The Eyes of the Mummy
About The Eyes of the Mummy
Painter Albert Wendland travels to a desert tomb said to drive visitors mad. Radu shows him a coffin whose eyes open. The lid hides a cell, and inside is Ma, held by Radu's hypnotic hold. Wendland gets her out, takes her to Europe, and marries her. She dances on the vaudeville stage. Radu, now a servant of Prince Hohenfels, hypnotizes her from the audience, later stabs Wendland's portrait of her, and kills her in the house before turning the knife on himself.
Cast & crew
More about The Eyes of the Mummy
Ernst Lubitsch directed. Hanns Kräly and Emil Rameau wrote it. Paul Davidson produced it for PAGU. UFA opened it on October 3, 1918, at the Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz in Berlin. Theodor Sparkuhl and Alfred Hansen photographed it. Paramount released it in the United States on June 25, 1922, as The Eyes of the Mummy.
Themes
Look
Theodor Sparkuhl and Alfred Hansen photographed the film. The tomb sequence is a dark room, a coffin, and a cell behind the lid.
Preservation
A digital restoration was screened on Turner Classic Movies on October 6, 2002. Grapevine Video issued it on home video that October. Alpha Video released a DVD on March 28, 2006. In 2011 Bright Shining City Productions included it in the three-DVD set Pola Negri: The Iconic Collection.
Notes
- Pola Negri plays Ma. Emil Jannings plays Radu. Harry Liedtke plays Albert Wendland. Max Laurence plays Prince Hohenfels. Margarete Kupfer is also in the cast.
- The German title is Die Augen der Mumie Ma. Ma is the living woman, not the queen in the tomb.
- It is the first film Lubitsch and Negri made together. They next made Carmen (1918), Madame Dubarry (1919), and Sumurun (1920).
- A digital restoration by a national film archive was first shown on Turner Classic Movies on October 6, 2002.
Scenes
- The eyes open behind the coffin in the tomb of Queen Ma.
- Wendland finds Ma locked in the room behind the lid.
- Radu hypnotizes Ma from across a vaudeville house and she faints on stage.
- Radu stabs the painted portrait, then kills Ma and himself.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-eyes-of-the-mummy)
- Alpha Video DVD (2006)
- Grapevine Video (2002)
- Pola Negri: The Iconic Collection, Bright Shining City Productions (2011)
