Blood from the Mummy's Tomb

This is by a long way the best of the three adaptations so far of Bram Stoker's complex and disturbing novel of an Egyptologist's obsessive desire to revive an evil ancient Egyptian queen. (The novel was so worrying in 1903 that the ending was changed for the second edition: this movie keeps mainly to the original ending.) The cast ranges from competent to quite good, with the Queen/daughter suitably seductive but unreadable. The appearance is handsomely and oppressively Edwardian - the ancient Egyptian is rather silly - and the direction firm. Try this as a better taste of Stoker's obsessive psychological horror than any of the versions of "Dracula" except the long British TV adaptation.

Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is the 4th and final movie from Hammer Horrors "The Mummy" franchise and stands out from the rest due to the distinct lack of erm....a mummy! The plot is a bit of a mess but the creators do a competent enough job of making the best of it and to their credit it comes off passable. Starring the alarmingly beautiful Valerie Leon it barely feels like a mummy movie at all. With the questionable storyline, the baffling ending and some seriously hokey performances it's sad to see a franchise end on such a note. It however is not bad, it's just unusual, unexpected and an odd choice. Passable Hammer Horror effort, but more of a standalone film than the rest of The Mummy franchise. The Good: Valerie Leon The Bad: Muddled story Things I Learnt From This Movie: I get the impression Valerie Leon would be a big big star right now if she were this age