“Through the Eyes of The Mummy” and “Portraits of Egypt in Cinema” series

This sixpack sarcophagus of cinema, screening in conjunction with the MIA’s “Eternal Egypt” exhibit (see our preview, p. 17), offers a half-dozen films showcasing Hollywood’s take on the time of the Pharaohs. While you wouldn’t want to confuse any of these with a history lesson, as sheer entertainment, they ain’t just Cheops liver. Three versions of The Mummy unravel before your eyes, the best of which is the iconic 1932 version starring Boris Karloff (December 20-21). The robust 1959 Hammer remake with Christopher Lee (January 10-11) is also a good way to (ahem) scarab some thrills, but you could skip the February screening of the slicker, but far dumber, 1999 version. The “Portraits of Egypt” trio deals more with the living than the undead, but historical accuracy is still downplayed in favor of grand spectacle—ancient Egypt being a favorite setting for Hollywood’s lavish, old-style period epics. One of the more notable is Cecil B. DeMille’s 1934 Cleopatra (January 3-4), starring seductive Claudette Colbert at the height of her fame as the devious and doomed Queen of the Nile. Howard Hawks’ campy Land of the Pharaohs (January 17-18), while not one of William Faulkner’s better moments slumming as a studio screenwriter, does have a young Joan Collins in full-on vamp mode as a queen scheming to get her husband interred in his pyramid tomb earlier than he planned. MIA, (612) 870-3131, artsmia.org