Lost1911Thanhouser Company995 feetComedy

The Mummy

Name: The Mummy
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1911-03-07

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“Professor Dix has won fame as a scientist and has collected many objects of Egyptian ware, centuries old, that arouse the enthusiasm of his associates. Even Jack Thornton, an active, go-ahead young businessman, is interested in the professor’s home, but although he tries to pretend it is Egyptology which interests him, the professor’s fair young daughter is really the lodestone. Jack decides to win the old man’s respect by posing as an Egyptologist himself. To start his collection, he purchases a mummy at an auction sale, and takes it home expecting that later he can make a great hit with his sweetheart’s father, by presenting it to him as a gift.

“While the mummy is in Jack’s room, a live electric wire is by accident brought in contact with it. The body has been so perfectly mummified, that the electric current is all that is necessary to ignite the vital spark, and Jack is amazed to see dancing forth from the case which he thought contained only unattractive rags and bones, a beautiful Egyptian princess. As soon as she is released, the mummy makes violent love to Jack, and causes his sweetheart to quarrel with him (for how can a plain businessman explain the presence in his room of a beautiful barbarian?). When her love is spurned, the visitor from the distant past avenges herself by having Jack made into a mummy and placed in the case in her stead. Her heart relents, however, in time to save him from being ‘cut up’ by the professor, who with the sharp knife, starts to investigate the contents of the mummy case. But she realizes that the man from the century before intends to be master in his own house, although the indications are that he will be a kind, loving and considerate master.”

Summary from The Moving Picture World · 11 March 1911

What the papers said

4 reviews · 1 advertisement

Read in full · 1 min

“This is a great film—a jim dandy—undoubtedly one of Thanhouser’s best. It is truly an original creation. The story that pervades is of an antique quality and removes this film from the realm of the commonplace. The treatment is another delight and some opportunities not apparent are brought out and realized by the producer. The tale acquaints us with a 65-year-old Egyptologist who has succeeded in translating some ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics whereby he learned that Princess Khufu is not dead but sleepeth. The professor has a daughter ardently in love with her Jack, but the marriage is refused because of the fact that Jack is not really Egyptologically interested. The lover intends to persuade the father of his interest in ancient history and buys a mummy in a casket from a curio shop wherein is contained the embalmed body of Princess Khufu. An electric spark brings this ancient creature to life and presents truly, comical complications, Jack winning his bride and the 65-year-old professor marrying the royal princess now aged 3000. Some very good trick features are brought in. In short this is one of the best reels yet put out.”

The Billboard · 11 March 1911

Read in full · 1 min

“This is one of the most decidedly clever comedy trick films seen in weeks. The very amusing trick of showing the man and the mummy rushing out of the side of the building and through vast spaces until they alight in the land of ancient Egypt caused much surprised amusement, and is truly a praiseworthy feat of photography. The story was evenly well played. It might have been better not to have had the Egyptian princess do a dance before her resuscitator, a more dignified demeanor being somewhat more in keeping with the character. The film would be a big hit anywhere and it should have a wide sale.”

The Morning Telegraph · 12 March 1911

More reviews2 · 18 March 1911 – 15 March 1911

18 March 1911The Moving Picture World1 min

“The Mummy—a picture that is funny because of its novelty. To see a mummy walk out of a case as a beautiful Egyptian princess is sufficiently unusual to create interest, and this interest is increased when, after the young man has spurned her love, she forces him into the case and he becomes a mummy. The love tale in it is well sustained, when the professor marries the princess and Jack marries the professor’s daughter, it is quite evident that the happiness of the future is destined to surpass that of the past.”

15 March 1911The New York Dramatic Mirror1 min

“This is an amusing travesty, especially well acted for this kind of drama and containing many novel effects, the dissolving of the bodies and their flight through the air to Egypt being the most novel. The professor desired a son-in-law versed in Egyptology, and the young man who desired to hold that position goes out to an Egyptian store, buys a mummy and brings it home with him. In examining the body with an electric light a spark from the wire brings the mummy to life. She evinces no surprise at being thus awakened and gives what appears to be a sort of Turkish dance. Finding the man unresponsive, she summons the spirits, who dissolve him and take him back to Egypt, and there make a mummy of him. She returns and brings him to life, but he still cares for the professor’s daughter, who is much incensed at the Egyptian’s presence. At last he thrusts her into her coffin and takes her to the professor, where she promptly transfers her affections to him and takes him on an aerial flight to Egypt.”

4 March 1911The Moving Picture World1 min

“The Mummy will afford you about 15 minutes of as brisk entertainment as anyone could wish for. It’s something new in the line of trick film—it’s a novelty in the way of novelties. From the time the mummy pops out, live, from her coffin, to her appearance at the altar as the ‘Egyptologist’s’ blushing bride, you are given a series of funny surprises that will leave you in laughing bewilderment. But laugh your loudest! Don’t you know that one of the first missions of the motion picture is to get you to laugh? Then help the picture’s mission!”