The Mummy poster It comes to life poster – Boris Karloff – Károly Grósz – 1932

Vintage Horror Poster: The Mummy It comes to life poster – Boris Karloff – Károly Grósz – 1932

This is a superb reproduction print of the original film poster promoting the 1932 Universal Picture, The Mummy.  The posters stunning illustration was realised by Károly Grósz. During most of the 1930s Grósz was the art director at Universal Pictures overseeing the company’s advertising campaigns and contributed hundreds of his own illustrations. Whilst his name may not be familiar to many people, his iconic poster designs are some of the scarcest and rarest movie posters highly sought after by poster collectors the world over.

The Mummy is a 1932 pre-code horror film. It was directed by the Austrian cinematographer Karl Freund who had worked on film’s such as Metropolis, Dracula and the Murders in the Rue Morgue. The Mummy was only the second film directed by Freund his first being the German silent movie The Sensational Trial, making The Mummy Freund’s first film as a director in America. The Mummy was based on story by Nina Wilcox Putnam and Richard Schayer which itself was inspired by the opening of the Tomb of Tutankhamun. The film stars Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan and Arthur Byron.

Grosz’s most popular posters advertised many of the early Universal Classic Monsters films such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), The Raven (1935) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Grosz’s posters for Frankenstein and The Mummy, have both set the auction record as the world’s most expensive film poster. His 1931 Frankenstein poster sold for $358,500 and The Mummy poster sold for $435,000, a record price for a film poster in 1997. held the record for nearly 20 years. The posters now rank as the fifth and eight most expensive posters in the world.

This vintage horror poster is a reproduction of the three-sheet theatrical release poster for the 1932 horror film. It is thought that there are only 3 or 4 surviving copies left. One copy is owned by Kirk Hamnet, the guitarist of the rock group Metallica. Hamnet put this and several other items from his movie poster collection into an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum back in 2017. Hamnet used the image from this three sheet Mummy poster as the image one one of his guitars.

The original three sheet poster measured 42″ x 80.5″ 1066mm x 2044mm.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as a fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a print and frame for a great price.