Abject fan of the old Hammer Horror movies that I am, I was thrilled to see this bit from the 1959 version of The Mummy. Our hero, John Banning (played by the always wonderful Peter Cushing), has gone to the home of the suspected villain, Mehemet Bey (George Pastell), to see if this recent arrival from Egypt is the person who dispatched the Mummy (Christopher Lee) to kill his father and uncle, and attempt to kill him. The way he chooses to probe for clues is to talk to Bey about … religion. And by golly, he sounds just like me. Bey gives the usual theistic excuses: but people are devoted to him! You just can’t comprehend the god! You don’t know anything about him! And then come the threats. It’s very familiar.
Obviously, the apologist for religion turns out to be the murderous master of the Mummy. The rest of the movie involves a beautiful young woman who is the spittin’ image of the dead Egyptian priestess the Mummy loved, slow motion chases through a swamp (they at least set it up early that the hero is partially lame, so it almost makes sense that the lumbering Lee and limping Cushing are in a fair race), and big guns.
While Cushing’s sneering dismissal of foolish religion does remind me of me, I’m pleased to say that none of my critics have yet managed to reanimate a dead guy and send his plodding corpse my way. They’re welcome to try, and mummies are especially welcome—they never seem to be particularly effective, you know.
I’m still looking for a movie where somebody says, “it was just the wind” and he turns out to be right.
But Bey is right! The threats are real – they may be mommies instead of mummies, but if you disturb their rest, there are consequences….
(TaDaDa Dummmm)
The clip cuts of the end, where Bey describes the consequences as “No presents for Christmas”.
ken, they did make that movie. The thing is the wind turned people inside out. Tagline: “It’s just…THE WIND!“
The beauty of that clip is that it applies equally to which ever religion is mentioned. Modus operandi and rhetoric – extremely similar.
What if the idea of God just needs some… evolution?
While sneering can be fun in a sneer-along with those who share your point of view – I do say this seriously and not sneeringly, knowing full well the allure of the sneer, subtle or overt, with a sweet dash of humor or of sour condescension (I did have trouble giving it up…) – it has at least one downside: tactically it’s ineffective at making people see your point if they don’t already share it.
Instead it seems to entrench them in their position. So it depends what you want to do: enjoy a sneer along around the campfire of like-minded buddies, which genuinely is fun; or make maybe one out of several hundred people with a different point of view modify it slightly.
Gotta love Cushing’s reply: “Not intolerant. Just practical.”
Thanks for the flashback. I grew up watching the old Hammer films.
I’d like it better if I didn’t know that the context was clearly racist, and it was not religion being attacked, but the religion of non-Christians.
But, yeah, what he said goes for most religions.
Off-topic, but I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned Palpatine’s latest uninformed rant yet, PZ.
I love Hammer Horror Films too. I actually belong to a couple of Hammer groups on yahoo. What a weird thing, I know. The acting’s horrible, but oh! The girlies in their filmy nighties! And the fake blood blood blood. And there is absolutely no way to kill any of the vampires that the studio can’t figure out a way-around for the next film.
Anyway, Coathangrrr’s right about the context.
Breaking news
Kurt Vonnegut died tonight.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/books/11cnd-vonnegut.html?ei=5124&en=c44942aa6c6fb22f&ex=1334030400&adxnnl=1&partner=digg&exprod=digg&adxnnlx=1176350608-aWJJuoJ0nUg7K7L0+Vbxyg
So it goes.
One of my favorite QI clips deals with Cushing, as well as Lee and Vincent Price: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Ma7bZ2dH0
And terrible news about Vonnegut. A man to be missed indeed.
Cats cradle & Slaugterhouse Five are up there on my list of fav books as a teen. I could never understand Vonnegut described as a science fiction writer. He just used some sci-fi stuff as a background to his ideas… so it goes, indeed.
My favorite Vonnegut quote (from memory):
If it were not for the sermon on the mount, I would just as soon have been born a rattlesnake.
When I have my own wildly popular radio show, I want to use the first sentence from that clip in my bumpers.
Vonnegut was one of my favorite authors. He also had insight into the real world, both in fiction and fact. Here is an article by him in “In These Times”.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/cold_turkey/
“But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.”
He also participated in this reading of Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/04/1450243&mode=thread&tid=23
Skatje has started up a thread on KV’s death.
http://skatje.com/?p=295#comment-6239
I’m sorry to say that is wrong, since we all know that you have been hit by… The Hitler Zombie!
It would be tragic if he got your brain.
Another unrelated tragedy is Vonnegut’s death. Loved The Sirens of Titan, liked Slaughterhouse-Five, got to read Cat’s Cradle.
I’m sorry to say that is wrong, since we all know that you have been hit by… The Hitler Zombie!
It would be tragic if he got your brain.
Another unrelated tragedy is Vonnegut’s death. Loved The Sirens of Titan, liked Slaughterhouse-Five, got to read Cat’s Cradle.
Cat’s Cradle is special.
RIP, Kurt.
Such an easy target for you non-believers. Cushing is clearly criticizing the simplified, common version of mummy belief, not the sophisticated philosophy that us mummy theologians really accept. Some may claim wrapping it up in in more bandages won’t change the fact that beneath it all its still just a corpse but why should we listen to those amateur mummyologists ?
‘I’m still looking for a movie where somebody says, “it was just the wind” and he turns out to be right.’
Twister?
Or perhaps ‘Blazing Saddles’ ?
My vote goes to Player Piano, for what it’s worth.
Funny how our greatest minds are ignored by the mass media.
Tragic, actually.
We have all the ideas and solutions we will ever need, but we won’t use them.
What’s troubling though is Cushing’s inability to believe that other people will believe what he disbelieves. Hugely naive. He may know a lot about mummies, but nothing about people.
PZ, Pat Robertson is already close to or past mummy status, and I can see him playing you’re “Christopher Lee” nemisis. Would even be a great DeathMatch rumble…………..
I wonder if people realize when they pray to Jesus… they’re praying to a zombie.
“…Cushing’s sneering dismissal of foolish religion does remind me of me…”
“Frankenstein Created Woman” has a great bit of Cushing contemptuously flipping through a bible. It only lasts a second or two, but it speaks volumes about his mad Frankenstein character. And the woman he creates–hello!
Christopher Lee is getting on up there in years. When he passes, I will truly shed a tear for that great man, the only Dracula to ever truly frighten me.
I beg to differ with you lot: If I found that some person or group actually had the ability to raise corpses and send them lumbering off on missions, I’d consider that “extraordinary evidence” that they did have some sort of special knowledge! Not necessarily as much as they think, but they’d clearly have something!
“I’m pleased to say that none of my critics have yet managed to reanimate a dead guy and send his plodding corpse my way. They’re welcome to try, and mummies are especially welcome…”
I’m working on it, so gimme a few more minutes….
PZ, your critics know that Zombie Jesus is coming to get you! Praise the Revenant Lord! HalleluYAAAHHHH!
I presume you have seen Kinski?
I presume you have seen Kinski?
PZ, without your beard, you could pass as a reasonable Peter Cushing.
You must of course have seen the awesome bit in “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed” (another Hammer classic) where Cushing gives it to the old fogies:
“Excuse me, I didn’t know you were doctors.”
“We’re not.”
“Oh. Forgive me, I thought you knew what you were talking about.”
“You’re damned rude, sir!”
etc.
My attitude might pass for Cushing’s, but I do not have that lean patrician look, I’m afraid.
They’re welcome to try, and mummies are especially welcome–they never seem to be particularly effective, you know.
I’d be careful what you wish for. With no patron deity, you can neither cast divine spells nor turn or rebuke undead. And mummies are immune to sneak attack damage. (We know you’re a rogue, PZ.)
You know, of all zombie types, the mummy has to be the most fragile and easy to evade. Think about it- they are really slow, they don’t seem to bite and they are extremely flammable. It’s the fragility and the rarity that make me hope you would take a more humane approach. Catch it, study it, then release it back into it’s natural desert habitat.
“I presume you have seen Kinski?”
I have, also as a youngster, but Herzog’s version did something even worse than frighten me: it put me to sleep!
Of course, I’ve rewatched it as an adult, and my response was much better.
Am I wrong or was that the guy who blows Alderan up in Star Wars?
Beware the Vampire Jesus! He gave his blood for you — now he wants it back!
re: #36. Yes, Cushing played Grand Moff Tarkin.
— CV
Two of my favorite Vonnegutt’s are “Dead-eye Dick” and ” Jailbird”. The latter has an anti-hero named Starbuck.
Also a request. Does anyone have the link to this youtube clip. I have looked for it and haven’t found it.
More Cushing on religon:
The Jedi are extinct. Their fire has gone out of the universe. You, my friend, are all that’s left of their religion.