Rish Outfield's reviews
I grew up with the 1959 version of the story, and like most of the old time monster movies, this was my first viewing of the film. Unfortunately, I have very little to say, either positive or negative. Karloff is a great, great man, of course, but he made little impression on me here. There was a nice effect of Karloff's eyes lighting up. Still, he looked so much better/scarier as the Mummy than as Ardeth Bay, and spent less than a minute onscreen in the wrap. The girl had something of a low-cut dress on, but her erratic personality made it hard for me to like her. It was very very talky, but then, they all were. My favourite line was "I'd rather die than live and lose you." It was made early enough that it's virtually music-less. The film seemed horribly dated considering the high-tech versions of the last couple of years. But hey, that doesn't matter.
I wasn't as captivated by this film as I was by the other main Universal Monster features. I found the Hammer version much more enjoyable (probably because the mummy was an actual mummy), and I loved the 1999 Universal version. I've been told that the sequels are a bit more crowd-pleasing and feature a more conventional monster, so I'll have to check them out.

The tyranist's thoughts
We live in an age when it seems that everything that can be done with horror movies has probably been tried at least once, even if it was in an unsuccessful, hardly seen B picture. 69 years ago, that wasn't the case. Universal put out a few little monster pictures on relatively cheap budgets with relatively unknown actors. Those movies have survived and become embedded in our culture. The Mummy is perhaps the scariest of the original Universal monster movies and even it is a laugh-fest in front of the right crowd.
Taking place in an era when ancient Egyptian culture was being plundered for all it was worth, The Mummy deliberately taps into our fears about what we might bring forth from such expeditions to the past. Moreso than Dracula or Frankenstein, this one plays with a fear based in reality. People had heard of the curse on the tombs. Few had heard of Dracula or Frankenstein outside of literature. The Mummy was a beast created not by the fevered mind of a novelist, but by actual discoveries. Combine this with the effective use of a character in a fugue state and mysterious happenings that will only be explainable decades later when Star Wars comes out and you have a pretty effective little horror film.
It is fun to watch this one and then one of the later remakes. The differences are vast, but everything goes back to that core story. The Mummy is a romance. When 1992's Dracula claimed the tag line "Love never dies," they were usurping Im-ho-tep and his undying love for Anak-es-en-amun.
Check this one out. You owe it to yourself to see the classic Universal monster movies. For even more fun rent 1999's The Mummy along with it and watch for the similarities. It will at least be a good party game.