter Cushing originally played Keir’s role, but had to leave the production after a day’s shooting to attend to his deathly ill wife. Meanwhile director Seth Holt died suddenly due to heart failure five weeks into production with only a few days left; he was only 47 years-old. Michael Carreras finished the job uncredited.

The idea of the Egyptian mummy being a beautiful woman was quite original at the time. Of course Tom Cruise & Co. took the idea to forge 2017’s “The Mummy,” which is all-around more entertaining. But this one ain’t no slouch if you don’t mind the limitations of the time period and Hammer-esque films (Amicus, Tigon, AIP, etc.).

The film runs 1 hour, 34 minutes, and was shot at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, just northwest of London.

GRADE: B-