Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is a 1955 horror comedy film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is the 28th and final Abbott and Costello film produced by Universal-International.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCharles Lamont
Produced byHoward Christie
Screenplay byJohn Grant
Story byLee Loeb
StarringBud Abbott
Lou Costello
Marie Windsor
Michael Ansara
Peggy King
Richard Deacon
Mel Welles
Music byJoseph Gershenson (supervisor)
Uncredited:
Irving Gertz
Henry Mancini
Lou Maury
Hans J. Salter
CinematographyGeorge Robinson
Edited byRussell Schoengarth
Distributed byUniversal-International
Release date
  • June 23, 1955 (1955-06-23) (U.S.)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$726,250[1]

Plot

Two Americans who are stranded in Cairo, Egypt, happen to overhear Dr. Gustav Zoomer discussing the mummy Klaris, the guardian of the Tomb of Princess Ara. Apparently the mummy has a sacred medallion that shows where the treasure of Princess Ara can be found. The followers of Klaris, led by Semu, overhear the conversation along with Madame Rontru, a businesswoman interested in stealing the treasure of Princess Ara.

Abbott and Costello go to the doctor's house to apply for the position to accompany the mummy back to America. However, two of Semu's men, Iben and Hetsut, murder the doctor and steal the mummy just before Abbott and Costello arrive. The medallion has been left behind, though, and is found by Abbott and Costello, who attempt to sell it. Rontru offers them $100, but Abbott suspects it is worth much more and asks for $5,000, which Rontru agrees to pay. She tells them to meet her at the Cairo Café, where Abbott and Costello learn from a waiter that the medallion is cursed. They frantically try to give it to one another (the Slipping the Mickey routine from The Naughty Nineties), until it winds up in Costello's hamburger and he swallows it. Rontru arrives and drags them to a doctor's office to get a look at the medallion under a fluoroscope. However, she cannot read the medallion's inscribed instructions, which are in hieroglyphics. Semu arrives, claiming to be an archaeologist, and offers to guide them all to the tomb. Meanwhile, Semu's followers have returned life to Klaris.

They arrive at the tomb, where Costello learns of Semu's plans to murder them all. Rontru captures Semu, and one of her men, Charlie, disguises himself as a mummy and enters the temple. Abbott follows suit by disguising himself as a mummy, and he and Costello rescue Semu. Eventually all three mummies are in the same place at the same time, and the dynamite that Rontru intends to use to dig up the treasure detonates, killing Klaris and revealing the treasure. Abbott and Costello convince Semu to turn the temple into a nightclub to preserve the legend of Klaris and the three criminals who wanted to steal the treasure are presumably arrested.

Cast
Lobby card

Cast notes

  • Lou Costello's daughter, Carole Costello, has a small part as a flower girl. She was 16 years old at the time.[2]

Production

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy was filmed from October 28 through November 24, 1954, and is the last film that Abbott and Costello made for Universal Pictures, although Universal released a compilation film of clips from their films, titled The World of Abbott and Costello in 1965. The day after filming completed, Abbott and Costello arrived in New York City to ride on the first float of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.[3]

Although Abbott and Costello were called "Pete Patterson" and "Freddie Franklin" in the script and in the closing credits, they used their real names onscreen during filming.

In Universal's previous Mummy films, the Mummy was called "Kharis", but in this film it is called "Klaris." Stuntman Eddie Parker (billed as "Edwin") played the mummy. He had previously doubled Lon Chaney, Jr. in Universal's earlier Mummy films.

Home media

This film has been released several times on DVD. Originally released as a single DVD on August 28, 2001, it was released twice as part of two different Abbott and Costello collections, The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Four, on October 4, 2005, and again on October 28, 2008, as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection. The film was released as part of the 3-disc The Mummy: The Complete Legacy Collection and the 21-disc Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection on September 2, 2014.

Merchandise

The design for the Mummy figure in the 1986 Universal-licensed Classic Movie Monsters series from Imperial Toys was based on the monster from this film.[4]

See also

References
Notes
  1. Furmanek, Bob; Palumbo, Ron (1991). Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0 p 251
  2. Carole Costello at IMDb
  3. Furmanek, Bob; Palumbo, Ron (1991). Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0
  4. "Spotlight On: Imperial Universal Studios Mummy Figure". 9 October 2011.
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