SHOW ME: Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Who's The Mummy? Eddie Parker as Klaris
Mummy's Love? n/a - no romantic sub-plot
Where? Egypt
How Long? 79 minutes

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are a pair of American chancers stuck in Egypt looking to earn a quick buck and passage back to the States. They learn of Dr Gustav Zoomer's (Kurt Katch) discovery of the mummy of Klaris and his desire to hire a couple of men to escort his precious cargo back to the United States.

Marie Windsor as Madame Rontru

However, before they can talk to him about the job opportunity, the archaeologist is murdered and Abbott & Costello find themselves caught between the machinations of a group of criminals, fronted by the exotic Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor), and Klaris-worshipping cultists, led by led by Semu (Richard Deacon).

Our hapless heroes come into possession of a cursed amulet, which Costello finds among the dead doctor's possessions. This amulet is the key to the location of the treasure-packed tomb of Princess Ara, which the living mummy Klaris is supposed to guard.

Sadly, Abbott & Costello's 1950's slapstick shtick hasn't aged well - growing tiresome quite quickly - and the comedy of misdirection, misunderstanding, and mistaken identity has frayed round the edges worse than the mummy's bandages.

There's a restaurant routine where Bud and Lou are trying to pass off the cursed amulet to each other that comes across as really forced and a later serving of rapid-fire wordplay around "pick" and "shovel" only reminds us how brilliant Who's On First? was.

And pity poor Eddie Parker as Klaris, stumbling around like a man in a baggy onesie, a victim of the "too slow to be scary" editorial decision that blighted several earlier mummy movies.

While it's only 79 minutes long, but the limply-scripted Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy seems much longer, almost interminable at times.

Bizarrely, although their characters are supposedly called Pete Patterson and Freddie Franklin, respectively, Abbott and Costello refer to each other as Abbott and Costello throughout the film.

This was the last movie they made with Universal, and I can't help feeling that their heart wasn't in it.

I'll admit I know next-to-nothing about Abbott & Costello, so that's pure baseless speculation on my part but as a comedy-horror Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy is neither terrifying or particularly amusing.