The Mummy's Hand

“For who shall defile the temples of the ancient gods, a cruel and violent death shall be his fate, and never shall his soul find rest unto eternity. Such is the curse of Amon-Ra, king of all the gods."

After reviewing the wondrous Discworld books, it’s time to get back to the Universal classic horror movies again with The Mummy’s Hand, a 1940 sequel to the original film from 1932.

The mummy Kharis, played by Tom Tyler, a man better known for singing cowboy movies than monsters, makes his return here, although he’s not the sinister, plotting figure that Boris Karloff portrayed in the original film. He’s more of a slow-moving but powerful enforcer, which most subsequent movies decided to ape, despite the less interesting monster dynamic of a simple brute. The main villain is actually High Priest Andoheb, played by George Zucco, who takes over from the old high priest early in the movie. He does not take kindly to our protagonists, and works to thwart them at every opportunity before resorting to the mummy and the mysterious tana leaves that are used to both control the ancient Kharis, as well as keeping him in a state between life and death. Kharis doesn’t even appear till later the film.

Speaking of our protagonists, they are a mix of folks. We first meet Steve Banning (Dick Foran), an archaeologist down on his luck and his almost cartoonish sidekick, Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford), who serendipitously find clues as to the whereabouts of Ananka’s tomb, the ancient princess that Kharis loved. His desire to bring her back is why he’s the undead guardian of her tomb. These two immediately seek help from the Cairo museum, as Steve can read the hieroglyphics and is justifiably excited at this find.

They visit the museum, which is where they first meet Dr. Petrie (Charles Trowbridge) and Andoheb, who also works at the museum, but mostly to deter people from disturbing the tombs of his ancestors. Despite Andoheb’s attempts to dissuade our not-so-dynamic duo, Steve is insistent on using the information he has to locate this unique tomb. However, he has issues getting the funding and ends up working with "The Great Solvani," a.k.a. Tim Sullivan (Cecil Kellaway), and his daughter/assistant Marta Solvani (Peggy Moran). The elder Solvani agrees to pay for things as long as he can share in the spoils, while Marta distrusts the other two men at first thanks to Andoheb’s attempt to sow distrust about them, they eventually agree to work together.

"They never said the rest of the mummy came with the hand!"

This team hires some local folks as guides and porters and enlists the help of Dr. Petrie as well. They quickly set out to find Anaka’s almost mythological tomb, but they find Kharis’s tomb first, although the mummy isn’t active at this point. Andoheb follows our group and demonstrates his power over Kharis to some of the unfortunate members of our expedition, before kidnaping Marta and bringing her back to his tomb, with both the ancient mummy and the man that controls him having an interest in our female lead that isn’t much to her liking. This sets the stage for our final confrontation for our protagonists with both the ancient mummy and the high priest that controls him.

"Who ordered the leading lady?"

Like many horror films of its day, this movie is a slow burn. I generally appreciate that, as it builds atmosphere and dread, and in this case, gives us some insight into how determined Andoheb is to protect the secret of the princess’s tomb – and he’s no slouch, that’s for sure. That being said, the buildup here isn’t all that surprising, there aren’t many twists and turns, and even those that occur aren’t all that shocking. The struggle near the end of the film is one of its highlights, although the actual ending is a bit of a deus ex machina, which I’m not a huge fan of. One can also easily guess that Marta will be Steve’s love interest, as she’s the only leading woman in the film, and Steve is a typical dynamic leading man of the era.

This is the first sequel to The Mummy. The Universal classic horror movie sequels are quite mixed in quality, and this one is on the weaker side of the spectrum. While enjoyable and short enough at 67 minutes to not overstay its welcome, it’s not one of the better films. There are worse movies in this collection to be sure, but this one isn’t the most exciting, and the horror and humor moments, while they exist, aren’t the best examples. This is one that dabblers in classic horror can skip, but it’s not a terrible watch either, and being on the short side makes it easier to fit time in your schedule to watch it. The lack of Boris Karloff as the main villain is definitely felt here. George Zucco is genuinely good as the primary adversary, but he lacks Karloff’s ability to exude menace with just a simple glare, and this version of the mummy is too simple a character to be interesting.

Two mummified hands out of four.

— I have no idea why this movie is called The Mummy’s Hand. There is nothing special about the mummy’s hand(s). I had first expected them to find the hand and have it attack them, a la Eldrad in the fourth Doctor story, The Hand of Fear. But that never happens.

— The main cast of this film collectively have a lot of movie and TV credits between them, most ranging over several decades.

— The two priests are supposed to be Egyptian but are played by white men. This was a common but problematic practice in films of this time period.

— As usual, the movie treats non-western cultures with a less-than-stellar attitude, and the way both Kharis and Andoheb take an interest in Marta doesn’t do well on the misogyny scale, either.

— The practice of robbing tombs was a real-world occurrence that we’re slowly fixing to this day. Back in the 30s and 40s, it was a more widely accepted and often lauded idea.

Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.

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