The Mummy Unwrapped: Scenes Left on Universal's Cutting Room Floor [Hardcover]

I have a collection of all of the "Mummy" movies on videotape, and although I have many books on the movies of the "golden age", this is the first movie book which actually gives us the scenes and dialogue as they was originally written for each of the four films that were produced in the 1940s.

The book is well-written. Of particular interest to me was the section covering the actors and actresses who portrayed the heroes, heroines, high priests, and victims. These actors and actresses were in many "B" movies, especially the 12 or 15 chapter movie serials of the era.

The most famous "mummy" of all time was Boris Karloff, who was in the precursor of the mummy films, aptly called "The Mummy."
However, the collection of the four films covered in Mr. Feramisco's book, "The Mummy Unwrapped," had Tom Tyler as the first actor to portray the mummy in "The Mummy's Hand". (Mr. Tyler then became Captain Marvel in one of the many movie serials of the 40s) as well as a star in the many Westerns produced.

With the second film, "The Mummy's Tomb," a young Lon Chaney, Jr. took over the role. He was the son of the famous Lon Chaney of silent films. It was his destiny to become Kharis (the mummy) in the last two films of the series as well, "The Mummy's Ghost" and "The Mummy's Curse".

Mr. Feramisco's book is well written. It is particularly enjoyable to be able to read the scripts as they were originally meant to be, and then see how the dialogue and action were purged, or in some cases, eliminated altogether, to produce a sharp, clean and fast-moving final movie.

I loved the whole book, but was especially attracted to the section on the heroes, heroines, high priests, and victims. It was such fun to read about these actors and actresses, their beginnings and their later movie roles, especially since I grew up seeing these actors in so many other movies.

Those of us, who enjoyed seeing these films on the big screen in the forties, will certainly enjoy this wonderful book. It will certainly bring back some scary memories for those of us that were ten years old when we were introduced to "The Mummy!"

I was introduced to my mummy film, "The Mummy's Curse," about the time I was ten years old. Mr. Feramisco encountered Kharis when he was ten years old, and my granddaughter, last week, voiced her desire to see my film collection on the "Mummy."

There was a space in my bookcase, just waiting for Mr. Feramisco's fine book. I can't say how much I have enjoyed reading it.

This book is devoted entirely to Universal's "Mummy" movies of the 1940s. It reveals lost action and dialogue by analyzing scenes that were edited out days before "The Mummy's Hand" was released to theaters, treats readers to other dialogue that was filmed and then cut down to almost nothing before being included in the films, and compares and contrasts the original story of "The Mummy's Return" to the final shooting script of what was later renamed "The Mummy's Curse". Each of the films has its own chapter, and chapters are also devoted to the actors who played the heroes, heroines, high priests, victims, and mummies in the films, and to the filmmakers who brought the mummies to life.

The book's foreward is written by Peggy Moran-Koster, the feisty heroine and only living actor from "The Mummy's Hand".

Universal horror enthusiast Thomas M. Feramisco is a prize winning script writer and copywriter. He lives in Thousand Oaks, California.