Ardath Bey

Boris Karloff as Ardath Bey from Karl Freund's "The Mummy."

This is a re-do for me, the original version just didn't cut it for me...

Mummy trivia:

'Ardath Bey' (the name Imhotep assumes after his exhumation) is an anagram of 'Death by Ra' (Ra is the Egyptian sun-god).

Boris Karloff mummy makeup is based on the appearance of Ramses III; makeup artist 'Jack P. Pierce' spent eight hours applying Karloff's makeup.

The ring Boris Karloff uses has been in the possession of Forrest J Ackerman for many decades (he wears it).

This was the first assignment in the director's chair for the noted German cinematographer Karl Freund. He was given this opportunity only two years after arriving in the United States.

Boris Karloff was virtually unknown when he appeared as the creature in Frankenstein (1931). He created such a sensation that when this was made, only a year later, Universal only had to advertise "KARLOFF....'The Mummy'."

This is the only Universal monster of the time without a fictional antecedent. Large segments of the movie are scene-by-scene parallels of the movie Dracula (1931). An ankh symbol (the ancient Egyptian glyph for "life") is substituted for the crucifix of the earlier movie.

The script for this movie was originally called "Cagliostro", based on the famous French "prophet"/charlatan who claimed that he had lived for several centuries. It was then rewritten to profit from the love of all things Egyptian since the finding of King Tut's tomb, re-titled "Im-Ho-Tep", and only became "The Mummy" just before general release.

The flashback scenes in ancient Egypt were designed to resemble a silent film, with no dialog, exaggerated make-up and gestures, and a faster camera speed, to suggest the great antiquity of the events portrayed.


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