The Mummy's Tomb
For he who despoils the ancient tombs of Egypt must die.
After about eleven minutes of footage culled from The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb actually gets started, but nothing that comes after is that particularly noteworthy. It's all, to tell you the truth, a whole bunch of nothing. This was a cheap quickie using the vast wealth of sets on the Universal Studios' lot and still some good Jack Pierce mummy make-up, but not much else. The plot is tired and would continue to be used again and again during a series that had its moments but continued to digress from the quality of the first two films. The exotic looking Turhan Bey is a high priest of Karnack put in charge by a dying Andoheb (George Zucco, whose character didn't die at the end of The Mummy's Hand) to kill the remaining members of the Ananka expedition and the family line of Dr. Steven Banning (Dick Foran, in old age make-up, returning from the previous film to tell about his expedition to his son, John, John's pretty fiance, and Steven's doting sister, this giving the producers an opportunity to edit some of the footage from The Mummy's Hand as to pad out the film to 60 minutes).
Mummy Kharis (this time Lon Chaney Jr.) will be used by Bey's Mehemet Bey as a killing machine (sluggish in his limp walk, one arm clinched in a crippled paralyses with only his left hand to strangle victims), using tana leaves fluid as the means to do so. Yawn. Wallace Ford's Babe Hanson (also in old age make-up and returning from the previous film) arrives after Steven is murdered by Kharis in an attempt to convince the Mapleton, Massachusetts police that a mummy is responsible for the Banning stranglings (Steven's old sis was also strangled; in a ludicrous fashion, she was choked by Kharis' bum arm's hand) soon becoming a victim himself. Steven's medical doctor son, John (John Hubbard) could be the next target, but Bey becomes enamored with his future wife, Isobel (Elyse Knox) and his mission suffers a setback. That and Bey seems to blab a bit too much about his Egyptian heritage and spiritual beliefs while working at a mausoleum at the local graveyard (a front so he can keep Kharis' sarcophagus held in a safe place). Because Bey cannot contain his lust for Evans (this development is just a bit too much for me; would he seriously jeopardize an almost complete mission in some warped attempt to make Isobel and himself immortal, an exact duplicate scene from The Mummy's Hand just substituting Zucco for Bey? It feels like a forced plot development just to lead authorities to Bey and eventually to Kharis as to get the movie over with), it leads to his downfall.
The ending, (...as Banning's two story house lights up into a flaming inferno when the Mapleton citizens pick up those burning torches in typical Universal monster movie fashion), is probably the best scene of the movie, as Kharis carries Isobel's unconscious body (due to her fainting) from the mausoleum (where Bey had her bound as to feed her tana leaves fluid before the interference of the locals deterred his efforts) to Stephen Banning's home, not the wisest move (but at least he doesn't know any better, not an excuse Bey could use), as it corners him.
Victims who could outrun Kharis if they just tried hard enough, a Mummy with obvious disadvantages that can still kill his victims who get a good look at him and yet fall at his slumbering feet (these scenes really stretch credibility to the max), and a plot that has nothing innovative or interesting to offer, The Mummy's Tomb is what you are left with. Chaney Jr. is only in this, I can assume, for his name recognition. Anyone could have been disguised under those bandages while Chaney was at the Kraft's table and we wouldn't know the wiser.
After about eleven minutes of footage culled from The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb actually gets started, but nothing that comes after is that particularly noteworthy. It's all, to tell you the truth, a whole bunch of nothing. This was a cheap quickie using the vast wealth of sets on the Universal Studios' lot and still some good Jack Pierce mummy make-up, but not much else. The plot is tired and would continue to be used again and again during a series that had its moments but continued to digress from the quality of the first two films. The exotic looking Turhan Bey is a high priest of Karnack put in charge by a dying Andoheb (George Zucco, whose character didn't die at the end of The Mummy's Hand) to kill the remaining members of the Ananka expedition and the family line of Dr. Steven Banning (Dick Foran, in old age make-up, returning from the previous film to tell about his expedition to his son, John, John's pretty fiance, and Steven's doting sister, this giving the producers an opportunity to edit some of the footage from The Mummy's Hand as to pad out the film to 60 minutes).
Mummy Kharis (this time Lon Chaney Jr.) will be used by Bey's Mehemet Bey as a killing machine (sluggish in his limp walk, one arm clinched in a crippled paralyses with only his left hand to strangle victims), using tana leaves fluid as the means to do so. Yawn. Wallace Ford's Babe Hanson (also in old age make-up and returning from the previous film) arrives after Steven is murdered by Kharis in an attempt to convince the Mapleton, Massachusetts police that a mummy is responsible for the Banning stranglings (Steven's old sis was also strangled; in a ludicrous fashion, she was choked by Kharis' bum arm's hand) soon becoming a victim himself. Steven's medical doctor son, John (John Hubbard) could be the next target, but Bey becomes enamored with his future wife, Isobel (Elyse Knox) and his mission suffers a setback. That and Bey seems to blab a bit too much about his Egyptian heritage and spiritual beliefs while working at a mausoleum at the local graveyard (a front so he can keep Kharis' sarcophagus held in a safe place). Because Bey cannot contain his lust for Evans (this development is just a bit too much for me; would he seriously jeopardize an almost complete mission in some warped attempt to make Isobel and himself immortal, an exact duplicate scene from The Mummy's Hand just substituting Zucco for Bey? It feels like a forced plot development just to lead authorities to Bey and eventually to Kharis as to get the movie over with), it leads to his downfall.
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