The Mummy's Hand (1940) review

2. The Mummy’s Hand (1940)

Directed by: Christy Cabanne

Produced by: Ben Pivar

Screenplay by: Griffin Jay, Maxwell Shane

Starring: Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, Wallace Ford, Eduardo Ciannelli, George Zucco

The original “The Mummy” film about the resurrected mummy Imhotep looking for the reincarnation of his lost love is one of the more unique entries in the Universal Monsters filmography; I’m not a huge fan of it, but I admire the casting and especially the cinematography. Technically, there were never any sequels; yes, there were multiple “Mummy” movies that came out in the years after, but they all focused on a different mummy and storyline. However, they’re all included on various DVD box sets, so I’ll give them a look anyway. After the financial success of “Son of Frankenstein” and “The Invisible Man Returns,” Universal greenlit a follow-up to the Boris Karloff classic, called “The Mummy’s Hand.” Less a subtle love story and more a cheesy treasure adventure, it’s pretty rushed and cliché, but has good characters and a fun, timeless mood.

The plot involves archaeologist Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and his partner Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford) in Egypt, where they discover remnants that appear to point them in the direction of the tomb of the ancient Princess Ananka in the Hill of the Seven Jackals. Their expedition is financed and joined by an eccentric magician named Tim Sullivan (Cecil Kellaway), a.k.a. The Great Solvani, although his daughter Marta (Peggy Moran) is much less enthused, suspicious of Steve and Babe’s intentions. But also hot on their trails is Andoheb (George Zucco), the crooked High Priest of Karnak, who’s protecting a dark secret inside the tomb. After Ananka’s death, the high priest Kharis (Tom Tyler), who secretly loved her, tried to revive her by stealing sacred tana leaves; for his crime, he was buried alive and mummified with the leaves, and he’s been watched over by the priests ever since. Now faced with intruders entering Ananka’s tomb, Andoheb uses the leaves to revive Kharis and sends him on a killing spree, all the while having his own agenda concerning the beautiful Marta.

Unlike Imhotep, who was a fully fleshed-out and interesting character, Kharis is basically a typical movie monster; he always stays wrapped in his bandages, and drags himself around killing people. You could call him a precursor to the future slasher villains like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees; he’s so slow, you wonder just how his victims never manage to outrun him, but that’s just how these movies work. He’s played by Tom Tyler, a former weightlifting champion more known for appearing in Westerns; the makeup technique by Jack Pierce is impressive as always, while in various close-up shots, they blacked out Tyler’s eyes frame-by-frame to make the Mummy appear more frightening. In general, there are some impressive shots in this movie, particularly with shadows, although the pacing and editing are so quick and random we don’t often get much of a chance to admire the landscapes. Also, this is around when Universal started cutting costs by recycling footage; Kharis’s flashback sequences are literally Imhotep’s, just with a few shots missing and a few of Tyler spliced in, some of the sets are leftovers from James Whale’s “Green Hell,” and much of the score is taken from “Son of Frankenstein.”

The characters are serviceable; you can tell there’s more of a lean towards comedy with its pairing of Steve and Babe, who frequently banter and wisecrack. I like their chemistry, but the jokes themselves often fall flat, even though I have a soft spot for the sleight-of-hand antics from Solvani. It is pretty funny that when they first meet, Babe is trying to hustle for money with a card trick, only to find himself up against a real pro. I do like Peggy Moran as Marta; she has genuine wit and attitude, so much that she actually pulls a gun on the archaeologists when she’s convinced they’re trying to scam her father. It’s kind of lame that she’s so easily captured in the climax, but even then she’s a very proactive character, taking part in some endearing scenes of deciphering and planning with Steve. George Zucco, often an antagonist in Sherlock Holmes movies and many other Universal horrors in the 1940s, makes for a mysterious and mildly menacing Andoheb, even though it’s pretty inconsistent what his motives are.

But I guess this isn’t really a movie that’s meant to be taken seriously; you look at the tone and setting, and you can see it’s clearly going for the same campy, harmless vibe of the film serials that were all the rage at the time. For those of you who don’t know, film serials were short pictures that played at a movie theater for one week, usually leaving off on a cliffhanger, and would be continued with a new chapter the following week. Decades later, George Lucas would pay his own personal homage to those serials by creating “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones.” The handsome hero, damsel in distress, goofy sidekick, sinister villain, brutal monster, adventurous atmosphere, that’s what this movie is going for, and to its credit, it does it relatively well. It may be similar story and character-wise to the 1959 Hammer remake of “The Mummy,” but tone-wise it’s more like the 1999 Brendan Fraser version, just a lot cheaper and quicker to digest.

In general, I’m not thrilled with the fact that these movies feature the Mummy as a secondary tool of the main bad guy, as it sort of removes much of the depth and intrigue; I think this one really could’ve been a lot more fun if it leaned into the spectacle of its locations even more, kind of like what “King Kong” did. But it seems like Universal was more concerned with making a quick buck; producer Ben Pivar was described by future collaborator Reginald LeBorg as “the epitome artless, noncreative studio executive.” It’s strange because the studio’s aforementioned previous two efforts, both sequels to successful properties, had a ton of effort and charisma put into them, and “The Wolf Man” was still to come, so it wasn’t like they were done churning out top quality. But for what it is, “The Mummy’s Hand” is still pretty entertaining, if silly at times, and works as a quick little time-killer.

My rating: 7/10