Abbott and Costello are in Cairo and get involved in mummies. The basic plot is the standard mummy one – devotees of the mummy try to protect it through murder. Abbott and Costello are actually the only sympathetic characters in this – everyone else is trying to kill them, whether they’re defending the mummy’s tomb or trying to grave rob it (Meet the Keystone Cops at least had a sympathetic studio head).
This is a so-so work, not very strong but peppered with good moments: the exciting opening acrobatic dance number, the lounge singer who “doesn’t want to be asked out”, a routine involving pitches, three mummies running around at the end, Abbott and Costello trying to get rid of a medallion. John Grant again gets sole screenplay credit (based on a story by others) – he was clearly better writing routines rather than stories. He died just before this film was released.
Abbott has a little more to do in this one than he did in most of their later films: not only is it he not Costello who is falsely accused of a crime (usually it’s poor old Costello), but he gets to dress up as a mummy. Marie Windsor is fun as a treasure hunter. This was the last film Abbott and Costello made for Universal, whom they saved from bankruptcy many times.
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