UK, 1971
94m
35mm film, Technicolor
mono, English
A British horror film directed by Seth Holt and Michael Carreras, who took over when Holt collapsed on set and died of a heart attack five weeks into the shoot. Peter Cushing was originally cast in the lead role but left after only one day’s filming when his wife was diagnosed with emphysema. It was the fourth of Hammer Film Productions’ mummy films though it was otherwise unrelated to the other films in the series and barely features a mummy at all.
Plot Summary
An obsessed 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.
Credits
* = uncredited
Crew
Directed by: Seth Holt; Michael Carreras *
© MCMLXXI [1971] Hammer Film Productions Limited
A Hammer production
Produced by: Howard Brandy
Production Manager: Christopher Neame
Production Supervisor: Roy Skeggs
Screenplay by: Christopher Wicking
Based on the novel Jewel of the Seven Stars by Bram Stoker
2nd Unit Director: Christopher Neame *
Assistant Director: Derek Whitehurst
2nd Assistant Director: Lindsey C. Vickers *
3rd Assistant Director: Michael Murray *
Continuity: Betty Harley
Director of Photography: Arthur Grant
Camera Operator: Neil Binney
Focus Puller: Bob Jordan *
Clapper/Loader: Roddy Barron *
Grip: Peter Woods *
Electrical Supervisor: Sid Wainwright *
Chargehand Electrician: Jack Collins *
Still Photographers: Ronnie Pilgrim *, John Jay *
Editor: Peter Weatherly
1st Assistant Editor: Ean Wood *
2nd Assistant Editor: Barry Pattison *
Assistant Editor: Sue Collins *
Music Composed by: Tristram Cary
Musical Supervisor: Philip Martell
Sound Recordist: Tony Dawe
Boom Operator: Mike Silverlock *
Sound Camera Operator: Jack Harris *
Sound Maintenance: Danny Grimmel *
Sound Editor: Roy Hyde
Recording Director: Tony Lumkin [real name: A.W. Lumkin]
Dubbing Mixer: Dennis Whitlock
RCA Sound System
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rosemary Burrows
Wardrobe Mistress: Diane Jones
Make-Up Supervisor: Eddie Knight
Assistant Make-up: Peter Robb-King *
Hairdressing Supervisor: Ivy Emmerton
Special Effects: Michael Collins
Designer: Scott McGregor
Assistant Art Director: Don Picton
Production Buyer: E.G. Rodgrigo *
Props: Wally Hockings *
Standby Props: Joe Dipple *
Chargehand Dressing Props: Johnny Whatling *, Brian Wheeler *
Standby Carpenter: P. Engel *
Standby Painter: W. McCarthy *
Draughtsman: Anthony Baines *
Construction Manager: Bill Greene
Scenic Artists: Bill Beavis *, Yvonne Delaney *
Stagehand: G. Taylor *
Production Accountant: Ken Gordon *
Assistant Production Accountant: Stuart King *
Producer’s Secretary: Christina Every
Runners: Phil Campbell *, Bryan Reynolds *
Print Boy: Jimmy Carreras *
Publicity: Hugh Samson *
Poster: Mike Vaughan *
Drivers: George Wright *, Brian Stack *
Made at: EMI/MGM Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, England
Stand-in for Valerie Leon: Sarah Mathiesen *
Stand-in for James Villiers: Ed McMullen *
Stunt Double for Aubrey Moris: Colin Skeaping *
Casting: James Liggatt *
Cast
Andrew Keir ([Professor Julian] Fuchs)
Valerie Leon (Margaret/[Queen] Tera)
James Villiers (Corbeck)
Hugh Burden (Danbridge)
George Coulouris (Berigan)
Aubrey Morris (Doctor Putnam)
Rosalie Crutchley (Helen Dickerson)
Joan Young (Mrs Caporal)
David Markham (Doctor Burgess)
James Cossins (older male nurse)
Jonathan Burn (Saturnine young man)
Mark Edwards (Tod Browning)
David Jackson (young male nurse)
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)
Harry Fielder [local man] *
Olive Gregg [voice of Margaret] *
Cast Gallery
Alternative Titles
Blod från mumiens grav – Sweden
Bloed uit de Grafkelder – Netherlands
Exorcismus – Cleo, la dea dell’amore – Italy
Das Grab der blutigen Mumie – Germany
Sangre en la tumba de la momia – Spain
O Túmulo de Sangue – Portugal
Links
See also
The Awakening (1980)
Legend of the Mummy (1997)
Extracts included in
The World of Hammer: Lands Before Time (1994)
The World of Hammer: Mummies, Werewolves & the Living Dead (1994)
Production Notes
Release
The film had its world world premiere at the National Film Theatre in London on 7 October 1971, the same date it was shown to the press Metro House. Four days later it was registered at the Department of Trade and Industry, number BR/E 35735/16/10/76 before getting its US release in May 1972.
Press
1971
Today’s Cinema no.9948 (15 October 1971) p.9
This is the real thing, satisfyingly devoid of a contrived happy ending or nambypamby explanations that Tera’s power is only a mass hypnosis brought on by the power of auto-suggestion. It is the audience that succumbs to mass hypnosis as Seth Holt performs the Indian Rope Trick of convincing us that we have seen more ghastly sights than we actually have. Throats torn out there are a-plenty, but they remain on the screen scarcely longer than it takes to blink. The authentic horror lies in the inexorably mounting tension as the plot unfolds, in scenes where the power of evil manifests itself as a malevolent poltergeist, and in the reflection of terror we see in the eyes of the victims.
1984
Radio Times 22 December 1984-4 January 1985 p.29
Clotted but fascinating Hammer attempt to shake the mould from a cheesy genre – from a review by Geoff Brown
References
Periodicals
- Castle of Frankenstein no.19 p.24
- Cinema of the ’70s no.1 (2020) pp.49-68 – illustrated article (Straight on till ’79: A decade of Hammer horror by Ian Taylor)
- The Dark Side no.206 (2019) pp.42-48 – illustrated article (The Wicking man by Christopher Koetting)
- The Dark Side no.268 pp.26-32 – illustrated article (The son also rises by Simon J. Ballard)
- Dark Terrors no.11 p.47 – review
- Filmfacts vol.15 (1972) pp.146-148 – reprinted reviews
- Films and Filming vol.18 no.4 (January 1972) p.62 – credits, review
- Flesh and Blood no.2 pp.27-28 – illustrated review, credits
- Hammer Complete: The films, the Personnel, the Company by Howard Maxford pp.59-63 – illustrated credits, synopsis, review
- The House That Hammer Built no.8 (April 1998) pp.411-413 – illustrated credits, synopsis, review
- Kine Weekly no.3300 (9 January 1971) p.12 – credits
- Little Shoppe of Horrors 12 p.36 – note
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.38 no.454 (November 1971) p.216 – credits, synopsis, review
- Radio Times 22 December 1984-4 January 1985 pp.29; 36 – review (by Geoff Brown); credits
- Shivers no.69 (September 1999) pp.34-38 – illustrated article (by Jonathan Rigby)
- Today’s Cinema no.9873 (19 January 1971) p.8 – credits
- Today’s Cinema no.9940 (17 September 1971) p.2 – illustrated note (Mummy was never like this)
- Today’s Cinema no.9948 (15 October 1971) p.9 – review
- Today’s Cinema no.9942 (24 September 1971) p.11 – note (Trade shows); note (Tribute to Hammer)
- Today’s Cinema no.9948 (15 October 1971) p.9 – credits, review (by Marjorie Bilbow)
- Today’s Cinema no.9952 (29 October 1971) p.15 – Department of Trade and Industry registration details
- Variety 3 September 1986 p.114 – note
- Variety 27 October 1971 p.18 – review
- Video Junkie no.1 p.22 – review
Books
- 1971: 100 Films from Cinema’s Greatest Year by Robert Sellers pp.198-200 – review
- American International Pictures: A Comprehensive Filmography by Rob Craig pp.67-68
- American International Pictures: A Filmography by Robert L. Ottoson p.205-206 – credits, synopsis, review
- The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror by Phil Hardy (ed.) p.228-229
- British Gothic Cinema by Barry Forshaw p.201
- A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series by Ken Hanke pp.211-212; 213
- English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby pp.15, 163, 210-12, 211, 217, 249, 262, 9
- Euro Gothic: Classics of Continental Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby pp.337
- Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures by Mark Thomas McGee p.303
- Film Review 1972-73 by F. Maurice Speed (ed) p.214
- Hammer Films: The Elstree Studio Years by Wayne Kinsey pp.240-256; 280-281
- Hammer House of Horror p.159 – article
- The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films by Marcus Hearn & Alan Barnes 144-145; 176 – illustrated review
- The Hammer Vault by Marcus Hearn pp.132-133
- Hoffman’s Guide to Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991-1992 pp.48-49 – credits, review
- Horror and Science Fiction Films II by Donald C. Willis p.38
- Horrorshows: The A-Z of Horror in Film, TV, Radio and Theatre by Gene Wright p.204 – illustrated credits, review
- The Mummy on Screen: Orientalism and Monstrosity in Horror Cinema by Basil Glynn pp.8, 9, 51, 143, 159
- Reference Guide to Fantastic Films by Walt Lee p.41 – credits
- Satan in the Celluloid: 100 Satanic and Occult Horror Movies of the 1970s by P.J. Thorndyke pp.276-278
- Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Film Sequels, Series, and Remakes by Kim R. Holston and Tom Winchester p.64
- Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956-1976 by Gary A. Smith pp.40
- Unsung Horrors by Eric McNaughton & Darrell Buxton (eds) pp.308-309 – illustrated review (by Graham Payne)
