It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Copyright 1955 by Universal-International. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: June 1955. U.K. release: July 1955. Australian release: 17 November 1955. Sydney opening at the Lyceum as the lower half of a double bill with Foxfire. 79 minutes. Cut to 63 minutes in Australia. Alternative title: Meet the Mummy.SYNOPSIS: Abbott and Costello play two Americans who are stranded in Egypt. They hope to return home with an archaeologist. But he is murdered by members of a secret society. NOTES: The last of the twenty-nine pictures Abbott and Costello made for Universal. A studio press release notes that for their first movie, One Night in the Tropics (1940), the comedians were each paid $8,750. This had now increased to $100,000 each, plus a 25% each share of the profits. The studio felt that Abbott and Costello's popularity was now on the wane and that a 50% share of dwindling profits was no longer worth the trouble of keeping the comics on the payroll. Accordingly, their contract was dissolved-a move the studio was later to bitterly regret. Although MCA will not disclose actual figures, it is estimated that the corporation has grossed more than $60 million over the years for licensing A&C movies to domestic television alone. In other words, more than $2 million per film.COMMENT: Entertaining A&C comedy, but not one of their best! Charles Lamont's direction hovers around the routine mark, John Grant's screenplay often amounts to self-plagiarism and producer Howard Christies's budget is not as lavish as usual), but the boys are still happily in good form and they receive adequate support (though Richard Deacon is sadly miscast as the High Priest). Attractive photography by ace cameraman George Robinson proves another big asset.OTHER VIEWS: Abbott and Costello signed off from Universal in reasonable style with some typical verbal and slapstick routines in a fairly well produced, atmospherically photographed and competently directed vehicle that cleverly combined laughs with screams in line with many of their earlier successes. A great support cast helped too. Needless to say, Messrs A&C come across as delightfully incompetent boobs. However, Bud Abbott, the perennial straight guy, looks as if the wealth he's accumulated over his past thirty-plus pictures, has all gone to his stomach. He'll have to watch out or he'll soon be mistaken for his chubby partner. In the supporting cast, villainess Marie Windsor proves quite effective; but singer Peggy King seems to lack vocal power.Summing up: Satisfyingly shuddersome.

The Mummy looks like he's wearing an unpressed pair of baggy pajamas. He hobbles around and growls a bit. Very poor mummy make-up. Maybe this was done on purpose, as it seems to be more of an A&C "chase and pratfall" comedy than a monster movie! (Most critics complained the "Jekyll and Hyde" film was too scary.) Other than that, it's almost the last film made for Universal that spanned more than 14 years.A bunch of really tired comedy routines and gags. Only "A&C Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff" is worse. It kind of plays like a cheap Three Stooges "short" in a haunted house! Silly "exotic" dancing and singing. Costello, as always, is pursued by the pretty female villain. Tacky sets (nice marble floors) and a very fake-looking indoor dessert backdrop. Only the last 15 minutes are memorable, with three "Mummys" prancing around and secret passageways everywhere. The running gag is an animated and flying bat and of course a disappearing corpse. Lou eats "the cursed medallion of Klaris" and, after the dynamite explodes, the memory of the now-blown up mummy is celebrated at the night club "Club Klaris" with a mummy-costumed jazz band. How stupid! (Sadly, Lou Costello died four years later from his life-long heart condition and his ongoing weight problem.) I loved this stuff as a kid. In the 1950's it ran for a mere quarter (or a Mars candy wrapper) at a Saturday morning movie matinée! Note: Richard Deacon is best remembered as Lumpy's Dad on "Leave it to Beaver"! His role as the "Egyptian Priest" is beyond terrible!

Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy is less of a movie then an episode of the Abbott and Costello show. Marjorie Windsor is a terrifically determined villainess and she helps to give the movie some drama and dark charisma but the movie is too unstructured otherwise. It's more on a final, undisciplined romp for Abbott and Costello. Even though their chemistry is long since gone, they are still brilliant comedians and they fake their way through the movie with a plethora of stand up bits. The good, clean comedy is a nice breath of fresh air. The opening slapstick gets the movie off on a good foot and the stage act (three women and one man) that performs is INCREDIBLE. The cult of Klaris is a major bore, ranging from the incredibly non-Egyptian "Egyptian" Richard Deacon to the cult, itself, that features a man who is clearly either Tibetan or Chinese. The routine that Costello does with the lady is hilarious and high spirted and the bit with the amulet is well timed. The plot point of Costello eating the amulet (in pieces) and then it appearing intact in his stomach is meaningless here as the whole movie is not for purists. The mummy is a major disappointment as the "bandages" look like a pajama outfit with a bandage pattern. Abbott gets into mummy's "wraps" for pretty much no reason other then to have three mummy's running around at one point. As if sensing that this is their last big blowout together, Costello is very natural with his criticisms of Abbott and Abbott seems almost too real with his abuse of Costello. Whatever dysfunction they had in their later years, they do their best here to slug it out. Costello acts like a man ready to jump off ship and he seems to be lightening his load for his journey. He gives a very light and a very funny performance. Abbott is sharper then he has been in years. Abbott was so sharp in his younger days that he looks bad in comparison here but his worst is still better then most people's best. The plot is pretty much garbage and unenthralling and the mummy is completely impotent but the performances of Abbott and Costello and Marie Windsor help move the show.

Peter Patterson and Freddie Franklin are Americans travelling across Egypt. When they go to visit archaeologist Dr Zoomer to get a job, they find him murdered and, in trying to disentangle themselves from the crime, they end up getting deeper than they expected. In possession of a medallion, Peter and Freddie end up pursued by an Egypian cult who wish to protect the undead Mummy to which it belongs, but somehow Freddie cannot do anything without getting into more and more trouble.In revisiting the old Abbott and Costello films of my youth, I have discovered that their films do have noticeable periods where the quality is distinctly lower than when they were at their best – even fans will acknowledge this. Seeing that Mummy was made in the mid-50's suggested to me that perhaps this was going to be one such film – perhaps rushed out with the stars not really having the energy, commitment, chemistry or timing that they once had. The return to "meeting monsters" was also a worry as it made me think that the pair were perhaps returning to an old vein hoping that that in itself would make things work again. I'm not sure how much if any validity these worries had but the film does actually stand up as an enjoyable film of theirs. The plot is more or less clear from the title of the film but it does a solid enough job of providing a structure to the film and from there it depends what they manage to fill it with outside of narrative.The good news for fans here is that the two stars actually appear to have a certain amount of chemistry together and also have several good routines. Abbott is good and, as others have suggested their is a certain edge to his harshness that may have roots away from the scripted lines, while Costello does well with his usual double-takes and playing up his "baby-faced" personae. The supporting cast are solid enough to provide a plot but not particularly memorable beyond that – although I did like a performance from Peggy King at one point.Overall this is a brisk and amusing film that has a good number of fun routines and the stars appearing that they are actually putting effort into it beyond just showing up. A solid A&C film despite the late stage it was made.