The Mummy.

The Mummy. Original motion picture soundtrack. Music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Decca 289 466 458-2.

Judging by the extent of the movie soundtrack sections of local music stores, I'll admit there's an enormous market out there for film music. But as anything more than a memento of a favorite film, most soundtracks fall well short of remarkable. The Mummy is no different from most of its breed. The music as presented in the film, written by veteran Hollywood composer Jerry Goldsmith, conjures up appropriate images of Egypt and the Middle East, reinforces the mood of the story, and contributes to its pivotal action. Listened to apart from the film, however, it is merely a collection of loose orchestral images.

Movie studios never seem to tire of resurrecting a popular idea, and the thought of an ancient mummy coming to life still seems irresistible. First, there was the series started in 1932 with Boris Karloff and its sequels. Then in 1959 came the Hammer Films production with Christopher Lee, and it, too, spawned its sequels. Now, with computer graphics and advanced special effects making anything possible, the time was obviously ripe for the creature's rebirth. Goldsmith attempts to recapture the feeling of those earlier efforts, especially the old Karloff outing. Unfortunately, most of the new music is imminently forgettable. Some of it is atmospheric, to be sure, with "Giza Port" and "Night Borders" particularly noteworthy, but the rest is largely bombastic or noisy, with a high degree of sameness prominent. The sound is pretty good for a soundtrack, though, highly dynamic, reasonably clean and clear, and only slightly hard and one dimensional. The Mummy has become a huge hit, and I'm sure its fans will want to own the music as a souvenir, (and soundtrack collectors will want it in any case). For the rest of us, it's an easy pass.