The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals

Back in the '80s, Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space" was widely considered to be the worst film ever made. Wrong! "The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals" easily outdistances any Ed Wood or Herschell Gordon Lewis film in the bad movie stakes. The only competition it might have is from some of those wretched Andy Milligan productions. I ran across a copy of "The Mummy..." a few years back and snatched it up eagerly; it starred Anthony Eisley and John Carradine, had a goofy title, and was reputed to be one of the absolute worst movies ever. It had to be fun, right? Not exactly. First of all, the story makes no sense whatsoever, not even by el cheapo monster flick standards. As another reviewer has pointed out, Anthony Eisley commented that the film was unfinished as far as he knew--so it's possible that something more coherent was intended, but never achieved. At any rate, don't get frustrated when you watch it; it's total nonsense. Secondly, Eisley doesn't even look like he's having fun (which is odd for him). He wears a tense, incredulous look throughout the movie, as if he's thinking, "What the hell am I doing here?" Finally, John Carradine's contribution is minimal. I'm guessing that there were supposed to be more scenes with him and the cop...but, again, the film was never finished. There are a few interesting bits: the spooky, enigmatic face of Marliza Pons; the hilarious scenes featuring the Mummy and the "Jackal Man" rampaging through Las Vegas; and, of course, the amazingly catchy theme music. (Was it recorded specifically for the film, or was it just library music? It sounds a bit dated for 1969.) Unfortunately, none of these things makes up for the fact that this is a dull, wearisome film. I pulled "The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals" out again the other night and actually watched the entire thing, but not without difficulty. It's one of those semi-legendary baddies that you go to a lot of trouble to track down...but when it's over you say, "What a waste!" Too bad. (RIP John Carradine and Anthony Eisley.)

It was 1969 and the movie THE MUMMY AND THE CURSE OF THE JACKAL was about to premiere in Los Angeles Ca with a hope and a prayer that they could find completion funds to be able to finish the movie. Using a Super 8 camera, the staff and crew as extras, you name it, they were forced to stop filming. The film has sentimental value to me as my dad was one of the extras. It was a real treat to see the movie, since it was the first time I've seen it after all the stories my dad told me about it! That was 38 years ago, and who even knows if any of these people are still alive? I give the movie 5 stars for trying, and God bless all the people that were involved.

Of course I had never heard about this 1969 horror movie titled "The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2025. And with it being a horror movie, of course I had to check it out, given my love of all things horror.

But categorizing this movie as a horror movie might be stretching it a bit. There was nothing scary about the movie, unless you consider a slow paced and pointless narrative as being horror.

Writer William Edwards put together a very boring, bland and monotonous storyline, and it was hard to find anything worthwhile throughout the sluggishly paced narrative.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, aside from actor John Carradine. Despite the fact that the script was rubbish, then the acting performances in the movie were fair.

The effects in the movie are old and haven't aged well. Let's just leave it at that.

Would I recommend you to track down director Oliver Drake's 1969 movie "The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals" and give it a go? No, not really. Will I ever return to watch it a second time? No.

My rating of "The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals" lands on a two out of ten stars.

Star Anthony Eisley once said the director of this film was "quite old and a little bit senile at the time"; yeah but you signed the contract anyway, didn't you Anthony! The story goes that the film was unfinished and sat on a shelf for quite sometime before someone scotch taped the scenes together into something that bore a resemblance to a feature film. That could explain why it begins in the middle with Anthony Eisley as an archaeologist renting a tumbledown house outside Las Vegas with two sarcophagii in his living room. We are told that he saved them both from a plane that was on its way back from Egypt but crashed nearby. The centuries old boxes contain Princess Akanna, a woman put into a deep sleep in ancient Egypt so that she might someday revive and bring the glorious message of the Goddess Isis to a modern world. Along for the ride is her guardian Sirakh, who looks considerably worse than she does after 3,000 years. (Has anyone besides me noticed their names are "Ananka" and "Kharis" re-arranged?) Akanna revives and turns Eisley into a "jackalman" so he can better be her slave. The mask and three fingered paw/hands had been used earlier that year in the Adults Only movie DRACULA THE DIRTY OLD MAN. (Way back in 1960 Boris Karloff said the old monsters were no longer scary. This movie proves him right. There is the inevitable scene of the Mummy and the Jackalman fighting and this scene was shot on location in Las Vegas. Eisley, or his stunt double, and the Mummy do their best to be fierce but people on the street stare at them and laugh!) John Carradine shows up for two scenes to (A.) pick up some quick pocket money and (B.) explain what is going on for everyone who is confused. You will probably stay confused though until the end of the picture where events come to their predictable conclusion even though everything happens with little or no explanation. John Carradine and Anthony Eisley went on to top themselves in modern Poverty Row pictures. Long John starred as THE WIZARD OF MARS and Anthony fought half a giant gorilla (it's a long story!) in THE MIGHTY GORGA.

I enjoyed the music. John Carradine comes in after an hour. The princess reminded me of Donna Summer. The sets, cheesy. The jackal mask, probably stolen from The Rockafire Explosion. There wasn't even any nudity. An interminable snore fest which I wish Rifftrax would tackle. So our hero turns into a jackal and the princess comes to life unfortunately so does the guy who was buried with her. The mummy just looks dirty, like he'd been working under a car. There's some grainy footage of Vegas and some sets in a cave and a flashback where curtains are hung over a blank wall to evoke an ancient palace. All mummy movies are the same, but I prefer Hammer movies because at least the actors can articulate.