Notes: Universal. 90 minutes.
Pete Patterson: Bud Abbott
Freddie Franklin: Lou Costello
Madame Rontru: Marie Windsor
Charlie: Michael Ansara
Josef: Dan Seymour
Semu: Richard Deacon (Mel on the Dick Van Dyke Show)
Dr. Zoomer: Kurt Katch
Hetsut: Richard Karlan
Iben: Mel Welles
Habid: George Khoury
Klaris: Edwin Parker
Vocalist: Peggy King
Cigarette Girl: Carole Costello, Lou's daughter.

Screenplay: John Grant
Produced: Howard Christie
Directed: Charles Lamont.

Summary: Accompanying stock footage of Egypt, a narrator explains: "It has been said that a man's best friend is his mummy. In Egypt today this theory is in great dispute. . . . Two bold adventurers are about to discover another kind of 'mummy.'" Pith-helmeted Abbott and Costello (they ignore their character names for most of the film) watch acrobats at an Egyptian club, where Dr. Gustav Zoomer is blabbing about his latest archaeological find: the mummy Klaris, "Prince of Evil," which will provide a clue to the whereabouts of Princess Ara's tomb and treasure. Followers of the high priest Semu are outraged, and Madame Rontru and her henchmen are also interested: "There is no curse that a gun or a knife can't cure."

Zoomer is blowdarted to death while dictaphoning. Abbott and Costello seek him for jobs, and Lou is confused about Egyptian mummies sometimes being men. Bud: "I never had a mummy." Lou: "Whad your father do, win you in a crap game?"

Klaris is clearly alive in his sarcophagus, and comic business follows with the murderers hiding Zoomer's body from Lou. Semu announces a celebration for the "return of Klaris to his people," but a medallion is missing from the mummy. He gives fluid to the mummy, and the followers return to Zoomer's place to search. Meanwhile, the police suspect Bud of the murder, and he and Lou have to don disguises as snake-charming and rope-charming beggars (there's a blur between Egyptian and Indian stereotypes throughout the film). Back at Zoomer's, Lou tries to test his confidence by recording gun threats in the dictaphone, which fools Bud and later many pursuers after Lou finds the medallion.

The "boys" try to hock the medallion to find out its worth, but the proprietor shrieks about a curse and runs. Madame Rontru will pay $5000 that night at Club Baghdad. Peggy King sings "You Came A Long Way From St. Louis," and Bud orders hamburgers and coffee (after the sale, it'll be steak and potatoes). The waiter shrieks that the medallion means "death to whoever holds it," so after some comic switcheroo, Lou accidentally swallows it. Rontru with her henchmen, Charlie and Josef, take Lou to be fluorescoped, which makes the medallion visible. Semu, passing himself off as a Professor, arranges an expedition with Rontru to find the wealth of Ara. He knows secret passages at a temple, where his followers are worshipping. Lou stumbles on a secret passage, a bat, a giant iguana, a skeleton, and finally the mummy, which rises. Bud says, "Well, a live mummy is worth more to us than a dead one." Terror ensues, then plots. With Semu gagged, Charlie becomes a fake mummy, as does Bud, and the real mummy is wandering around too. Two mummies run from Rontru's gunshots, but not the real one. In a struggle, a torch sets off TNT, revealing the tomb of Princess Ara and blowing Klaris to bits.

Semu is dismayed, but Bud has an idea which will keep the legend alive. Cut to opening night at Kafe Klaris. Semu is the maître d', the band consists of musicians dressed in bandages, and the film ends with a snake-charming gag: the arms of a woman for Bud, and an actual snake for Lou.

Commentary: Pardon my messiah complex, but I've watched this to spare you.