This is another in the Fleischer/Famous series of Superman cartoons. For once, Clark Kent scoops Lois Lane on a story when he receives a call from someone about the murder of an archaeologist that would clear his female assistant of the crime. It's at Egypt (or a similar country) that we learn about the history of King Tush (though it's pronounced differently than from its spelling, I still laughed a bit whenever that name was mentioned) and the curse that revolved around him. Of course, this being a Superman cartoon, Lois manages to sneak around and gets in danger so guess who comes to the rescue? Pretty exciting entry with a nice change of characterization though The Mummy Strikes is a bit too short to really entertain. And that last line based on a then-popular song was a pretty lame joke ending. Still, worth a look for any Superman completists out there.
11 Reviews
I guess the war needed a break
jtyroler14 June 2012
For once, Clark Kent is told of a story and tries to hide it from Lois Lane, who follows him anyway. What would a Superman cartoon be without having to rescue her?
An Egyptologist is found dead, believed to be murdered - his young assistant is arrested and convicted of his murder. Another archaeologist believes that his colleague was killed by the mummy's curse - the Curse of King Tush (pronounced like the ZZ Top song, but this isn't what they were looking for).
As Clark is shown around the museum (and Lois sneaking around in the shadows), Clark presses something on the mummy's coffin, ejecting a poisoned needle and opening the sarcophagus. A medallion on the mummy starts to glow and opens the sarcophagi of the giant guards.
They start destroying the museum, which, for reasons unknown has a large fire for lighting. Can Superman save the day or does the supernatural win out?
An Egyptologist is found dead, believed to be murdered - his young assistant is arrested and convicted of his murder. Another archaeologist believes that his colleague was killed by the mummy's curse - the Curse of King Tush (pronounced like the ZZ Top song, but this isn't what they were looking for).
As Clark is shown around the museum (and Lois sneaking around in the shadows), Clark presses something on the mummy's coffin, ejecting a poisoned needle and opening the sarcophagus. A medallion on the mummy starts to glow and opens the sarcophagi of the giant guards.
They start destroying the museum, which, for reasons unknown has a large fire for lighting. Can Superman save the day or does the supernatural win out?
It's Supernatural, Yes...But Isn't Superman Super-Natural
Hitchcoc27 December 2016
An archaeologist is dead and it is thought that it is because of the curse of King Tush (really!). Superman is enlisted because he is apparently able to fight creatures that are otherworldly. What happens are a series of events that show that there is more than meets the eye. Also, there is a clear and present danger to others who are interested in Egyptology. There is something that doesn't quite fly here and I can't put my finger on it. Lois, of course, is in danger. That's not it. I have a feeling that the studio was having a little trouble finding adversaries for Superman and this is what they came up with. Still, the animation is good and it is presented in bright colors that would have lit up the screen.
Superman #14
Michael_Elliott17 May 2009
Mummy Strikes, The (1942)
** (out of 4)
A woman is convicted of murdering a scientist in Egypt but Clark is called over to go over some clues, which might point the finger at a mummy. Lois tags along and gets herself kidnapped, which means Superman must do some fighting. There aren't actually any mummies in this thing but that's not what makes it so boring. What kills this film is that it runs under eight-minutes and the action doesn't start until close to the six and a half minute mark. We get a lot of dialogue telling us what the doctor was doing in Egypt yet we get very little action and Superman doesn't even appear until the very end and it's only for a matter of seconds. The animation looks very good but the budget was apparently too tight for a good script.
** (out of 4)
A woman is convicted of murdering a scientist in Egypt but Clark is called over to go over some clues, which might point the finger at a mummy. Lois tags along and gets herself kidnapped, which means Superman must do some fighting. There aren't actually any mummies in this thing but that's not what makes it so boring. What kills this film is that it runs under eight-minutes and the action doesn't start until close to the six and a half minute mark. We get a lot of dialogue telling us what the doctor was doing in Egypt yet we get very little action and Superman doesn't even appear until the very end and it's only for a matter of seconds. The animation looks very good but the budget was apparently too tight for a good script.
Mightier Than A Roaring Hurricane
Ron Oliver10 June 2000
A SUPERMAN Cartoon.
`He who disturbs the eternal peace of King Tush shall perish!' This ancient Egyptian curse comes true when THE MUMMY STRIKES, trapping Lois Lane & Clark Kent in a museum with Tush's reanimated giant guards...
This was another in the series of excellent cartoons initially created by Max Fleischer for Paramount Studio. They feature great animation and taut, fast-moving plots. Meant to be shown in movie theaters, they are miles ahead of their Saturday Morning counterparts. Bud Collyer is the voice of Superman; Joan Alexander does the honors for Lois Lane.
`He who disturbs the eternal peace of King Tush shall perish!' This ancient Egyptian curse comes true when THE MUMMY STRIKES, trapping Lois Lane & Clark Kent in a museum with Tush's reanimated giant guards...
This was another in the series of excellent cartoons initially created by Max Fleischer for Paramount Studio. They feature great animation and taut, fast-moving plots. Meant to be shown in movie theaters, they are miles ahead of their Saturday Morning counterparts. Bud Collyer is the voice of Superman; Joan Alexander does the honors for Lois Lane.
That Doesn't Sound Like Clark!
joebridge28 March 2006
The main complaint about these older Superman cartoons is that they are too short to generate enough interest with regard to the otherwise interesting plots and attractive titles, especially since the history and build-up is too long with regard to the actual Superman elements that come later on.
This one is odd in that it really begs "King Tut" but we get "King Tush" instead. By the way, the "u" is short, not long, or it would be even more amusing.
Not much in the line of original action sequences. Animation is very good as usual, but it should have been about a minute or two longer and without the mummy/mother joke which they just couldn't resist, could they? (Sigh.)
4/10.
This one is odd in that it really begs "King Tut" but we get "King Tush" instead. By the way, the "u" is short, not long, or it would be even more amusing.
Not much in the line of original action sequences. Animation is very good as usual, but it should have been about a minute or two longer and without the mummy/mother joke which they just couldn't resist, could they? (Sigh.)
4/10.
Any red-blooded, right-thinking American guy . . .
tadpole-596-9182564 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
. . . will place THE MUMMY STRIKES at the top of the chart for all episodes of the original Superman animated series. The reason that this outing for the "Man of Steel" deserves such high regard, of course, is that MUMMY strikes down the sharpest thorn in Superman's side, as the misanthropic "Lois Lane" finally earns her long-overdue come-uppance. For the fourteenth time in a row, MUMMY begins with Lois trying to steal "Clark's" scoop (and, by extension, Superman's thunder). This time the back-stabbing always distressed damsel miscalculates, shadowing Clark so furtively that even Mr. X-ray Vision doesn't know that she's lurking in his background. (As if!) Once the giant mummies are activated, Clark allows Lois to be slammed around like a tetherball, before seeing that Superman (belatedly) comes to her rescue. MUMMY concludes with casts covering BOTH of the unprincipled news lady's hands and arms, leaving her unable to write, type or even wipe! Bones may heal eventually, but surely there will be plenty of lingering nerve trauma to remind Lois for the rest of her life that she tugged once too often on Superman's cape!
Just okay Superman cartoon
planktonrules28 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
In general, I am not a huge fan of these Fleischer brothers cartoons--mostly because they are too fast-paced. It's like they are trying to cram 15 minutes of cartoon into 6 minutes. So, because of that, the mystery and thrills they are trying to create just don't work--since the solution occurs so quickly after the problem is established. For example, when Clark, Lois and some archaeologist enter the mummy's tomb, the coffin has been rigged with a poison quill. But, as soon as the audience becomes aware of it, Clark finds it and removes it--how he did this so quickly is really a puzzle--even if he IS Superman. Also, as usual, the animation quality lags far behind other products from the same company. Just compare these simple but colorful drawings to Popeye cartoons and it's obvious they were rushing the cartoons into production.
By the way, watch for the introduction speech about "faster than a speeding bullet,...", as the words are VERY different to what we think this speech should be. No locomotive or tall buildings mentioned!
By the way, watch for the introduction speech about "faster than a speeding bullet,...", as the words are VERY different to what we think this speech should be. No locomotive or tall buildings mentioned!
Pretty lousy
preppy-311 March 2005
A Superman cartoon from the 1940s--and one of the worst if not THE worst! Dr. Jordan (who studies Egyptian mummies) is found murdered and his assistant Jane Hogan is unjustly accused of it. Clark Kent gets a call from a colleague of Dr. Jordan who is convinced Jordan was killed for violating a mummy's grave by opening it. He goes to the museum to check this out (with Lois secretly following him) and finds out the truth. But (through circumstances too ridiculous to tell) he revives THREE mummies who all attack the professor, Lois and Clark. A good thing Clark is Superman.
Really dumb cartoon. The animation is great with some spooky mummies but the story is preposterous, there's a LONG story about the ancient Egyptian king that drags and his name is King Tush--that had me speechless! The fights are dull and it ends on a "joke" that had me groaning aloud. Real bad. A 3.
Really dumb cartoon. The animation is great with some spooky mummies but the story is preposterous, there's a LONG story about the ancient Egyptian king that drags and his name is King Tush--that had me speechless! The fights are dull and it ends on a "joke" that had me groaning aloud. Real bad. A 3.
My Mummy done told me this one's not great
utgard1415 December 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I love the Fleischer Superman cartoons. The animation is smooth and fluid with vivid colors. The distinct art-deco style, vintage science fiction imagery, and use of noirish shadows gave them a look unlike any other cartoons. The music and voice work is superb. They're fun, accessible, enduring animation classics. While this is a cartoon from Fleischer Studios' successor, Famous Studios, it still tries to maintain the Fleischer style.
Fourteenth in the series starts off with the murder of Egyptologist Dr. Jordan. His assistant finds the body and handles the syringe next to it, getting her fingerprints all over it. She's arrested and tried for Jordan's murder. A colleague of Jordan's calls up Clark Kent and says he has proof of the girl's innocence. Unbeknownst to Clark, Lois overhears and tags along behind him to the museum. There, Clark is given a history lesson on King Tush and shown how Dr. Jordan was really killed. Then, oddly, some ancient guards are revived and Superman has to step in.
I love Egyptology stuff and the part where the professor was explaining to Clark about King Tush was interesting. However, the fight between Superman and the "mummy" guards was way too brief. As a matter of fact, Superman is barely in this. And while I'm griping, they weren't even mummies like the title suggests. Also the resolution to the plot about how Dr. Jordan was killed was poorly executed and directly contradicted what we were shown on screen earlier in the cartoon. Critics of these cartoons often pick apart the stories as being too simplistic. I rarely care about that because the plots aren't as important as the style and action in these cartoons. However, here we have a case of excessively lazy writing. The girl found a syringe next to Jordan's body. Her fingerprints being on it were the whole reason she was arrested. Yet they reveal in the end Jordan was killed by accidentally triggering a poison needle on King Tush's tomb. So what was the syringe? Did Dr. Jordan just happen to have a syringe with him that had the same poison as the needle from Tush's tomb? Preposterous!
Overall, this is a disappointing effort. Not unwatchable but not good. The Egyptian elements were enjoyable enough but inconsistency and unnecessarily dumb storytelling makes this sadly the worst of the Superman cartoons of the '40s. One last thing: other reviewers have incorrectly said that this takes place in Egypt, or at least partly there, and that's not true. The scenes in question take place in the Metropolis Museum's Egyptian exhibit.
Fourteenth in the series starts off with the murder of Egyptologist Dr. Jordan. His assistant finds the body and handles the syringe next to it, getting her fingerprints all over it. She's arrested and tried for Jordan's murder. A colleague of Jordan's calls up Clark Kent and says he has proof of the girl's innocence. Unbeknownst to Clark, Lois overhears and tags along behind him to the museum. There, Clark is given a history lesson on King Tush and shown how Dr. Jordan was really killed. Then, oddly, some ancient guards are revived and Superman has to step in.
I love Egyptology stuff and the part where the professor was explaining to Clark about King Tush was interesting. However, the fight between Superman and the "mummy" guards was way too brief. As a matter of fact, Superman is barely in this. And while I'm griping, they weren't even mummies like the title suggests. Also the resolution to the plot about how Dr. Jordan was killed was poorly executed and directly contradicted what we were shown on screen earlier in the cartoon. Critics of these cartoons often pick apart the stories as being too simplistic. I rarely care about that because the plots aren't as important as the style and action in these cartoons. However, here we have a case of excessively lazy writing. The girl found a syringe next to Jordan's body. Her fingerprints being on it were the whole reason she was arrested. Yet they reveal in the end Jordan was killed by accidentally triggering a poison needle on King Tush's tomb. So what was the syringe? Did Dr. Jordan just happen to have a syringe with him that had the same poison as the needle from Tush's tomb? Preposterous!
Overall, this is a disappointing effort. Not unwatchable but not good. The Egyptian elements were enjoyable enough but inconsistency and unnecessarily dumb storytelling makes this sadly the worst of the Superman cartoons of the '40s. One last thing: other reviewers have incorrectly said that this takes place in Egypt, or at least partly there, and that's not true. The scenes in question take place in the Metropolis Museum's Egyptian exhibit.
Superman meets Indiana Jones
Horst_In_Translation6 May 2016
Warning: Spoilers
But in this 8-minute cartoon "The Mummy Strikes",the Nazis are not the antagonists although it would have been fitting looking at when this was made. Instead Superman battles against a bunch of gigantic mummies after disrupting their piece at an Egyptian tomb. Oh well.. can you really blame them? Maybe this place is not to be for Clark, Lois and the professor. I like the villains in here and it is nice to see an unpolitical Superman film again, but I still believe that this little cartoon suffers from a weak story. One problem would be that the woman survived back then. weren't the mummies coming for her either? Another would be that Lois still ends up in the middle of dangerous situations randomly and finally there is really no revelation in here what happens to the mummies. The story suddenly changes to Clark's office at the end. Out of nowhere and I cannot give Sparber's work a thumbs up here. Admittedly it is also not his worst effort from the franchise. Thumbs down still from me though.
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