"Why do you want me to lock you in here with the mummy? You've flipped, friend!" That line is just a sample of the madness that awaits you in the lunatic monster mayhem of The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals, a cheapo horror movie shot around Las Vegas by Oliver Drake, a director of dozens of quickie Hollywood westerns who went full-on exploitation hound with films like this and Ride a Wild Stud. Ratty creature outfits and a wild surf rock score (mostly none other than Peter Thomas' fantastic music for the classic Krimi, The Sinister Monk) make this a great party movie that crams a lot of goofy fun into its lightning-fast 80 minutes. This one never had an actual theatrical release, but it did sneak out on VHS briefly in 1986 from Academy Home Entertainment, the source for various sorry-looking dupes over the years. In a miracle that rivals the nuttiest turns in the film itself, the negative was unearthed "at Ewing 'Lucky' Brown's estate sale" and given a pristine 4K scan for a 2024 Blu-ray release that will blow your mind.

In the middle of Nevada, Bob (Browne) and Donna (Dawson) are summoned by archaeologist pal David (Eisley) to check out the Egyptian relics he's salvaged from a plane crash. As a quick study of the inscriptions reveals, whoever is in the presence of the inhabitant Princess Akana's body (Pons) in her tomb during a "full moon cycle" will "suffer the curse of the jackals," so of course David, not exactly the sharpest knife in the sarcophagus, decides to shut himself in and send the other two out for the evening. After night falls, David immediately transforms into a very fluffy jackal man who rampages around the neighborhood and kills random passersby. The next morning, David is highly disheveled but can't remember a thing about what happened. In flashback we learn the whole backstory about involving a plague-spreading jackal bite and how the princess could be revived 4,000 years after her demise and conveniently speak any language in her vicinity, all of which might just become relevant as David gets ready for the big impending archaeology conference. Now David is cursed to turn into a killer jackal monster every night, but what about the moldy mummy (Goldsmith) who's also lying around? And what's going to happen when Akana decides to wake up and, now known improbably as "Connie," use the powers granted by the goddess Isis to savor modern life?

If all that weren't enough, this one also throws in a completely gratuitous John Carradine cameo as a wily professor ("I think you'll find there's no real mummy involved"), crazed footage of the mummy and jackal guy stumbling around the Vegas strip in front of amused tourists, and a beach duke-out climax you have to see to believe. The vibe here is similar to what Ray Dennis Steckler was churning out around the same time with a dash of Dracula (The Dirty Old Man) for good measure -- with that film's werewolf costume looking awfully familiar here.

After being consigned to oblivion for many decades, this shaggy film looks exponentially better here than ever before with a pristine presentation that finally allows you to see what's going on in those numerous dark scenes. Obviously this isn't going to be an aesthetic powerhouse, but seeing a weird mutt of a film like this revived so lovingly really warms the heart. The DTS-HD MA English 2.0 mono track is in fine shape throughout and features optional English SDH subtitles. In "The Vega International Story" (21m7s), the always informative and enjoyable Stephen Thrower (Nightmare USA) goes into the short and peculiar history of the film's production company, including various legal wranglings and the background behind Ride a Wild Stud and other oddities like Thunder Circle. In "Cowboys, Mummies and Oliver Drake" (16m37s), C. Courtney Joyner hones in on the film's director and his decades-long career as a journeyman writer-director who was churning out oaters at a frantic rate in Southern California in the '30s and '40s. "Investing In The Jackal" (3m42s) is a quick but fun bit with Garry Gassel, son of investors Milton R. Gassel and Judi Gassel, about his parents' intentions hoping to make some cash on this film given the cast and premise, with Judi even making a cameo appearance.

Finally you get an entire bonus feature film here, 1969's Angelica, the Young Vixen (60m52s), another Vega International curio in which a peroxide blonde jaibait vixen, Angelica (Dixie Donovan), lures an older guy, Ned (Vincent Ricco, a.k.a. possible real director William Drake), into a violent tryst outside a roadhouse (where gypsies play accompaniment to live nudie shows). She gets out of hot water and a sentence to a foster home by shacking up with the judge (Lou d'Jena), who has a perilous heart condition, bedding his daughter, and developing an apparent allergy to clothing. How long can her scheming hold out? Trashy and filled with sweaty atmosphere, it's a typical softcore programmer from the days before hardcore took over, as represented by a small role for actor Richard Smedley (The Abductors, Brain of Blood) who crossed back and forth over the sex film divide and also pops up uncredited in Mummy as a cop. The print here is the only one in existence, and despite a heavy amount of damage, it's great to have here for posterity and hugely entertaining if you're a softcore exploitation fanatic. This one also comes with a thorough audio commentary with Vinegar Syndrome's Joe Rubin, exploitation film researcher Shawn Langrick, and Severin's Andrew Furtado about the puzzling circumstances behind this film, the path it took to winding up on this release, the connection to the amazing Las Vegas Strangler, and the "two Oliver Drakes" to bear in mind here when you try to figure out who actually made this. The background on Bill Drake alone is astounding, making this essential listening to learn about the dustier corners of '60s fly-by-night exploitation.

ANGELICA, THE YOUNG VIXEN

Reviewed on July 11, 2024