The Color Red

~ Rebecca Stone Gordon

Well. Hrm. This is a bit embarrassing. All this time I’ve been off doing Things I thought I had a proper post up that the site launch was delayed until October 2021, but instead I’ve just had an empty test post hanging around gathering cobwebs.

At any rate.

I’m just sharing a funny coincidence, but posts will soon start appearing regularly!

A few days ago I was (re)watching Hammer Film Productions’ 1959 The Mummy (directed by Terence Fisher) and thinking about how the color red is used strategically throughout the film to signal impending danger and the intrusion of ominous, exotic elements into the narrative. The mail arrived and I did a full-on sitcom-esque doubletake at a piece of junkmail.

First, a few examples of the imagery from The Mummy. There’s a minor spoiler, but I’ve opted not to include many images to keep them to a minimum.

Here are two images from the early scenes at the dig site in Egypt. Archaeologists and laborers all wear some combination of beige, khaki, cream, or white as they work in the desert, surrounded by equally drab tents and textiles. Consequently, when Mehemet Bey interrupts their work to deliver a warning about desecrating the tomb, his red fez stands out in stark contrast to all of the other elements both on-screen and in the scenes before and after his appearance.

Screenshot from a scene in the desert. Two late middle-age white men stand in the foreground. They were khaki linen suits over white shirts and beige or khaki hats. They are sweaty and slightly dirty. Behind them are khaki tents. Shirtless, sweaty men who are meant to be Egyptian laborers wear white headcoverings and khaki linen pants. They carry baskets and tools. There are a few palm trees in the background of the image.
Stephen Banning (Felix Aylmer) and Sir Joseph Whemple (Raymond Huntley) discuss the progress of the dig in front of their tents, as laborers move materials in the background. (The Mummy, 1959).
A man of Greek descent wearing heavy brown makeup to emphasize his foreign-ness, stands in the center of the screenshot. He wears a crisp beige suit over a white shirt and blue and white striped necktie. On his head, he wears a red Fez. In the background, sweaty shirtless men wear white head coverings and khaki linen pants. They are in the desert at the site of an archaeological dig.
Mehemet Bay (George Pastell) arrives with a warning. (The Mummy, 1959).

The archaeologists ignore Bey’s warning, with tragic consequences for Sir Joseph’s mental health. Later, red is foregrounded, quite literally, in a scene where the re-animated Mummy breaks into the sanitarium. There is a bright red blanket on the bed in the padded room to which Sir Joseph Whemple has been moved in response to his fears that something is coming for him.

The lower third of the image shows an old white man in bed. He wears grey and white pajamas. The walls of the room are offwhite and padded. The window is barred and occupies the upper two-thirds of the image. An ominous figure is breaking through the bars. On the bed is a bright red blanket, the only bright color in the otherwise drab and shadowy room.
Sir Joseph Whemple meets the Mummy. (The Mummy, 1959).

There are several more stunning examples, but that would require a longer description and analysis of the film and that’s not really my point here.

With all that in mind, these are the images from the Banana Republic ad I pulled out of our mailbox while I was rewatching The Mummy and thinking about the use of the color red, the exotic Other, and the persistence of Colonial imagery:

The cover of a Banana Republic advertisement. A woman of African descent wears a dramatic red dress with a halter top and a flowing scarf behind her. She wears red high-heeled sandals. She stands in front of beige sandstone walls and an arched doorway. The white text reads: Dare to Wonder. Join us on a journey to imaginative worlds in timeless and luxurious styles.
Banana Republic Advertisement, 2021
Inside of the Banana Republic advertisement. Three images of white people, one who has a vaguely exotic appearance with olive skin and long brown hair. All wear shades of white and khaki and brown and are styled like adventurers or explorers. They stand in a reddish, sandstone place of indeterminate location. The text reads: Explore iconic, imaginative designs destined for a season full of fantasy.
Banana Republic Advertisement, 2021

It’s not surprising that a retailer named Banana Republic, which fully embraces a Colonial fantasy world as it’s brand, is, well, embracing a Colonial fantasy world in its advertising. I just thought it was a slightly more interesting thing to post than a 1,000 words about how horrified I was to find that it looked like I’d just up and abandoned this project before it even started.

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Published by Rebecca Stone Gordon

Bio-Anthropologist & Horror Scholar. I see dead people.

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