Mummy Marathon
Nothing really changes much for me personally from previous
years. The Mummy’s Hand is the superior film of the rest of the series. I don’t
think it is even close. I think The Mummy’s Hand is far and away better than
those films that follow it although each film has quality parts. I think the
cast in The Mummy’s Hand is very good. Good chemistry with all four leads
(Foran and Ford are a fun pair, Cecil Kellaway as the magician and Peggy Moran
accompanying them as father and daughter on the expedition offer a delightful
foursome) and a great villain in George Zucco’s Andoheb, operating the mummy
(played by Tyler, who I think is far more imposing than Chaney, Jr.) Kharis.
Kellaway alone is a hoot much less Foran and Ford as Yankees pursuing the
hidden tomb of Ananka.
There’s a formula after The Mummy’s Hand where Kharis is
under the semi-control of whatever high priest is put in charge of sending him
out to kill those responsible for desecrating the tomb of Ananka or happening
to be in his path to secure Ananka for passage back to Egypt. Like slasher
films Foran and Ford return just to basically be bumped off (both roles are
rather unflatteringly minor), and continuity errors are a major annoyance
(Karnak changes to Arkam in regards to High Priest, Kharis is burned alive and
yet returns as if nothing happened to him in the next film, Ananka and Kharis
somehow find themselves from the east of the US to the south for no apparent reason).
Motivations on lust just happen at random (Zucco falls in love with Moran,
Carradine just convinces himself he’ll be with Ames, Peter Coe just up and abandons
his loyalties to take Kay Harding to the ruins to obviously rape her, and
Turhan Bey just falls in lust with Elyse Knox upon first sight) in order to
cause the high priests involved with turning the mummy on “foreign infidels
raiding the tombs of Egypt” to fail in their mission. And The Mummy has one
hand and walks at a glacial pace, dragging one foot, yet able-bodied men can’t
get away from Kharis for whatever reason. A lot of this is broken record,
though.
The Mummy’s Hand is the freshest film of the bunch because it was only
second to The Mummy (1932) and is about the expedition and Kharis’ addiction to
Tana Leave fluid. And Zucco is easily the best of the High Priest villains,
trying to use manipulative methods to halt the finding of Ananka’s tomb, unable
to succeed when Ford pumps him full of lead. I think these films benefit
exponentially from the Universal Studios touch where even the B-movies inherit
the sets, crew, stock cast, and atmospherics that follow the A-films from the
30s. I think you can tell how little inspiration went into the writing process
of these sequels, though. Just the continuity and logic errors of the sequels
speaks volumes about how little regard was given to following any clear thread
from one film to another.
My favorite scene of the entire series of sequels
comes in The Mummy’s Curse when Ananka (in the form of the stunning Virginia
Christine) rises from the swamp crusted in dirt. It is just so eerie. I think
Tyler’s Mummy looks quite fierce, but even Chaney Jr. benefited from Pierce’s
bandage makeup. And the black eyes are a nice touch because they have no life
in them. Although I think the one-hand strangulations are preposterous, the way
they are set up I really like, especially with the use of the mummy shadow silhouetting
background (like inside tents or against walls). There’s nothing wrong with how
the films are shot, but the plots are just shit (except for The Mummy’s Hand).
At least they are little over 60 minutes…that is their saving grace. But I
think The Mummy Universal series is easily the worst of the monster franchises.
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