Look Not Beyond the Shroud

[setsuled]

Watch on YouTube

That's Roger Delgado, the original Master from Doctor Who, in brown face as the Arab villain in 1967's The Mummy's Shroud. Though Delgado's skin was pretty dark and all the actors were caked in layers of greasy foundation back in the '60s so maybe he wasn't in brown face at all. His father was Spanish so he may well have had Arabian ancestry.

Friday was a holiday here in Japan, the Emperor's birthday, so I spent the day being lazy and watched The Mummy's Shroud in the afternoon. Not considered one of the best Hammer films, it's nontheless better, in my opinion, than some of the ones that are considered among the best. The story's not wildly exciting but there's no real false step in it, there's no "Oh, come on" moments. Sure, it's cheap. The deserts of Egypt were clearly the same English quarries regularly visited by Doctor Who productions. The biggest star in the film is Andre Morell and he dies less than halfway through. But the movie does have surprisingly good cinematography. The lighting is creative without being as garish as it sometimes can be in Hammer films and the compositions are well constructed. I love the sense of awe and wonder the filmmakers try to convey as the explorers first uncover the mummified remains of the exiled young pharaoh.

The full movie is available on YouTube.