For the scenes in which the Mummy was seen in closeup or medium shots, Jack P. Pierce's painstaking makeup technique of gluing strips of cotton on Tom Tyler's face, to create deep wrinkles, was employed. But in long shots, Tyler wears a time-saving (and much more comfortable) rubber mask.
Part of the original SHOCK THEATER package of 52 Universal titles released to television in 1957, followed a year later with SON OF SHOCK, which added 21 more features.
Shooting began late May-June, 1940, released September 20.
The excavation scenes were shot on the Universal back-lot in a rocky and desert-like section of the natural hills known as "Gausman's Gulch," named after Russell A. Gausman, set decorator on this film, and many other of Universal's horror films. To give the gulch a more canyon-like and wild appearance, it was augmented with artificial rock-faces and boulders.
To make the mummy appear more frightening, Tom Tyler's eyes (and the inside of his mouth) were blacked out frame-by-frame in almost all close-ups.