November 13th, 2014 - The Eyes of the Mummy (1918)

I suppose by 2014 you are either on board with old silent films or not - that is - you either appreciate them and find the old-timeyness interesting and/or charming, or you just can't get into them all. I don't watch a ton of silent films, but I occasionally I'll check one out and enjoy my time in the way-back machine.

Now, the German way-back machine is probably one of the more loaded way-back machines there is. I'm not a history guy, but it's hard not to watch something like this and wonder what kind of effects World War I had on filmmaking (and creative minds in general) at the time. The Eyes of the Mummy doesn't explicitly deal with any sort of politics (other than the fact that rich people have really good lives), although it's hard not to see some of the xenophobia that was present at the time.

Our tale starts with a wealthy aristocrat named Wendland (Harry Liedtke), who is on a vacation to Egypt. He comes across a beautiful Egyptian woman named Ma (Pola Negri) alone in the desert and is instantly smitten. She runs away from him, but he insists on tracking her down. The next day in town, he offers big money to any guide that is willing to take him to her. However, the guides are hesitant to do so, because everyone that goes there comes back cursed! Anyways, money talks and eventually Wendland is taken to the cursed temple where Ma lives.