Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (Short 1918)

Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (Short 1918). 11m

“Ancient Egyptian mummies were a popular source early on in film history. The same year as this film, u0026quot;Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled,u0026quot; saw the release of Ernst Lubitschu0026#39;s u0026quot;Eyes of the Mummy Ma.u0026quot; Moreover, this Ebony Film Company release is largely derivative of an earlier comedy short, u0026quot;The Egyptian Mummyu0026quot; (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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe decomposition of the nitrate film here is severe–particularly at the beginning and end. While unfortunate in respect to film preservation, although itu0026#39;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. Itu0026#39;s the nitrate film thatu0026#39;s the true relic, though. Itu0026#39;s the mummified remains that today are most captivating.”