Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Die Augen der Mumie Ma" or "The Eyes of the Mummy" is a German movie that runs approximately for an hour. It was made in 1918, so not too long anymore until its 100th anniversary. looking at the year when this was made, it is obvious that this is a black-and-white silent film and it is an early career effort by Ernst Lubitsch, a long time before his breakthrough in Hollywood and Oscar nominations. The cast includes actually a couple famous names, especially Pola Negri and Emil Jannings, who were great stars back in the day. And the most interesting aspect is probably the film's multiculturalism as it play in Egypt (and England) for the most part, not a surprise either if you look at the title. There is a touch of horror in here, a genre in which Germany was very prolific and successful back in the day, but it is certainly not the only genre. Supernatural aspects made this probably something fairly interesting to audiences back in the day. Unfortunately, I cannot say the plot or acting kept me too interested here, so this one is really only worth watching if you are a much bigger silent film enthusiast than myself. Otherwise, you should skip it.

Cineanalyst As others who've seen this film have mentioned, "The Eyes of the Mummy" is not a horror film involving any mummies; rather, it's an insipid melodramatic tragedy. It was the first of director Ernst Lubitsch's dramatic films, after having started as a comedic filmmaker. The movie involves exotic places (this time, Egypt), which are poorly exploited here compared to other such pictures. Pola Negri, in her first appearance as Lubitsch's star, performs some exotic dancing, too."The Eyes of the Mummy" is a generally uninteresting relic. The acting, especially by stars Negri and Emil Jannings, is overdone. Lubitsch employs slight dolly movements to nice effect in the finale, but otherwise the direction is prosaic and theatrical. From the sampling of Lubitsch's German films that I've seen, his dramatic pictures are generally less remarkable than his comedies. With these dramas, however, he received attention in the US--leading to his emigration to Hollywood.

finki If, as promised, this movie was restored then the results are simply horrible.A company called National Film Museum gave this film to another company called Hypercube IIc, in New York to digitally restore the film.But, instead of a intelligent restoration what this people did was to tint every scene to red, probably with Photoshop, with disastrous results.Douglas M. Protsik music is as unremarkable as the bad restoration. His accompaniment does not enhance the images at all.In all, the available print shown on TCM is unwatchable and I had to turn off the TV set.

arneblaze The more silent Lubitsch I see the more I think he's was a lousy silent director who managed to succeed only because he found his niche in sound and comedy. His ANNA BOLEYN, SUMURUN and EYES OF THE MUMMY are just plain awful. This is a very poor film technically and even the great Jannings is wasted as the villain. Negri is effective but overacts badly. Her dance is just plain silly. Only for dyed in the wool fans of the director and the two stars.