Mummy's Boys

Mummy's Boys

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Fred Guiol
James Anderson (assistant)
Produced by Lee S. Marcus
Screenplay by Jack Townley
Philip G. Epstein
Charles E. Roberts
Story by Jack Townley
Lew Lipton
Starring Bert Wheeler
Robert Woolsey
Barbara Pepper
Moroni Olsen
Frank M. Thomas
Willie Best
Music by Roy Webb
Cinematography Jack MacKenzie
Edited by John Lockert
Production
company
Distributed by RKO Pictures
Release dates
  • October 2, 1936 (1936-10-02)
Running time
 68 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Mummy's Boys is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Fred Guiol and written by Jack Townley, Philip G. Epstein and Charles E. Roberts. The film stars Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Barbara Pepper, Moroni Olsen, Frank M. Thomas and Willie Best. The film was released on October 2, 1936, by RKO Pictures.[1][2][3]

Plot

The film opens on a dark and stormy night. Mary Browning (Barbara Pepper) and Phillip Browning (Frank M. Thomas) are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Professor Edwards (Frederick Burton). Mary glances down at a newspaper, and we see that the headline is "Curse Of King Pharatime's Tomb Claims Ninth Victim". Professor Edwards arrives, and they discuss the possibility of their being affected by the curse. Browning wants to return all the treasures to the tomb to lift the curse. Edwards points out that all of the victims were determined to have died from natural causes, and pooh-poohs the idea of a curse, even laughing, then in mid-laugh he dies. A mysterious figure in a turban is seen outside the window in the rain.

Stanley Wright (Bert Wheeler) and Aloysius C. Whittaker (Robert Woolsey) are working downtown digging ditches, when they read a newspaper advertisement to join Mr. Browning's Egyptian expedition, so they decide to quit their jobs (much to the foreman's delight) and are off to Mr. Browning's mansion. When they arrive at the house, they see an Egyptian outside the house, so they ask the butler and he says that the Egyptian is the only other applicant. As the butler goes off to announce them, Whittaker decides to pretend to be Egyptian to improve his chances of being hired, so he whisks a cloth off a sideboard with ease, without knocking off the vase on top of it. Wright tries to duplicate his results, but only succeeds in knocking off the crockery with a crash. The butler announces the two, and they have wrapped the cloths around their heads like turbans, and Whittaker pretends to be an Egyptian expert. Browning seems to doubt him, but hires them anyway. He says they will leave the first thing the next morning. The boys meet Mary, and Stanley is flustered.

Cut to a ship crossing the ocean. The Egyptian is skulking around the deck, and disturbs Browning, who goes to his door just as the Egyptian hurries away. Browning knocks on Sterling's (Moroni Olsen) door and reveals his misgivings, which Sterling ignores.

Wright and Whittaker are in their stateroom, and Wright wakes up Whittaker because he can't sleep, and if he doesn't get sleep, he can't remember what it is he forgot. (This is a running gag throughout the film.)

A couple of hours later, the ship hits something, waking everyone up and causing a panic. Wright goes to Mary's stateroom and gets her. A few minutes later her father checks on her and she's not there. The danger passes, and we see Mary and Wright talking, and he is obviously smitten with her, but has difficulty figuring out what to say to her. Mr. Browning and Sterling find Mary, and she explains how Wright looked out for her, and Browning thanks him. The captain says this is not the first bad thing that happened this cruise, and expresses the opinion that it is 'jinxed'.

The crew hear a voice in the cargo hold, and find a stowaway, Catfish (Willie Best). The captain is ready to throw him in the brig, but when he says he "has to get back to Cairo", Whittaker thinks he means Cairo, Egypt, so he gets the captain to release him to be an employee of Browning's.

In Cairo, Whittaker and Wright are checking into the hotel, and by their hijinks, proceed to make an enemy of a Pasha. Meanwhile, a native spy is given his orders to commit acts of skulduggery. He skulks around outside Sterling's hotel room.

Whittaker and Wright go shopping, accompanied by Catfish. Whittaker asks Catfish what a good place to eat is, and he says he doesn't know, he's never been here before. Whittaker says, "I thought you were from Cairo?" and Catfish replies, "Yes sir, Cairo, Illinois." The Pasha's wives sit down in a shop with food service, and Whittaker and Wright see them. They decide that they will eat there, as well, and that they will say they were poisoned by the food after they are done so they don't have to pay for the merchandise. They sit with the Pasha's wives and are soon laughing it up. The Pasha comes back and sees them, and starts to chase them, but trips so they get a head start. They see some Egyptian women go into a shop, so they go into it, and come out disguised as Egyptian women. The Pasha spots them and thinks they were the missing members of his harem, and escorts them back. While the Pasha's head is turned, someone accidentally knocks off Whittaker's hijab, so the Pasha spots him, and chases him and Wright.

Back at the hotel, the switchboard operator informs Mr. Browning that Sterling's phone was taken off the hook, but he didn't say anything. Browning, Whittaker and Wright rush to Sterling's room, to find the door locked. The manager unlocks the door to find the room in disarray and a threatening note left. Browning entrusts Whittaker and Wright with a letter of instruction, not to be opened until they reach the dig.

Wright takes a phone call where an Egyptian warns them if they don't turn back, but when Whittaker asks him who it was, he doesn't remember. Wright almost loses the map, so Whittaker, seeing a tattoo parlor across the street, has the map tattooed on Wright's back. Wright doesn't like needles, so Whittaker gets him to jump up and hang from a rafter, and puts a bed of nails under him so he is a "captive audience" for the tattoo artist.

They continue towards the excavation, and that night at camp, they hear the laughing of the hyenas. The men including Mr. Browning are standing near a cliff. Mr. Browning walks away, and a second later a boulder falls where he was standing.

The next morning, Whittaker, Wright and Mary awake to find Catfish tied up, and everyone else gone. They find a threatening note identical to the one that had been in Sterling's room, in Browning's tent.

They open Mr. Browning's secret instructions, and it says to dig to the tomb entrance, and place all of the boxes containing the treasures to the tomb, then after all the boxes are placed, they should open the second enclosure which is sealed with wax. The three men start digging.

Once they have the tomb entrance cleared, they light a lamp and go in. They are chased out by bats, then they start carrying the boxes into the tomb. The scene cuts to Sterling, with Browning tied up and gagged next to him, in a secret room of the tomb where, Sterling reveals, he found jewels the last time they were in the tomb. He reveals that he poisoned the other 10 with a syringe containing undetectable poison, which he also plans to do to Browning, Mary, Whittaker and Wright. He leaves via a hinged statue, but accidentally drops a diary, which Wright later picks up.

Whittaker, Wright, Mary and Catfish have finished moving all the boxes, and then a landslide fill in the entrance with them in the tomb. They search for a way out. Catfish comes across Sterling, and runs back to the rest. Sterling approaches them, with the syringe behind his back. He pretends to be a victim of kidnapping. He professes to now believe in the curse. Wright reveals that he now knows it is actually murder, from what is in the diary. He did not get to the part about who the murderer was. He does not remember where he hid the diary, so he needs to take a nap to remember. Seeing his chance, Sterling offers to inject him with a "sedative". Wright still doesn't like needles, so he leads them all on a merry chase, ending when he picks up a vase, and throws it, aiming at Whittaker but hitting Sterling on the head, dazing him. The vase smashes, revealing the diary, which Whittaker picks up and sees the name Edward Sterling; he warns everyone that Sterling was the murderer and that the syringe contains poison. They run from Sterling. Sterling corners them at a dead-end tunnel but Whittaker threatens him with a shovel, so he ducks into a secret chamber, and they go for picks to dig him out. He sees mummies, and some gauze, so starts wrapping himself. At the same time, in the other secret chamber, Browning has succeeded in untying himself.

Meanwhile, the police have arrived at the camp. They start clearing away the debris from the tomb entrance.

Whittaker, Wright, Mary and Catfish have broken into the secret chamber where Sterling is. There are three mummies in the sarcophagi, only one of them is Sterling. After several minutes, they discover him, and he starts chasing them with the syringe. Finally, Whittaker throws a vase at him, and stuns him enough that he can unwrap the bandages wrapped around Sterling's body, causing him to spin and get dizzy and fall, whereupon Wright takes the empty sarcophagus and puts it on top of Sterling, and sits on it. His weight alone isn't enough to keep it down, but Whittaker helps him, and their combined weight does the trick. Browning walks into the secret chamber just as they tie up the coffin, for a reunion with Mary.

The police have succeeded in breaking into the tomb, and bring Sterling to justice. The Egyptian spy who warned Wright over the phone turned out to be an Egyptian secret policeman, Rasheed Bey (Francis McDonald), who was investigating Sterling. Whittaker hands over the diary to be used as evidence. Wright has something he wants to say to Mary, but he forgot.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ "Mummy's Boys (1936) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "Mummy-s-Boys - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes - NYTimes.com". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  3. ↑ "Mummy's Boys Trailer, Reviews and Schedule for Mummy's Boys - TVGuide.com". TV Guide. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
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