It feels a little ridiculous to be writing a post about a goofy 1940s mummy movie when so much tragic insanity and injustice is happening in the world, but I've been dealing with tragic circumstances on a daily basis for more than five years with very little support, and I've learned that enjoying the simple pleasures for at least a small portion of each day is my way of staying strong and sane. In that spirit, here's The Mummy's Hand.
Marketed as a follow-up to 1932's The Mummy and reusing a brief bit of that film's footage during an elaborate exposition scene, The Mummy's Hand has very little in common with its Boris Karloff-starring predecessor other than being a horror movie featuring a mummy and some tomb raiding. It's not really a sequel and is lighter in tone and quicker in pacing, though a little short on intensity. I enjoyed it, but it's a fairly minor entry in the Universal horror canon.
The opening scenes provide some overcomplicated over-explanation, but the nutshell is that the high priest of Karnak (Eduardo Ciannelli) is dying, so he summons his acolyte Andoheb (George Zucco), a Cairo Museum professor of Egyptology, to the Hill of the Seven Jackals to appoint him as successor. The high priest's job is to guard the still-living mummified body of Kharis (Tom Tyler), one of the sect's members. Kharis tried to revive the dead princess Ananka with sacred tana leaves, but was discovered stealing the leaves, had his tongue cut out, and was buried alive. That strikes me as a bit overly punitive, but what can you do?
Here's where some math comes in. To keep Kharis alive, three brewed tana leaves must be given to him as a drink every full moon. If interlopers attempt to break into the tomb, a nine-tana-leave brew turns the mummy into an ass-kicking but still controllable force of nature. If you give the mummy more than nine tana leaves, he becomes an uncontrollable, all-powerful immortal. It was Karnak's job to administer the tana brew mixtures, and now Andoheb has the responsibility.
Meanwhile, unemployed and nearly broke archaeologist Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and his wisecracking sidekick Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford) (because every archaeologist has a wisecracking sidekick), stranded in Cairo, find a broken vase at a bazaar, and Banning thinks it comes from Princess Ananka's tomb. He plans to scrounge up some funding for an expedition to the Hill of the Seven Jackals in the hopes of making some bank and returning to the workforce. An eavesdropping street beggar (Sig Arno) seems very interested in this expedition. A little too interested, if you know what I mean.
While drinking in a bar with the world's most expressive bartender (Harry Stubbs), Banning and Jenson befriend a fellow Brooklyn native, traveling magician Solvani (Cecil Kellaway) and convince him to fund and become part of the expedition. They already have another professor of Egyptology on board, Dr. Petrie (Charles Trowbridge). This excites Solvani but angers his daughter, the other half of the magic act, Marta (Peggy Moran). Thinking Banning and Jenson are grifters, she attempts to get her dad's money back. They almost convince her they're on the level, so she skeptically invites herself along to protect her father. This annoys Jenson, who doesn't want any dames ladying up the boys club. It burns him up to have to include a dame, I tells ya. Something tells me Marta will win him over before the expedition's end.
Of course, our expedition (let's be honest, tomb-robbing) team is going to butt heads with Andoheb and his mummy. Andoheb also has plans to make himself immortal, and when he gets an eyeful of Marta, he decides she needs to be immortal with him. She's clearly not on the same page, so conflicts and mummy madness will ensue and the tana leaves will be brewed like they're going out of style (and considering the plant is extinct and the supplies are confined to what's stored in the tomb, they are).
This is all pretty silly, but silent film actor turned director Christy Cabanne (Google him to check out his impressive mustache) keeps things moving at a reasonable clip once the opening scene's info dump is over, and the whole thing remains a breezy good time until closing credits. I also like how the eyes and mouth of the mummy are blacked out when the mummy is in closeup to make it scarier, which also makes it look accidentally avant-garde. It's a visually exciting effect, and it has my official cool mummy endorsement, which was notarized this morning.
I don't have much to say about this one. It's a good time, but it's far from an essential classic. It did get a sequel, The Mummy's Tomb, with most of the cast returning, so expect that review in the distant future, if we have one. In conclusion, mummies are cool, kings drool. Here's to a saner, kinder future if we want it.
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