We Want Our Mummy

The Three Stooges capitalized on the rejuvenation of horror movies by appearing in their first scary movie, February 1939's "We Want Our Mummy," directed by Del Lord. This time the Stooges are employed as private detectives who are hired to locate a kidnapped college professor, who knows the whereabouts of Egyptian King Rootentooten. Hiring a cab, the Stooges travel to a remote desert spot in Egypt where they've traced the professor, only to come across the tomb of the ancient pharaoh. The thieves are lurking nearby, which, in order to escape, the trio decide to dress Curly as the mummy. As the gang leader searches the prone Stooge who's mummified under wraps, he comes across a newspaper. It's headlined "Yanks win World Series" detailing the New York Yankees sweeping the Chicago Cubs in the 1938 series, a rare acknowledgement in a Stooges' film of an actual sporting event. "Can you beat that!" says the gangster, to which Curly replies, "Yeah, and I won five bucks," blowing his cover.

"We Want Our Mummy" marked the first time in a Stooges film where a bad guy is disguised as a monster. This is also the first time Curly is heard chattering his teeth in a metallic sound as well as shaking like a dog after coming out of water-this from a well inside the tomb.

Larry, Curly, and Moe arrive at the Egyptian Room in the Museum of Ancient History. They have been hired to find Prof. Tuttle who is the key to finding the mummy of King Rutentuten. They inadvertently help in Tuttle's kidnapping. They are then hired to find Rutentuten despite the deadly consequences.

Curly swimming in the mirage is a wonder of physical comedy. It's simple, silly, and pure genius. Everything else is solid Stooges. The Mummy looks bad and that's great. It's stupid fun.

A silly but definitely-a-lot-of-fun Three Stooges short, in which they wind up in an underground tomb looking for "King Rootin' Tootin.' Along the way, they find his wife "Hotsie Totsie." Yes, there were a lot of corny lines in here but some of them are genuinely funny.

Chase scenes with the Stooges are usually fun to watch, and that's the case here with "dead people" chasing the boys around the sandy place. Mummies, ghouls, and just plain thieves/kidnappers from New York are all involved in this comedy-crime-adventure. It's just pure goofy entertainment.

Even Curly turns into a mummy! Well, he's wrapped by Larry and Moe to look like one....with predictable-but-hilarious results. Hey, that "disguise" was nothing compared to the boys' "detective outfits" at the beginning of the show!

It seems everyone here is in agreement: this is a great Three Stooges film.

This is another great one!Its very funny but its different.Dick Curtis was good as always, Theodore Lorch was excellent and Bud Jamison and James C. Morton is very good in the short film.This is a very good Three Stooges and I think all Stooge fans will like it!

We Want Our Mummy (1939)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Classic Three Stooges short has the boys playing detectives who are given the case of going to Egypt and locating the mummy known as King Rootin-Tootin. A museum will pay $5000 for him but what the boys don't know is that there is a curse with it. This here is pure madness and ranks as one of the best Stooge shorts out there. Everything people love about the Stooges can be had in this short as we get a great storyline, classic laughs and some terrific dialogue. There are many highlights here but one classic scene has Curly accidentally smashing the mummy and having to be wrapped up himself to try and fool some bad guys. Another great moment is when Moe looks through a telescope to see the desert but he ends up seeing something else. There's really not a dry moment anywhere in this film as it gets started with some great laughs and just keeps getting funnier as it moves along. As a die-hard horror fan I'd also go out on the limb and call this one of the best mummy movies ever made. It's certainly a lot better than many of the spoofs out there that deals with the mummy creature.