The Mummy And The Curse Of The Jackals — The Mummy And The Curse Of The Jackals (Blu Ray)
The Mummy And The Curse Of The Jackals is a late 1960s slice of bad movie pie, featuring a lumbering/ bulging-eyed mummy, a bad-toothed & wonky-snouted wolfman, and an ageless/ devious Egyptian princess. The film features highly stilted acting, cheap transformation footage, light hints of crude gore, and lo-fi psychedelic light effects. Here from Severin is a Blu-Ray release of this lesser-seen/ known of the 1960s US exploitation cinema- taking in two hours of extras, including a bonus sexploitation film & a commentary track for it.
The Mummy And The Curse Of The Jackals (aka Mummy's Curse of the Jackal, The Mummy vs. the Were-Jackal) is from the year 1969- filmed in and around LA. It was directed by Boise, Idaho, USA-born Oliver Drake. He had thirty-four credits to his name- these go from crime-mystery whodunit Today I Hang (1942), western The Parson and the Outlaw (1957), and sleazy drama Angelica: The Young Vixen (1974)- though more on that later. Most of his output was Westerns, with the film to hand being his only horror film.
After the crashing sea credits- we open in a small room with four of our lead characters- doing a whole lot of awkward plot dumping. We find out David Barrie ( Anthony Eisley) has recently found a glass-covered coffin which inside has a perfectly preserved Egyptian Princess Akana (Marliza Pons ). He tells his two friends Bob( Robert Alan Browne) and Donna( Maurine Dawson) about a legend regarding the princess, and that if anyone sleeps in the same room as her they will turn into a jackal- they leave, and he goes to sleep for the first of our cheap transformation from man to werewolf.
As the film unfolds our wolfman goes roaming near the rundown & cheap cobwebbed-covered country house David lives in. The glass on the coffin is broken- the princess awakes and starts hypnotizing folk with her sparking ring. We find out that next to the princess is a second coffin- in here is a mummy- he’s up & out of it soon too- lumbering around with bulging eyes in Las Vagas nightclubs, and down the bright neo-lite strip. With a moustached & beige checkered hat wearing John Carradine appears as a Professor trying to get the bottom of what’s going on
Added to this we have a soundtrack which darts all over the place- sometimes fitting the tone, sometimes not. We move from twanging surf, Indian restaurant music, funked fusion, orchestral music, and even wavering ritual tones.
The Mummy And The Curse Of The Jackals is silly/ often dumb fun- which very much fits in with other US exploitation of the time. It would have been nice to have been a bit more gore, and maybe some flesh on display- but we do get a battle between a tubby/ seen better day’s mummy and badly pouncing ‘n’ growling werewolf.
Moving onto this new Blu-ray, and the 4k scan of the film looks good, bright, and colourful. On the extras side, and there are around two hours of things. We have The Vega International Story (21.07) which finds Stephen Thrower discussing the company that released The Mummy And The Curse Of The Jackals- most of the other films they fronted were never release, so we get a decent rundown of these, and of course the film to hand which was filmed in January 1969. There’s Cowboys, Mummies And Oliver Drake (16.37) which finds film historian C. Courtney Joyner talking about the work of the director. Investing In The Jackal (3.42) Interview With Garry Gassel, Son Of Investors Milton R. Gassel And Judi Gassel.
As part of the extras, we get a bonus film directed by Oliver Drake. This is 1974’s Angelica: The Young Vixen, which is a mix of small-town drama and softcore drama. It’s centred around seventeen-year-old Angelica(Dixie Donovan)- a blond-haired fruit picker who has half of the town lusting after her- going from her tubby gypsy boyfriend, her curled ‘n’ quiffed middle-age foreman. Onto the local grey-haired & florid complexion judge, to his well-spoken yet snappy lesbian daughter. The softcore action is fairly pedestrian/ bland, and some of the drama is entertaining enough- if a little predictable. The cast is I guess ok, for this type of thing- though Donovan switches between being effective enough as the blond-haired temptress, to looking rather bored/ disinterested. The soundtrack is relatively varied- moving between warbling ‘n’ wavering female folk, accordion-led gypsy drinking music, onto sleazed jazz. Angelica: The Young Vixen is a fine just on-the-hour watch- though I can’t see myself revisiting it. The print presented here is very marked/ damaged.
There’s a new commentary on the film from Exploitation Film Researcher Shawn Langrick, moderated by genre film historian Joe Rubin. They start by commenting on the state of the print and where it came from. They discuss that the film was not directed by the Oliver Drake behind The Mummy And The Curse Of The Jackals, but the actor in the film who played the foreman- who took the director’s name. They point out that some of the softcore elements were added later. Later on, they talk about how the film seems like a paycheck film, and point out some of the better shots in the picture. Discuss it's possible filming locations, and a few other things. This is an interesting enough track worth a play.
The Mummy And The Curse Of The Jackals will certainly please fans of both monster mush-ups and Chessy 60’s exploitation. This new Severin Blu-Ray gives us a good selection of extras, with the nice bold & colourful 4k scan.