Gli occhi della mummia

Actually am feeling bad about giving 'Eyes of the Mummy' a low rating and below average review. Considering that it has people involved that are usually held in high regard by me. Ernst Lubitsch was to me one of the great directors of the 30s and 40s, and his early work is not as good but still interesting. Emil Jannings was always watchable and more (when it comes to silent films to me he's one of the greats), especially in villain and authority figure roles and his role here sounded perfect on paper.

'Eyes of the Mummy' sadly was to me a seriously odd film. Not awful, but Lubitsch and Pola Negri are not well served and although Jannings is one of the redeeming merits he has also been better. Like others have said, don't be fooled by the title. Which indicates that it is a horror film. It isn't. 'Eyes of the Mummy' is more a melodrama and it unfortunately does not do that aspect particularly well at all. Worth a look for curiosity and completest sake, but not much else.

Jannings comes off reasonably well compared to everything else going on. His performance is not at all a subtle one, he does try too hard, but he gives it absolutely everything and is a formidable and sinister presence throughout his screen time. Some of the set design is quite elaborate.

The last 15-20 minutes are effective, the part that held my attention the most (shame that it took too much time to get there) and it was well staged and lump to the throat worthy. Jannings appearing in a mirror did give me the creeps too, the one part that resembled anything close to being horror.

On the other hand, 'Eyes of the Mummy' doesn't work everywhere else. Even for this very early stage of his career, this did not feel like a Lubitsch film. He tried to adopt a change of pace here and is well and truly out of his depth here, as can be evidenced by the stiff and uninvolving direction. The story never really came to life apart from the climactic moments, before that it is very turgidly paced and emotionally dreary melodrama that one finds very difficult to connect with. Especially considering that it revolves around characters that are not easy at all to get behind, due to them not being at all interesting.

Mostly, 'Eyes of the Mummy' looks cheap. Some elaborate set design aside. Otherwise, it looks very static and unfocused and like it was made in a rush. Negri overacts to an embarrassing degree, some of the worst silent film acting there's been in my view, and the dancing in general is far from exotic and is unintentionally funny today. The music also does not fit in tone, orchestration or use, it was like it was written for a completely different film and it was disconcerting.

In summary, watch it once but not interesting or well done enough to warrant repeat viewings. A very odd experience indeed, a contender for Lubitsch's strangest. 4/10

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.

... but a tragedy... of sorts. The "Eyes Of The Mummy" refer to the eye-holes in a doorway with a face on it that Pola Negri looks out of to scare people out of the temple of Queen Ma. There is no mummy, there is no monster, there really is no horror. This is not a complaint, but this movie is often grouped in with monster movies merely because of it's title.

It's easy to laugh at a film almost 85 years old, your grand kids and great grand kids will laugh at what you currently enjoy as well. The dance that Pola does may look strange to our eyes, but the desired effect was to be exotic. The acting is typically broad and melodramatic, appropriate to it's time. With the deterioration of many silent movies, we can sometimes be thankful that the actors seemed to be overacting, we can still see their expressions even when their films are fading away.

Not Pola Negri's best work, or her worst. There must be a few different cuts of this film circulating. The one I saw was about an hour and ten minutes long, not the half-hour reported here or the forty-five minutes reported on the main page for this movie. I rather enjoyed the version I saw, maybe the shorter cuts leave too much out to fill the story out.

Recommended if you enjoy the genre and it's stars. If you are looking for Halloween fare, stick with Universal's later horror classics, including..yes, the "real" mummy movies.

I never expected to see a horror film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and, while this has been touted as such and is even listed in genre-related books, it's nothing of the kind…and that makes it doubly disappointing for an all-round film-fan like myself! Actually, I've seen little of the director's work made in Germany (which includes only one major title, MADAME DUBARRY [1919], also starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings) and none of his American Silents – which means that, to me, Lubitsch has always been a master of the Talkie medium, so, bear than in mind…

Anyway, the title is indeed incidental to the main plot which, once again, concerns the vicissitudes of a romantic triangle (Jannings, Negri and Harry Liedtke) which can only end in tragedy. Jannings and Negri are Egyptians involved in a scam milking tourists out of their money, by having the girl lend her eyes to the "mummy" from inside an empty sarcophagus! When a British lord and adventurer comes to visit, she falls in love and leaves with him to England. Needless to say, Jannings – who, naturally, has feelings for Negri himself – follows them (conveniently in the employ of another English aristocrat and friend to Liedtke) in order to exact his revenge. While the plot offers no surprises (except, maybe, the fact that Jannings has a Svengali-like hold on Negri), it's also rather ordinarily handled; indeed, here one finds scarcely any evidence of the much-renowned "Lubitsch" touch!

To be fair to the film, the famed Curse of King Tut's Tomb hadn't yet taken place (that was in 1921) – so, in all probability, the film was never intended as a horror film at all. Anyway, Jannings – who's always worth watching in a larger-than-life manner – is the best thing about the entire film…but the melodramatic acting of Negri, a great star of the period, has dated badly and, indeed, she seems to do little throughout but faint!! As a matter of fact, as a means of amusing myself to counter the tedium of the film itself, as I was watching I imagined the actress discussing the shooting schedule with her director:

Negri: "What's on the schedule for today, Ernst?" Lubitsch: "You faint!"

The next day.

Negri: "What's on the schedule for today, Ernst?" Lubitsch: "You faint!" Negri: "Oh…"

The next day.

Negri: "Er--Ernst, do I get to faint today as well, by any chance?" Lubitsch: "Er…I'm afraid so!"

What an egregious waste of talent!! It's poorly acted, indifferently directed, and badly written; too bad THIS film survived when so many other more worthy silents didn't! It's hard to believe this was made in 1918--technically and artistically, it's more like 1909. This is the sort of film you should definitely NOT show to someone unfamiliar with silent film, as it confirms every awful stereotype about them--clownish makeup, hammy gestures, and cheesy plot--and, it's boring to boot. The great Emil Jannings looks more like Othello in search of Desdemona instead of an Egyptian in search of his captive, and this time his habitual overacting is annoying rather than bravura. And, you have to be a pretty maladroit filmaker to take Pola Negri, with her angular Gypsy beauty, and make her up to look like a pint-sized Little Egypt. Take it from a die-hard silents fan who will watch ANY silent film, simply because they are silent: skip this one.