Monday, November 23, 2020

Blood Drinking Mummy

 

PHARAOH'S CURSE-1957-In 1910 Cairo British army Sgt. Storm (Mark Dana) leads a small party to an ancient tomb. Along with him is Sylvia Quentin (Diane Brewster) whose husband is at the site. While camping they meet the mysterious Simira (Ziva Rohann; billed here as Ziva Shapir) who wants to guide them so they'll get to the tomb quicker. Suddenly their food and water starts to disappear. When Sylvia is bitten by a scorpion they find their medical kit gone as well but Storm saves her. Meanwhile Sylvia's husband Robert (George N. Niese) decides to open the tomb despite the warnings of his colleague (Ben Wright). They discover a mummy but when Storm gets to the site he and orders the tomb sealed, the mummy has vanished and strange footprints are found. Their guide (Simira's brother) starts to turn into a mummy! He later drains the blood from a donkey. The next day while everyone is exploring, the full fledged mummy kills a soldier and drinks his blood. A dead pharaoh has actually transferred his spirit into the guide and made him a wrinkled up blood drinking mummy. While the main group searches for the tomb their translator (Kurt Katch) is killed. Storm tries to stop the mummy but only gets its arm. Simira scares Sylvia who runs into a cave but she is rescued by a soldier. Quentin is killed in a cave in while following the mummy (who also seems to die). Simira was probably a cat goddess and it's decided the group won't tell the outside world about the discovery. 

Despite it's low budget PHAROAH CURSE has some creepy scenes thanks to director Lee Sholem who'd directed SUPERMAN VS. THE MOLE MEN, TOBOR THE GREAT and a few in the Jungle Jim saga. Like a lot of fast but competent low budget filmmakers he went into TV. 

Thanks for reading!


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