planktonrules

This sort of film is well suited to Douglas Fairbanks, as he created an image of him being a manly man in his films. He bragged how he didn't use stuntmen and his stunts were pretty incredible in some of his films. He also cultured a health and fitness image for himself...which explains him starring in this sort of movie.

The story begins with Billy (Fairbanks) in love with his childhood friend, Ethel. But Ethel thinks Billy is pretty dull, as she wants to party hardy. So, he runs off to the west to live the life of a cowboy and she drinks, smokes and thoroughly exhausts herself. Eventually, she has a breakdown and when Billy learns she's in a sanitarium, he goes to see her. But he's shocked to see the place is filled with hypochondriacs and malingerers...so he buys the sanitarium and decides to teach the patients to take care of themselves and stop whining. He does this by taking them for a ride in his yacht and faking a fire. Once he's gotten these patients to shore, he has the ship sail away to strand them. Why? Well, his hope is that once these jerks start living life and exercising, they'll recover quickly. How does it all work out? See the film and find out for yourself.

This is a cute movie and I enjoyed it. My only concern is that Billy wasn't a doctor and wow I could see a viewer taking his advice to heart when they really ARE ill! I hope this didn't happen. Regardless, it is fun and worth seeing and its message is good...at least for some folks.

The only reason I watched "Tale of the Mummy" is that Christopher Lee is in the film. However, in the first few minutes of the story, he's dead. So much for watching it to see Lee!

A group of explorers discover a tomb in Egypt. When it is opened, some smoke envelopes everyone and they quickly disintegrate into dust.

Some time later, another group of explorers enter the tomb...and this time with strange spaceman-like outfits and their own air supply. As a result, they aren't instantly turned into dust. Instead, a silly story follows, as the mummy which had been left as just a pile of wrappings goes in search of organs in order to come back to life!

The story is pretty silly but not terrible. The best thing about the story is that the special effects of the wrappings flying about and coming to life is actually impressive for 1998. But these special effects aren't enough to make this anything other than a mediocre time-passer. I'm giving it a 5...which is actually better than it's current overall score of 4.0. You can do better.