DAILY CALL SHEET: JUNE 23, 2026

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) While stranded in Cairo, an out of work Bud and Lou get wind of a sacred medallion that supposedly leads to a hidden treasure within the long lost temple of Klaris. Of course, they're not the only interested parties. A ruthless business woman and the cult of Klaris wouldn't mind getting their mitts on the treasure as well. Our bumbling heroes eventually secure the medallion but, of course, Lou ends up eating it. However, a quick trip to a doctor with a fluoroscope reveals the directions, and soon, all the rivals are on their way. Little do they know, the living mummy of Klaris awaits them all. This is on the lesser end of Abbott and Costello's trip through Universal's oeuvre of classic monsters, but it's still got more than enough fun moments to keep you entertained. The three mummy bit in particular never gets old.

 

Legend says the Holy Family spent some time in Cairo during their flight from Herod. One spot that commemorates this visit is Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church, also knowns as The Hanging Church because of its suspended nave. Cairo is also the location where the Coptic saint Simon the Tanner is claimed to have performed the moving the Mokattam Mountain. When the Muslim Caliph al-Muizz challenged the patriarch Abraham to prove the truth of the verse where Jesus claims if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move a mountain, the Holy Virgin appeared and sent Abraham to Simon, who carried out the miracle. After witnessing the mountain move, the Caliph converted to Christianity. The Catholic Church does not formally recognize or venerate St. Simon the Tanner, but does recognize the broader Coptic Orthodox Church as having valid sacraments and apostolic succession in some contexts, which is more important.

 

The Monster That Challenged the World (1957) An earthquake off the coast of California unleashes giant mollusks, though you'll have to take the movie's word for that as the monsters look more like deranged caterpillars. After a few swimmers get munched on, the Navy sends in divers who dispatch one of the creatures and retrieve a large egg, which they send to a nearby lab for study. While the military deals with a horde of mollusks making their way through the state's irrigation canals, the egg at the lab is accidentally allowed to hatch, setting loose a mollusk to menace the lead scientist and her young daughter. To be fair, the movie's title is a bit misleading as the monster only challenges a handful of swimmers and one little girl, but this is enjoyable '50s fare nonetheless. Plus, kudos to the filmmakers for actually building a full-sized giant monster to interact with the actors on set. He's pretty nifty, despite not being very mollusk-like.

 

I guess since many mollusk are such slimy little things, they don't get a lot of attention in Christian symbology. However, there are a few paintings like Carlo Crivelli’s The Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and Sebastian and Francesco del Cossa’s The Annunciation which prominently feature snails. At the time these paintings were created, snails were believed to reproduce asexually, either by being fertilized by dew or just spontaneous generation. Trusting the science of his time, Dominican friar Francis of Retz wrote in Defensorium inviolatae virginitatis Mariae: “If the dew of the clear air can make the sea snail pregnant, then God in virtue can make His mother pregnant.” And that's how a simple mollusk became a popular analogy for the Virgin Birth, and by extension the Incarnation of Christ, in medieval/Renaissance religious art.