A little exposition: Professor Andoheb (a well cast George Zucco) is put in charge by his father, the High Priest (Eduardo Cianelli), who is about to die, to keep the sacred burial place of Princess Ananka from being desecrated, but this mission will be jeopardized by hungry young archeologist, Dick Banning (Dick Foran) and Banning's pal, Babe (Wallace Ford), having found a damaged artifact with writings that might detail the exact location. Banning even secures funding for the expedition through the jovial magician, The Great Solvani (Cecil Kellaway), much to the chagrin of his assistant daughter, Marta (Peggy Moran). Andoheb will try every tactic, including using tana leaves to revive the mummified corpse of the undead Egyptian Kharis (Tom Tyler) to kill anyone who tries to find Ananka's sarcophagus, to keep his master's wishes.
The Universal Studios Kharis Mummy series was plagued by a continual familiarity. An Egyptian with evil intentions and tana leaves that work to build a fluid that, once fed to him, would awaken the mummy Kharis killing at his will/command. Kharis would be performed by Lon Chaney Jr. after The Mummy's Hand, but his part could have been portrayed by anyone since the character is covered in wraps, drags at a snail's pace, and seemingly destroys victims without much effort, with relative ease. The Mummy's Hand benefits from a game cast who charm and appeal with their likable performances. Kellaway is lovable like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, while Ford tries hard to please as Foran's comic relief sidekick. Of course, Foran and Moran spend some time at odds because Zucco convinces her that he is trying to swindle Kellaway, before a budding romance obviously develops. Charles Towbridge is the scholarly mentor to Foran, Dr. Petrie, who suffers from the fact that his kind of character always winds up one of the first to get strangled in these Mummy movies.
While the Mummy Kharis is the killing machine (a constant is the limp and crippled right arm, Kharis still somehow always able to strangle and overpower victims with one hand), it is always the Egyptian with the tana leaves fluid that is truly the dangerous one. He orders and Kharis obeys. That Jack Pierce make up job, especially on the face (those black eyes of Kharis are truly unsettling to me...), and the bandages, just fabulous. I loved this one scene with the howling jackal (the curse of the seven jackals is the legend of Kharis the natives consider legitimately accurate; this "superstition" certainly persuades them against breaking the seal at the entrance of his cavernous tomb) keeps the cast unnerved (it is also an effective visual, along with the full moon; the moon is a source, along with the tana leaves, of Kharis' ability to function, to move). But, even as danger encompasses them all about, the search for Ananka's tomb is always a goal.
Probably the more ludicrous development has Andohep falling in sudden lust for Marta, willing to forgo loyalties to his ancestors as to use the tana leaves fluid to make him and her immortal, while also intending to let Kharis become an unstoppable killer, if able to access enough of the fluid. Interesting how Babe takes care of Andohep so easily and Kharis is humbled thanks to the inability to acquire the tana leaves fluid and fire bubbling his life source in a bowl. Like a lot of the quickly-paced Universal releases, with shorter running times and budgets, The Mummy's Hand has a rather sudden sequence of events that gets things over with in a hurry. It rewards the graverobbers--er, I mean archeologists--by letting them find Ananka's tomb. Who really are the villains? The ones who try to keep their people's graves uninterrupted and absent plunder or those scientists who wish to study and learn from the bodies and artifacts that are found secretly hidden from public eyes?
The Universal Studios Kharis Mummy series was plagued by a continual familiarity. An Egyptian with evil intentions and tana leaves that work to build a fluid that, once fed to him, would awaken the mummy Kharis killing at his will/command. Kharis would be performed by Lon Chaney Jr. after The Mummy's Hand, but his part could have been portrayed by anyone since the character is covered in wraps, drags at a snail's pace, and seemingly destroys victims without much effort, with relative ease. The Mummy's Hand benefits from a game cast who charm and appeal with their likable performances. Kellaway is lovable like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, while Ford tries hard to please as Foran's comic relief sidekick. Of course, Foran and Moran spend some time at odds because Zucco convinces her that he is trying to swindle Kellaway, before a budding romance obviously develops. Charles Towbridge is the scholarly mentor to Foran, Dr. Petrie, who suffers from the fact that his kind of character always winds up one of the first to get strangled in these Mummy movies.
While the Mummy Kharis is the killing machine (a constant is the limp and crippled right arm, Kharis still somehow always able to strangle and overpower victims with one hand), it is always the Egyptian with the tana leaves fluid that is truly the dangerous one. He orders and Kharis obeys. That Jack Pierce make up job, especially on the face (those black eyes of Kharis are truly unsettling to me...), and the bandages, just fabulous. I loved this one scene with the howling jackal (the curse of the seven jackals is the legend of Kharis the natives consider legitimately accurate; this "superstition" certainly persuades them against breaking the seal at the entrance of his cavernous tomb) keeps the cast unnerved (it is also an effective visual, along with the full moon; the moon is a source, along with the tana leaves, of Kharis' ability to function, to move). But, even as danger encompasses them all about, the search for Ananka's tomb is always a goal.
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