Blood From the Mummy's Tomb (1971)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1971
Running Times: 94 mins
Format: Technicolor
Ratio:
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Hammer / Anglo EMI
Producer: Howard Brandy
Production Manager: Christopher Neame
Production Supervisor: Roy Skeggs

SCRIPT
Script: Christopher Wicking
Novel: Jewel of the Seven Stars by Bram Stoker

DIRECTION
Director: Seth Holt, Michael Carreras
Assistant Director: Derek Whitehurst

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Arthur Grant
Camera Operator: Neil Binney

EDITING
Editor: Peter Weatherly

MUSIC
Musical Supervisor: Philip Martell
Music: Tristram Cary

SOUND
Recording Director: Tony Lumkin
Sound Recordist: Tony Dawe
Sound Editor: Roy Hyde
Dubbing Mixer: Dennis Whitlock
Sound System: RCA Sound System

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Make Up Supervisor: Eddie Knight
Hair Supervisor: Ivy Emmerton
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rosemary Burrows
Wardrobe Mistress: Diane Jones

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Michael Collins

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Scott McGregor
Assistant Art Director: Don Picton
Construction Manager: Bill Greene

OTHER CREW
Continuity: Betty Harley

LOCATIONS
Locations: EMI/MGM Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, England, UK

CAST
Andrew Keir (Professor Julian Fuchs)
Valerie Leon (Margaret/Queen Tera)
James Villiers (Corbeck)
Hugh Burden (Danbridge)
George Coulouris (Berigan)
Mark Edwards (Tod Browning)
Rosalie Crutchley (Helen Dickerson)
Aubrey Morris (Dr Putnam)
David Markham (Doctor Burgess)
Joan Young (Mrs Caporal)
James Cossins (older male nurse)
David Jackson (young male nurse)
Jonathan Burn (Saturnine young man)
Graham James (youth in museum)
Tamara Ustinov (Veronica)
Penelope Holt, Angela Ginders (nurses)
Tex Fuller (patient)
Madina Luis, Omar Amoodi, Abdul Kader, Oscar Charles, Ahmed Osman, Soltan Lalani, Saad Ghazi (priests)
Sunbronze Danny Boy (Tod's cat - uncredited)

STAND-INS
Sarah Mathiesen (for Valerie Leon)

PLOT SUMMARY

An obssessed Egyptologist desecrates the tomb of Queen Tera, discovering the mummified remains at precisely the moment his wife dies in childbirth. Many years later, daughter Margaret, a dead ringer for Tera, is given a ring taken from Tera's disembodied hand and becomes possessed by the dead queen's malevolent spirit. As members of the doomed expedition start to die, Margaret / Tera reassembles the relics stolen from her tomb and prepares for her rebirth.

CAPSULE REVIEW

A noble attempt by Hammer and one of the British genre's best 70s screenwriters to reinterprete the myth of the mummy without all the cliched baggage usually associated with the sub-genre. Despite a wooden central performance from Leon, the film is full of supernatural menace and tension and is one of the better latter-day Hammers.

UK
Theatrical Distributor: MGM-EMI
Video Distributor: Thorn-EMI; Lumiere

USA
Theatrical Distributor: AIP
Video Distributor: Thorn-EMI

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: X

USA
Rating: PG

1971
October
7: UK - theatrical release

1972
May
Day Unknown: USA - theatrical release

1973
October
1: Sweden - theatrical release

1998
December
5: UK - television broadcast (on Channel Four)

2000
June
18: UK - television broadcast (on Channel Four)

2002
February
8: UK - television broadcast (on Carlton Cinema)

June
6: UK - television broadcast (on Carlton Cinema)

November
1: UK - television broadcast (on Carlton Cinema)

2003
February
2: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)
23: UK - television broadcast (on S4C)

2005
March
31: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)

April
4: UK - television broadcast (on S4C)

A severed hand beckons from an open grave!

Blod från mumiens grav - Swedish title
Bloed uit de Grafkelder - Dutch title
Exorcismus - Cleo, la dea dell'amore - Italian title
Das Grab der blutigen Mumie - German title
Sangre en la tumba de la momia - Spanish title
O Túmulo de Sangue - Portugese title

REMAKES
The Awakening (1980)
Legend of the Mummy (1997)

MAGAZINES

Dark Terrors 11 p.47 (UK)
review

Filmfacts vol.15 (1972) pp.146-148 (USA)
reprinted reviews

Films and Filming vol.18 no.4 (January 1972) p.62 (UK)
credits, review

Flesh and Blood 2 pp.27-28 (UK)
illustrated review, credits

The House That Hammer Built no.8 (April 1998) pp.411-413 (UK)
illustrated credits, synopsis, review

Kine Weekly no.3300 (9 January 1971) p.12 (UK)
credits

Little Shoppe of Horrors 12 p.36 (USA)
note

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.38 no.454 (November 1971) p.216 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review

Today's Cinema no.9873 (19 January 1971) p.8 (UK)
credits

Today's Cinema no.9948 (15 October 1971) p.9 (UK)
review

Variety 3 September 1986 p.114 (USA)
note

Variety 27 October 1971 p.18 (USA)
review

Video Junkie 1 p.22 (USA)
review

BOOKS

Hammer House of Horror p.159
article

The Hammer Story p.176
illustrated review

Hoffman's Guide to Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 pp.48-49
credits, review

Reference Guide to Fantastic Films by Walt Lee p.41 (Los Angeles: Chelsea-Lee Books (1972 - 1974))
credits

book into film, egyptology, queens, reincarnation, royalty

Last Updated: 20 October, 2008