The Eyes of the Mummy Ma (1918)

Germany 63m, B&W, Silent
Director: Ernst Lubitsch; Cast: Pola Negri, Emil Jannings, Harry Liedtke, Max Laurence, Margarete Kupfer

An early Lubitsch film, before he developed his “touch”, The Eyes of the Mummy Ma is a tragic melodramatic thriller about an artist who rescues a woman (Negri) who was held captive in an Egyptian tomb by a Svengali-type character (Jannings). In combining elements of horror with Negri’s exotic character, Mummy Ma must have been a provocative film for 1918. It also highlighted Negri’s stunt abilities in the film’s final moments, with her dangerous backwards tumble-down a flight of stairs. Today, Mummy Ma remains an interesting document of the early work of not only Lubitsch, but of Pola Negri and Emil Jannings who became major silent film stars (Klaus Ming April 2017).