Luke Thorne’s review published on Letterboxd:
A 3,700-year-old Egyptian priest returns from the dead to woo the reincarnation of his former lover and exact revenge in this classic horror directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff.
After starring as the title character Frankenstein a year earlier, which made Karloff a huge star and made him one actor to look out for in the future. Here, The Mummy confirmed that status.
The story concerns a squad of British archaeologists led by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) who find out the shrivelled remains of the ancient Egyptian prince Imhotep (Boris Karloff), along with the really well-known scroll of Thoth. When one of the archaeologists declaims the scroll aloud, Imhotep comes back to life, but gets away.
A number of years later, Imhotep has taken on the appearance of a rich man, as he searches Egypt for his vanished love, who he thinks has been revived as the gorgeous Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann).
Boris Karloff another memorable performance in his role as Imhotep, the Egyptian prince, causing trouble in order to find his lover, Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon. Karloff suits the role of the title character very well and he does not disappoint as this is his film.
Elsewhere, there are fine performances to be had from Arthur Byron and Zita Johann in their respective parts as Sir Joseph Whemple and Helen Grosvenor. Joseph is in charge of the archaeologists, while Helen is the beautiful woman who Imhotep is after.
The direction from Freund is excellent because he allows the facial expressions to be seen to a strong effect throughout, while also keeping a tense atmosphere happening as well and the script is written to a terrific standard by John L. Balderston as he makes the movie really easy to follow.
The camera stands out best in terms of the technical aspects, because it makes good use of the locations and also captures the tense and dramatic moments well, which deservedly get the edge-of-the-seat status.
Unsurprisingly, other versions of The Mummy would follow, but this is the original, best and classic version of The Mummy.
Overall, The Mummy is a horror that deserves to have its classic status, due to the excellent and central performance from Boris Karloff, along with the direction, script and tense atmosphere.