Synopsis: Stranded in Cairo, Abbott and Costello stumble into murder, a missing mummy, and a deadly treasure hunt in this laugh-filled desert adventure.
Stars:Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara, Dan Seymour, Richard Deacon
Director: Charles Lamont
Rated: NR
Running Length: 79 minutes
Disc Review in Brief: The duo’s monster series ends with recycled gags and fading chemistry, but Kino Lorber’s pristine 4K transfer and informative commentaries salvage the release.
Review:
All things must end. Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy marks the final entry in the duo’s monster series for Universal. After the inspired Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, expectations were high. What arrived was a bit of a mixed bag — entertaining in spots, but running on fumes and borrowed ideas.
Bud Abbott plays Pete Patterson and Lou Costello plays Freddie Franklin — two Americans stranded in Egypt looking for a quick buck. When they overhear Dr. Gustav Zoomer (Kurt Katch) discussing a mummy with a sacred medallion that reveals the location of Princess Ara’s treasure, they see their ticket home. What they find instead is murder, a scheming fortune hunter named Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor), a cult of mummy worshippers, and a resurrected Klaris (Eddie Parker) shambling through the tombs.
The premise should deliver breezy fun. Unfortunately, director Charles Lamont recycles the same handful of played-out gags across the entire seventy-nine-minute runtime. There’s a corpse-shuffling sequence that’s surprisingly clever, and the mummy makeup pays a nice homage to Karloff’s original. Still, the film leans heavily on trends from other comic duos of the era, and by this point Abbott & Costello were beginning to struggle with sustaining their trademark charm.
Part of the problem is chemistry, or rather, the lack of it. Abbott and Costello seem exhausted with each other by this point. The spark that powered their best work has curdled into two comedians trapped in familiar patterns, going through the motions. What made earlier entires such an energetic ride is that they seemed to be having as much fun as we were. Here, they don’t feel like they are even trying to set this one apart even though the potential was clearly there. It’s a disappointing note to end on.
What’s not disappointing is Kino Lorber’s 4K presentation. Scanned from the original camera negative and mastered in Dolby Vision HDR, the transfer is immaculate—so sharp you can spot the seams in the production design. The backlot Egypt sets reveal their limitations, but that’s no fault of the restoration; it’s proof of how revealing 4K can be. The image remains pristine throughout. Personally, I love these old studio films, cranked out alongside dozens of others on the same lot—it’s part of their charm.
Two new commentary tracks add depth. C. Courtney Joyner and Phoef Sutton dig into Marie Windsor’s career, the growing tensions between Abbott and Costello, and how this film marked the end of their Universal contract—a year before their final collaboration. Toby Roan examines Charles Lamont’s eight-film run with the duo and situates the production within the broader Mummy franchise. Both tracks offer more insight than the film itself sometimes earns.
It’s not the send-off the series deserved (I’d have loved to see Abbott & Costello square off with the Creature from the Black Lagoon), but it’s a fascinating curio for completists—and an exceptional disc in its own right. Originally slated for a box set, Kino may be holding that back for a future release with an incentive to triple-dip.
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