just watch it!

Great Film overall

A different way of telling a story

The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

I never expected to see a horror film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and, while this has been touted as such and is even listed in genre-related books, it's nothing of the kind…and that makes it doubly disappointing for an all-round film-fan like myself! Actually, I've seen little of the director's work made in Germany (which includes only one major title, MADAME DUBARRY [1919], also starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings) and none of his American Silents – which means that, to me, Lubitsch has always been a master of the Talkie medium, so, bear than in mind…Anyway, the title is indeed incidental to the main plot which, once again, concerns the vicissitudes of a romantic triangle (Jannings, Negri and Harry Liedtke) which can only end in tragedy. Jannings and Negri are Egyptians involved in a scam milking tourists out of their money, by having the girl lend her eyes to the "mummy" from inside an empty sarcophagus! When a British lord and adventurer comes to visit, she falls in love and leaves with him to England. Needless to say, Jannings – who, naturally, has feelings for Negri himself – follows them (conveniently in the employ of another English aristocrat and friend to Liedtke) in order to exact his revenge. While the plot offers no surprises (except, maybe, the fact that Jannings has a Svengali-like hold on Negri), it's also rather ordinarily handled; indeed, here one finds scarcely any evidence of the much-renowned "Lubitsch" touch!To be fair to the film, the famed Curse of King Tut's Tomb hadn't yet taken place (that was in 1921) – so, in all probability, the film was never intended as a horror film at all. Anyway, Jannings – who's always worth watching in a larger-than-life manner – is the best thing about the entire film…but the melodramatic acting of Negri, a great star of the period, has dated badly and, indeed, she seems to do little throughout but faint!! As a matter of fact, as a means of amusing myself to counter the tedium of the film itself, as I was watching I imagined the actress discussing the shooting schedule with her director:Negri: "What's on the schedule for today, Ernst?" Lubitsch: "You faint!"The next day.Negri: "What's on the schedule for today, Ernst?" Lubitsch: "You faint!" Negri: "Oh…"The next day.Negri: "Er--Ernst, do I get to faint today as well, by any chance?" Lubitsch: "Er…I'm afraid so!"

As a piece of movie entertainment, Eyes of the Mummy is dated and unremarkable seen through current standards. There are a few nicely nightmarish moments (especially a scene when Ma sees Radu in the mirror while nobody else seems to notice) but overall, this is no Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.On the other hand, fans of cartoonist/writer Edward Gorey will be richly rewarded by a film that appears to have been designed and directed by the illustrator of "The Gilded Bat" and "The Blue Aspic." The effect is uncanny and curiously involving. It's not just the melodramatic subject matter...every detail has the Gorey touch. One almost imagines the hand-drawn texture lines. Any Gorey fan will find Eyes of the Mummy to be well worth the time spent.

... but a tragedy... of sorts. The "Eyes Of The Mummy" refer to the eye-holes in a doorway with a face on it that Pola Negri looks out of to scare people out of the temple of Queen Ma. There is no mummy, there is no monster, there really is no horror. This is not a complaint, but this movie is often grouped in with monster movies merely because of it's title. It's easy to laugh at a film almost 85 years old, your grand kids and great grand kids will laugh at what you currently enjoy as well. The dance that Pola does may look strange to our eyes, but the desired effect was to be exotic. The acting is typically broad and melodramatic, appropriate to it's time. With the deterioration of many silent movies, we can sometimes be thankful that the actors seemed to be overacting, we can still see their expressions even when their films are fading away. Not Pola Negri's best work, or her worst. There must be a few different cuts of this film circulating. The one I saw was about an hour and ten minutes long, not the half-hour reported here or the forty-five minutes reported on the main page for this movie. I rather enjoyed the version I saw, maybe the shorter cuts leave too much out to fill the story out. Recommended if you enjoy the genre and it's stars. If you are looking for Halloween fare, stick with Universal's later horror classics, including..yes, the "real" mummy movies.

This 1918 film directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch is alleged to be the first mummy horror film although there is a claim of a lost 1905 film. The only problem is that except for the title there is no mummy! The plot, well here goes. An art student in Egypt goes to an Egyptian tomb to find Ma who may possibly be Pola Negri. I say possibly because the player of the lead character is NOT identified in the credits. Ma is being held as a slave by an Arab (beautifully over acted by Emil Jannings) who is beaten up by the student who then liberates Ma and takes her back to Germany. The Arab nearly dies in the desert but is rescued by a German prince to whom he swears to serve for life. He, the Arab, is then also taken to Germany. Ma in the meantime wows them with a hootchie kootchie dance at a party and gets a theatrical contract to perform on stage. The exotic dance is a hoot. Meanwhile Ma's former Arab master comes across her and in a fit of revenge kills her. The end and all in 30 minutes and no mummy. The overacting in terms of gestures common to silent films of the period is quite present. Jannings, in semi black face, is quite effective as the villain. His repertoire of sinister facial expressions is quite large. All in all the film is an historical curiosity that I am sure Lubitsch and Negri tried to forget when they became more well known.