“No, I’m not asking you to believe anything Captain, I merely read the Cartouche.”
Robert Quentin (George Neise) is an archeologist. He is leading an unsanctioned expedition in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. He is in search of the lost tomb of Rahateb. Riots in the streets have taken a toll on the British forces. For their safety, Captain Storm (Mark Dana) is charged with retrieving the members of the expedition. Along with him are two other men, Sgt. Gromley (Richard Peel) and Sgt. Smolet (Terence de Marney) as well as Quentin’s wife Sylvia (Diane Brewster).
During the trip across the desert they are joined by an Egyptian woman Simira (Ziva Rodann). Simira tells them she is looking for her brother Numar (Alvaro Guillot) who is with the expedition. She offers to help the group by telling them of a quicker way to the excavation area. Storm refuses her offer. It’s not until the group has no food or water and Sylvia has been stung by a scorpion that Storm agrees to have Simira show the way. When the group finally gets to the expedition camp Simira announces that they are too late. The tomb has been desecrated. The sarcophagus of Rahateb’s high priest has been opened. Inside the tomb Numar clutches his head and falls unconscious to the floor of the tomb.
Quentin is angry about having to abandon his quest. He is obsessed with the tomb. He is also confronted with the news that his wife is leaving him. That night Quentin goes into the tomb and finds the mummy is missing. Quentin is convinced that Numar is responsible. He runs to Numar’s tent to confront him. Quentin finds that Numar is very ill. He is rapidly aging. Later Gromley finds one of the animals dead, drained of blood. Numar is seen entering the tomb.
Storm mounts a search of the tomb and Gromley falls prey to Numar. In the meantime two of the other archeologists, Walter Andrews (Ben Wright) and Hans Brecht (Kurt Katch), translate a stone tablet found with the mummy. The tablet tells of a curse where the spirit of the high priest enters the body of another and drinks the blood of the living until the invaders are all dead.
“Pharaoh’s Curse” was released in 1957 and was directed by Lee Sholem. This is a low budget independent “B” movie. For the most part it is an obscure little mummy movie but MGM did do a limited edition release.
The unusual thing about “Pharaoh’s Curse” is that it is basically a mummy movie, without a mummy. It’s not your cloth wrapped dust ball that shuffles along the tomb corridors wreaking havoc but a person who is possessed by the spirit of the mummy that does all the damage. Yes, the creature that kills is ancient and disintegrating, but it didn’t use to be. When you think of it the monster is acting more like a vampire/zombie than a mummy.
It’s not spectacular but the acting is decent. If you are looking for something different from your classic mummy movie, give it a try.