Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (1918) User Reviews

She Was Only a Mad Scientist's Daughter

[boblipton · 6/10 · 2 August 2016]

Daddy may be mad, but he's not stupid and he wants his daughter to marry a man with some money. Daddy has also put an ad in the newspaper, to buy an Egyptian mummy for experiments, so his would-be son-in-law buys a sarcophagus and hires a guy to play the mummy.

It's a pretty good comedy from 1918, with a a pleasantly complicated story and an appeal to the public interest in Egypt that would peak the following decade with the opening of King Tut's tomb. This film from the Ebony Film company, like the others, starred Black actors and was primarily tended for the all-Black movie houses of the era. The surviving print isn't in very good shape, but it's more than worth your time to look at.

Entertaining historical and cultural artifact

[ebeckstr-1 · 7/10 · 2 September 2020]

Other IMDb reviewers have done a good job of describing this film's attributes. I will only add that the original score written and performed by Alloy Orchestra is fantastic, with its emphasis on bass, percussion, and a resonant piano. (I watched this film on the Criterion Channel, FYI.)

Fun Mummy Comedy

[Michael_Elliott · 4 December 2016]

Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (1918)

*** (out of 4)

Fun comedy has Bill wanting to marry the woman his loves but her father refuses until he can prove to be a money maker and capable of taking care of her. Bill then reads a note in the newspaper with a many offering a grand for an actual mummy so Bill goes out to find a mummy.

I must admit that I had never heard of this film until it popped up on Kino's Pioneers of African-American Cinema collection. This film should certainly be better known and especially to horror fans since there's a mummy on display here. The comic timing is actually very good throughout the picture and I thought there were some hilarious sequences including one where the mummy (a man dressed up) falls off the back of a carriage and is being dragged around. Another funny sequences happens when a friend of Bill's sees a fake mummy.

The only problem with this short is the fact that the start and end of the print are in really horrid shape. It's hard to make out what's going on and it's really too bad because this is still a gem.

"Come to this address at once, I've located a mummy!"

[classicsoncall · 3/10 · 3 August 2016]

This film short was shown in conjunction with "Two Knights in Vaudeville" a few days ago on Turner Classics, an all black cast picture that has an interesting premise for a comedy treatment. In order to raise some money, 'Bill' intends to answer an ad from a professor seeking an Egyptian mummy for experimental purposes. I have to commend the guy's ingenuity and resourcefulness, he was offering a buddy ten bucks to impersonate a mummy while cashing in for a thousand bucks! With an argument ensuing over the thousand dollar split over a ten dollar con job, the picture unfortunately dissolves to a nightmarish quality due to severe nitrate decomposition and degradation. Actually, if this were done in color, it looked almost like any of those psychedelic interludes from musical groups that appeared on variety shows of the late Sixties/early Seventies like the "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour". You know, with the lava lamp effects and pulsating strobes that took over the screen and made you dizzy when somebody like Steppenwolf or Iron Butterfly were performing. This early attempt at an all black cast film today would appear to be of principal interest to historians only, although if you have the chance to catch it, it might prove entertaining for it's scant run time of eleven minutes. At least the title's a grabber, there's the hook right there.

Inventive, hilarious, and bizarre

[codyjcessna · 8/10 · 8 February 2020]

It's true, the Library of Congress print is severely degraded during opening act and climax. Honestly, it didn't detract much from my enjoyment. I feel hopeful that at some point it could be digitally restored for a significant improvement.

The film is as whimsical as the title implies. With an absolutely ludicrous premise, it packs the hijinks into its short run time. It's got high speed peril, deception, double-crosses, romance, a mad scientist, undercover Egyptian agents, and a stuffed duck that comes to life.

This film is also an achievement for early African-American filmmakers. It's incredibly creative and entertaining.

Mummified Decomposition

[Cineanalyst · 20 February 2020]

Ancient Egyptian mummies were a popular source early on in film history. The same year as this film, "Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled," saw the release of Ernst Lubitsch's "Eyes of the Mummy Ma." Moreover, this Ebony Film Company release is largely derivative of an earlier comedy short, "The Egyptian Mummy" (1914), but with a black cast instead of a white one. The slapstick here is broad, involving a man setting out to buy and, then, resell a sarcophagus--after hiring someone to pretend for a day to be the mummy inside--to the father of the woman he wishes to be engaged to so as to have enough money to win his approval to marry her. Seeing an early iteration of a mad scientist--and who, therefore, is in need of an ancient, preserved corpse--is amusing in its absurdity. Being distributed by Ebony, which shortly hereafter closed due to protests over the depiction of negative racial stereotypes, makes this also historically interesting to see for its racial representation--not only for African Americans in this case, but also for them depicting two ridiculous Western notions of Egyptian characters. The most fascinating aspect of viewing the surviving footage of this film today, however, has nothing to do with any of that.

The decomposition of the nitrate film here is severe--particularly at the beginning and end. While unfortunate in respect to film preservation, although it's a blessing for such old films to exist in any shape considering that most from the era are now lost, the decomposition seems unintentionally apt here. This is a film, after all, that deals in mummies--the preserved remains of decaying bodies. It's the nitrate film that's the true relic, though. It's the mummified remains that today are most captivating.

Impossible to rate due to the severe decomposition.

[planktonrules · 3 August 2016]

It's a real shame that this short comedy is so very badly degraded, but apparently there is no better quality print known to exist. This is a comedy starring black actors but for a company owned by whites. It was recently shown on Turner Classic Movies along with "Two Knights of Vaudeville"...also by the same company.

Bill wants to marry Lulu, but Lulu's father wants Bill to prove he can afford her. So Bill hits on a scheme when he's reading the newspaper. It seems that some professor is advertising that he'll pay $1000 for a genuine mummy...and Bill is determined to fake his own genuine mummy and sell it to the guy! Unfortunately, while this is a pretty funny idea, determining exactly what happens next is very difficult, if not impossible, due to the decomposed Nitrate print.

Overall, it's probably not worth your time...and it's a shame as the film does appear pretty funny and well made...especially when compared to the limp "Two Knights of Vaudeville".

why everyone should watch this film

[kekseksa · 27 July 2018]

The print of this film is in no worse shape han that many many films of this period and the comedy is quite as well done as the majority of them too. It is certainly worth anybody's while to watch it- I would say it was virtually compulsory - to see that a black director, a black cinematographer and black actors - never mind whether the holding company was run by whites; it also had a black manager - were able to produce just as good a film as most of their white counterparts. The timing is not "actually very good"; it is just very good and it is very good because there were plenty of black actors who were excellent comedians with considerable experience of working in vaudeville.

Then ask yourself why there were not many more films made by black directors or with black cinematographers and black actors and black performers.

Those who have the copy of the film should also make sure it is as widely available as possible for everyone to view. The copy at present on youtube lacks both the beginning and the end of the story. Not only should this film be in the public domain but it is very important that it should be watched.

The other Ebony films available are Spying the Spy and The Reckless Rover and also the earlier Two Knight of Vaudeville made by the original Historical Feature Film Company. Make a date to watch them all.