The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals begins with a rousing score that answers the age-old question of what would Dan Curtis’ Dark Shadows have sounded like with a surf rock score.
After that riddle is solved we meet David (Anthony Eisley, whom you may remember from Al Adamson’s 1971 slice of awesome Dracula vs Frankenstein), who is in the process of showing his pal Bob (Robert Alan Browne, who made appearances in the first two Psycho sequels… and who’s character knows a shit-ton about glass, as one does) and his girlfriend Donna (Maurine Dawson, (who did a good amount of TV appearances in shows like Get Smart and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. before this film and only one thing after)…
Shit, that was a bit much…
Where were we?
Oh yeah, Dave’s showing thing…
David shows Bob and Donna the ancient glass sarcophagus of Egyptian princess, Akana (Marliza Pons… I don’t know, she wasn’t in much… there’s an episode of Crime Story in there… )… who is dressed like a Vegas showgirl version of an Egyptian princess… which makes sense because this film was shot there.
Anyway, ol Davey has plans to use his discovery and subsequent resurrection of Akana to prove he’s hot shit to those that snubbed his scientific efforts… but first he simply must transform into a were-jackal and go around causing mischief down at the railyard… and by “mischief” I mean he fuckin’ murders a guy.
Also David has a grungy mummy (Saul Goldsmith, whom you may remember from… this) in his possession which also comes back to life… and he’s as hot n’ horny for Akana (who surprisingly is not a mummy, but a perfectly preserved woman)… as our hero… and soon he’s crashing through walls like the Kool-Aid Man and murdering exotic dancers while David takes Akana, now disguised as his new girlfriend, “Connie” on a double-date, night out on the town.
Will David overcome his curse or will he die in a love triangle with a woman old enough to be his great, great… it’s a lot of greats in there… grandmother?!
Where to even begin with Oliver Drake’s The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals?
For starters, this is exactly the type of regional, poverty row craziness that would always spark my fevered imagination as a young Monsterkid!
What it lacks in production value it makes up for in batshit ideas. Over the course of 80 minutes we get monsters, nightclubs, double-dates, an Egyptian goddess… the narrative (provided by screenwriter William Edwards, who also brought us Dracula (The Dirty Old Man the same year as this picture) goes wherever the fuck it wants and we are dragged right along with it…
One of the places it goes is right out on the streets of Las Vegas, where our were-jackal and mummy stroll the boulevard trying to be menacing but are met with genuine reactions from the crowd which range from “What the hell is going on?” to straight-up laughter (mostly the latter).
And if the makers of the film couldn’t be assed to get shooting permits (which given most of the locations utilized and the perplexed crowds, was most likely the case) you can bet they didn’t have a lot of safety regulations in place… but that doesn’t stop them from throwing whoever was in that were-jackal costume up on the roof of a structure that looks as if it’s one p.h. away from collapsing into ruin whenever our protagonist decides to leave his abode via the wobbliest of trellises… even though he could just exit and enter through the front door since David is literally the only one that lives in the house… and he does just that later in the film.
Since we are on the subject of the were-jackal, his costume arrives straight from the set of the aforementioned Dracula (The Dirty Old Man), and the transformation into said beast takes place via clumsy dissolves… but I’ll be damned if I don’t love that wild-looking fucker… just be prepared to sit through that transformation… played both forward and in reverse… multiple times to pad out that runtime!
Speaking of padding this film also features a flashback sequence that would be right at home at the local High School’s Christmas pageant, psychotronic sequences of hypnosis, and a cameo from the legendary John Carradine late in the film.
All of the above is set to a score that simply must be heard to be believed as creatures cavort to the sounds of Peanuts-esque jazz numbers accentuated by The Doors style electronic organ… plus surf rock.. and I haven’t even mentioned the nightclub music that is completely off it’s tits…
But while all of that is smacking you in the eyes n’ eerie ear-holes, the film takes the time and explain why Akana can speak and understand English… because that particular plotline was one toke over the line as far as believability is concerned…
As far as explaining how The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals came to be we have some special features that help including a look at the history of the film’s production company Vegas International (courtesy of author/film historian Stephen Thrower, a look at Drake’s career by film historian C. Courtney Joyner, and an interview with Garry Gassel, son of the film’s investors Milton and Judi Gassel.
Also included is Angelica, Young Vixen, a 1974 softcore flick directed (possibly) by Drake which appears here in an unrestored format, and is accompanied by it’s own audio commentary courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin and film researcher Shawn Langrick.
Long on ideas, short on funds, and as entertaining as it is ridiculous, The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals is creature feature B-movie bliss!
