A & E

Dracula, Frankenstein, even the Wolfman get the vast majority of shivers, screams, girls, and their names at the top of the marquee. The Mummy usually is lucky if he's allowed to do more than lurch and groan emphatically. And with the rise of the zombie, he can't even call that little niche his own.

Mummified human remains are inherently creepy, whether they've been preserved in an Irish bog for 800 years or an Egyptian tomb for a thousand years. The discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb -- King Tut -- in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter captured the public's imagination. Horror legends like Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr. lent their imposing physical presences to the character.

But it didn't take long for the Mummy's menace to wear off -- the Three Stooges' "We Want our Mummy" (1939) probably marked the beginning of the cursed creature's descent into caricature.

Then came 1999's "The Mummy," and the undead monster was reborn in a big way. "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" is the third installment of the Brendan Fraser-led, action-adventure franchise, featuring a cursed Chinese emperor mummy, whose legion of 10,000 entombed warriors threatens to wake up and take over.

Will this be the triumphant reign of terror the Mummy so dearly craves? Or will he be relegated to the bargain-basement monster bin, next to the Swamp Thing?

Stay tuned.

Mummies and the movies

Most of the mummy movies followed the same storyline: Heedless archaeologists/tomb raiders ignore dire warnings and desecrate an ancient Egyptian tomb, activating an ageless curse and setting a mummy loose upon the world. The mummy usually was searching for his lost love, whose reincarnation he sees in the comely leading lady.

Mummy movies started out as comedies with 1911's "The Mummy," in which a female mummy comes alive, wreaking havoc on the romance between a young scientist and his not-so-understanding fiancee. It proved to be frightening only to those insecure women who are not sure of their significant others' hearts.

That early film is all but forgotten, as mummies stumbled into the more dramatic thriller genre. Mummies became more dangerous as time moved on.

These later films were inspired by the real-life discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922 by British adventurer Lord Carnarvon and archaeologist Howard Carter. Upon breaching the tomb, something stung Carnarvon on the cheek. He died several months later.

Newspapers sensationalized his death as the fulfillment of an ancient mummy's curse. A rumor spread that there was an inscription over the tomb promising death to anyone who opened the tomb of the pharaoh. One recent theory is Carnarvon might have ingested anthrax spores deliberately placed in the tomb by ancient Egyptian priests to thwart tomb robbers.

Here is a sampling of the many films that feature mummies:

"The Mummy" (1932): Boris Karloff played Im-Ho-Tep, a necromancer who was buried alive in ancient Egypt for attempting to resurrect his love, a princess. His mummy, which came back from a tomb excavated by British archaeologists, could change his appearance and masquerade as Ardath Bey. He also had the power of speech, like the monster in the 1999 remake starring Brendan Fraser. When one of the archaeologists sees the mummy rise from its tomb, he dissolves into hysterical laughter as his mind becomes unhinged. He utters the classic line: "He went for a little walk! You should have seen his face!"

"The Mummy's Tomb" (1942): Monster movie factory Universal Pictures cast Lon Chaney Jr. as Kharis, who was transported to America by an Egyptian high priest to exact revenge on those who desecrated the tomb of the Princess Anaka 30 years ago. This mummy had one arm bandaged and walked like he had arthritis. The advertisement for the movie proclaimed: "Eyes That Crawl With Madness! Hands That Leap Like Cobras!"

"The Mummy" (1959): British-Russian actor Christopher Lee played the mummy. Lee's imposing physique made a fearsome monster who crashed through windows to strangle those who desecrated his tomb. Lee later would make his name playing Dracula in at least three movies produced by British company Hammer Films.

"The Mummy's Ghost" (1944): Chaney returned to play Kharis. John Carradine is an Egyptian high priest who travels to America, where he kidnaps a woman he believes to be the reincarnation of Princess Anaka.



"The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb" (1964): The mummy was named Ra-Antef. This particular version isn't well remembered, perhaps because the name of the actor who played the mummy was Dickie Owen.



"Wrestling Women Vs. the Aztec Mummy" (1964): In the so-bad-it's-good tradition of "Plan 9 From Outer Space," this stinker was part of an obscure, low-budget genre called luche libre (free fight), where famous Mexican wrestlers, often masked, suddenly were plunged into "real-life" adventures fighting gangsters, monsters and other villains. The two wrestlers in this film, Lorena and the Golden Ruby, battle an Asian gang led by the Black Dragon, and a mummy named Xochitl who can change into a snake or a bat.

"The Mummy's Shroud" (1967): Eddie Powell played the avenging mummy in this surprisingly scary film from Hammer Films. Instead of bandages, Powell's homicidal tomb fugitive had a different look -- sort of early UPS package -- that consisted of belted brown sackcloth. He also could move quickly, unlike the shambling mummies of earlier films. The tagline: "Beware the beat of cloth-wrapped feet!"

"The Mummy" (1999): A witty and entertaining popcorn flick starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. The film returns to the story of the 1932 Boris Karloff film, with South African actor Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep, the rogue Egyptian priest who returns from the dead and creates mayhem.

"The Mummy Returns" (2001): Fraser and Weisz return as a married couple with a son. Arnold Vosloo reprises his role as high priest Imhotep, while the Rock, Dwayne Johnson, appears as the Scorpion King.



Mummification

The process of mummification, the form of embalming practiced by the ancient Egyptians, changed over time from the Old Kingdom, when it was available only to kings, to the New Kingdom, when it was available to everyone. The level of mummification depended on what one could afford.

There are four steps, according to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History:

1. All the internal organs, except the heart, were removed.

2. The body was packed and covered with natron, a salty drying agent, and left to dry out for 40 to 50 days. By this time, all the body's liquid had been absorbed and only the hair, skin and bones were left.

3. The body cavity was stuffed with resin, sawdust or linen and shaped to restore the deceased's form and features.

4. The body then was lightly wrapped in many layers of linen with numerous good luck charms, or amulets, wrapped between the layers.

"The heart is kept in the mummification process because it is believed to be the soul of the person, and they are actually preparing this person to go into the afterworld with food and servants and jewelry," says Dr. Sandra Olsen, curator of anthropology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. "They are very well equipped to go into the afterlife."

Ancient Egyptians mummified a variety of animals, but for reasons quite different from humans. Certain animals were sacred to particular deities, and the cult temples of those gods and goddesses frequently were presented with mummified animals as votive offerings. Egyptians also took great delight in their pets. At home, on the hunt and at work, the dog was the Egyptian's most popular animal companion. And it was the donkey, not the camel, that was the major beast of burden throughout most of Egyptian history.

Although religious practices in ancient Egypt were much broader than funerary religion alone, this culture is best known for its elaborate system for ensuring eternal life. The essential element of funerary religion was, in fact, preparation for the afterlife, because the ancient Egyptians were life-loving people and not, as is commonly believed, obsessed with death. A popular belief maintained that spirits of the dead inhabited a place called Amentet ("The West"). The sun set every evening over the western horizon. To the Egyptians, this nightly disappearance signified the sun's death. The West, thus, became associated with dying.

At the Carnegie

Movie theaters will be showing "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" starting Friday, but that's not the only venue in town to learn about mummification.

Check out the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's exhibit -- the Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt.

It explores the mysteries and vibrant everyday life of a society that continues to intrigue expert and armchair archaeologists alike. The exhibit interprets ancient Egyptian society and illuminates two universal cultural processes -- origins of agriculture and the evolution of complex society.

More than 600 artifacts, most of which belonged to "middle-class" Egyptians, are used to show various parts of this ancient society.

There are audiovisual presentations on pyramids, the Nile, modern Egypt and boats. Visitors also can crawl through a replica tomb of the first item collected by the museum, a mummy and its coffin.

Famous mummies

The most famous mummies are pharaohs of ancient Egypt. But the discovery in 1991 of a hunter mummified by ice in the Alps got a lot of attention when he was determined by scientists to be the oldest "surviving" mummy, about 5,300 years old.

The discovery of Pharaoh Tutankhamen's intact tomb in 1922 set off a media frenzy for King Tut fueled by "the curse of the mummy" on those who disturb his tomb. Films and literature responded to public fascination, which was furthered a half-century later by several exhibitions of items from his tomb -- including his funeral mask -- that traveled to the U.S. and Europe. King Tut's face was shown publicly for the first time in Egypt in 2007.

The mummy of Ramses II, discovered in his looted tomb in 1888, received new attention in 1976 when he was issued a passport for travel from Cairo to Paris for postmortem medical treatment for bacteriological and fungal infection.

Not all mummies slumber in the likes of shredded white sheets.

Mummies in plaids have been discovered in Chinese Turkestan, where the arid climate suits mummy preservation -- as in Egypt.

Indeed, some of the plaid-wrapped corpses found in Asia are as old as Egypt's more famous linen-clad mummies.

How did these white people end up in Asia? Scientists suspect they were migrants of Celtic heritage who wore plaids.

Textile scholar Elizabeth Wayland Barber writes about these Caucasians and their burial wear in "The Mummies of Urumchi" (W.W. Norton & Co., 1999). The book shows color photos of prehistoric, fair-haired corpses wrapped in modern-looking plaids.

Mummy evolution

Mummy movies started out as comedies in 1911's "The Mummy," in which a female mummy comes alive, wreaking havoc on the romance between a young scientist and his not-so-understanding fiancee. It proved to be frightening only to those insecure women who are not sure of their significant others' hearts.

That early film is all but forgotten, as mummies stumbled into the more dramatic, thriller genre. Mummies became more dangerous as time moved on.

In 1932, Boris Karloff staggered around in Universal's "The Mummy," looking for a human victim who could become the host of his reincarnated lover. Im-Ho-Tep, his name in the film, simply was looking for a modern life. He spent much of that film looking more like a suspicious Egyptian than the first big-time wrap star.

When Christopher Lee became the King of Cotton 37 years later in the 1959 remake, he was a reawakened warrior. He lurched through the film to find the cretinous archaeologist who had violated the grave he was supposed to protect.

Now, in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," the mummy has graduated from Imhotep, as he was known in 1999's "The Mummy" and 2001's "The Mummy Returns," to a cursed, mummified Chinese ruler with an army of 10,000 warriors.

The rolls of white gauze are suddenly obsolete.

Ahhhh, for the simpler days.

-- Bob Karlovits

Get your own mummies

Collectors of miniature, lighted porcelain villages can add an Egyptian/mummy-themed village to their collection this year.

The Egyptian pieces -- part of Lemax's "Spooky Town" Halloween collection -- include a Haunted Pyramid and a Cursed Tomb, both mummy-adorned animated pieces with soundtracks, lighting effects and movements. The Egyptian collection also includes little accessories -- sphinxes, palm trees, camels, snake charmer figurines, pharaoh and queen figurines, and a "Terror on the Nile" piece, which shows a huge green snake wrapped around a boat, filled with armored Egyptians with spears.

The Egyptian village pieces can be found at area Michael's stores.

Mummy songs

Songs to celebrate mummies (and other monsters) by:

• "Walk Like an Egyptian," The Bangles

• "King Tut," Steve Martin

• "Monster Mash," Bobby Pickett & the Cryptkickers

• "Thriller," Michael Jackson

• "Bela Lugosi's Dead," Bauhaus

• "Forever Might Not Be Long Enough," Live (from "The Mummy Returns" soundtrack)

• "Pyramid Song," Radiohead

• "Buried Alive," Billy Idol

• "Mummy's Boy," Madness

• "Mummy Walk," Bo Diddley

• "I'm a Mummy," Bad Manners

• "Egyptian Fantasy," Sidney Bechet

Mummy jokes

Why can't the mummy make any friends?

Because he's all wrapped up in himself.

What is a mummy's favorite type of music?

Rap.

What did the mummy say to the detective?

Let's wrap this case up.

Where do mummies go on vacation?

The Dead Sea.

What did King Tut say when he had a nightmare?

I want my mummy!

What is a mummy's favorite coffee?

Decoffinated.

What does a mummy have for lunch?

A wrap, of course.

Mummies we love:

• Queen Mum

• Tutankhamen

• Mother Teresa

• Chrysanthemums

Mummies we hate:

• Joan Crawford

• Britney Spears

• Cinderella's stepmother

• Medea

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