Karl W. Freund

Cinematographer for Metropolis, Dracula, A Guy Named Joe, and many others. He was also a director, his most famous being The Mummy.

The Mummy (1932) -- All the main elements of Dracula are here (undead nobility with hypnotic powers seeking mystical love and eternal life while being pursued by expert in the field and strapping boyfriend of would-be lover), but the movies are very different from each other in other ways. Where Dracula is a more charismatic, interesting, and over-the-top character, the Mummy is more subtle and dignified (and sympathetic). Freund gave more care to the movie than was necessary for a horror film (the same can be said of many in the Universal Pictures horror cycle) and made something that stays with you even though on the surface lots of it seems just boring (or confusing: there's lots of Egyptian myth in here to follow). It's barely even a horror movie, by the way. Karloff is wrapped in bandages for the first fifteen minutes and has a creepy resurrection, but after that it turns more into a weird love story. (William Christy Cabanne directs the semi-sequel, The Mummy's Hand.)