The Mummy (1911 film)

Plot

Professor Dix, a famed scientist, has assembled a collection of Egyptian artifacts that fascinate his associates. Jack Thornton, a young businessman, feigns interest in Egyptology to win the professor's daughter. He buys a mummy at auction, planning to present it as a gift to her father. In Jack's room, a live electrical wire accidentally contacts the mummy, reanimating it as a beautiful Egyptian princess. She makes advances toward Jack, causing a quarrel with his sweetheart. When Jack rejects her, the princess has him mummified and placed in the case in her place. She later relents and saves him from being cut open by Professor Dix, who was about to investigate the case. Jack explains the events, and the professor, a widower, marries the reanimated princess despite their age difference.

Production

The scenario writer is unknown but was likely Lloyd Lonergan, a newspaperman for The New York Evening World who wrote scripts for Thanhouser. The director is uncertain, possibly Barry O'Neil or Lucius J. Henderson. Cameramen from the era included Blair Smith, Carl Louis Gregory, and Alfred H. Moses, Jr., though none are credited. Cast credits are fragmentary, but a production still shows William Russell in the film.

A 1910 company list of important personalities included G.W. Abbe, Justus D. Barnes, Frank H. Crane, Irene Crane, Marie Eline, Violet Heming, Martin J. Faust, Thomas Fortune, George Middleton, Grace Moore, John W. Noble, Anna Rosemond, and Mrs. George Walters. The film was released on March 7, 1911, with a length of 995 feet and a runtime of fifteen minutes. It was billed as comedic and distributed by the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company. A special effect showed the cast's bodies dissolving and taking an aerial flight to Egypt at the end.

Reception

The film was shown in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Kansas. An advertisement for the Lyric Theater in Indiana noted its debut alongside acts by Miss Hawthorne and Dot Washburn, who were not credited in the film. A review in the Moving Picture World found the novelty of a mummy emerging as an Egyptian princess unusual and interesting, especially when she forces the young man into the case. Another review praised the photography, acting, and staging.

Three additional reviews in Billboard, The New York Dramatic Mirror, and The Morning Telegraph were positive, emphasizing the special effects. Pantelis Michelakis and Maria Wyke's book The Ancient World in Silent Cinema noted the film's erotic themes in bridging past and present through marriage. The film has been incorrectly claimed as the earliest mummy-themed film; earlier examples include Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb from 1899 and La Momie du roi in 1909. The film is presumed lost.