Independent Films, Film Profiles

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is a 1955 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is also the 28th and final Abbott and Costello film produced by Universal Pictures.Freddie Franklin (Lou Costello) and Peter Patterson (Bud Abbott) are Americans who are stranded in Cairo, Egypt. They happen to overhear Dr. Gustav Zoomer (Kurt Katch) discussing the mummy Klaris, the guardian of the Tomb of Princess Ara. Apparently the mummy has a sacred medallion that shows where the treasure of Princess Ara can be found. The Followers of Klaris, led by Semu (Richard Deacon), overhear the conversation along with Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor), a business woman interested in stealing the treat of Princess Ara.Pete and Freddie go to the doctor's house to apply for the position to accompany the mummy back to America. However, two of Semu's men, Iben (Mel Welles) and Hetsut (Richard Karlan), murder the doctor and steal the mummy just before Pete and Freddie arrive. However, the medallion has been left behind and is found by Pete and Freddie, who attempt to sell it. Rontru offers them $100, but Pete knows it is worth more and asks for $5,000, which Rontru agrees to pay. She tells them to meet her at the Cairo Café, where Pete and Freddie learn from a waiter that the medallion is cursed. They frantically try to give it to one another, until it winds up in Freddie's hamburger and he swallows it. Rontru arrives and drags them to a doctor's office to get a look at the medallion under a fluoroscope. However, she cannot read the medallion's inscribed instructions, which are in hieroglyphics. Semu arrives, claiming to be an archaeologist, and offers to guide them all to the tomb. Meanwhile, Semu's followers have returned life to Klaris.They arrive at the tomb, where Freddie learns of Semu's plans to murder them all. Rontru captures Semu, and one of her men, Charlie (Michael Ansara), disguises himself as a mummy and enters the temple. Pete follows suit by disguising himself as a mummy, and he and Freddie rescue Semu. Eventually all three mummies are in the same place at the same time, and the dynamite that Rontru intends to use to dig up the treasure detonates, killing Klaris and revealing the treasure. Freddie and Pete convince Semu to turn the temple into a nightclub to preserve the legend of Klaris.