La Main de la momie

Around 1940, Universal began a new series of "B" horror films. Most ran just over an hour and featured the studio's cast of monsters. "The Mummy's Hand" (running 78 minutes) and better than most of the series, brings back the Mummy, who had last appeared in 1932 with Boris Karloff in the title role. This time the role is filled by veteran western performer Tom Tyler who gives a chilling performance as Kharis the mummy.

Dick Foran (also a veteran of ridin' the range) as an out of work archaeologist and Wallace Ford as his partner (and comic relief) set out to finance an expedition to find the lost tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess and all the riches therein. Along for the ride are Cecil Kellaway as the expedition's backer and Peggy Moran as his daughter and Foran's love interest. The venerable George Zucco plays the High Priest and villain of the piece. Eduardo Ciannelli has a nice bit as the old High Priest who hands over his power to Zucco.

The film suffers from its "B" mentality and budget limitations but the mummy sequences are among the best that Universal has ever done. The temple setting is also very impressive. Universal would replace Tyler as the Mummy with Lon Chaney Jr. for three subsequent and inferior sequels.

Still and all, "The Mummy's Hand" ranks as a pretty good "B" horror film.

MORD39 RATING: *** (of ****)

THE MUMMY'S HAND is my favorite mummy film and easily the best in the Universal "Kharis" saga.

Dick Foran, Wallace Ford, Cecil Kellaway, and Peggy Moran make a very pleasant group of amateur explorers as they search out the tomb of Princess Ananka in Egypt. What they stumble upon instead was the first (in a now played-out) deadly mistake: a living mummy.

Kharis is a bandaged monstrosity kept alive by a high priest (George Zucco in his most sinister role) and is a protector for his long-lost love. When Zucco feeds him a fluid brewed from nine tana leaves, Kharis is kept stalking and dealing death to those who dared enter his lair.

Tom Tyler is for my money the best choice to portray the mummy. He creeps and crumbles perfectly, even gaining effect from his dark, staring eyes in chilling close-ups.

Some fans complain about the intrusive comedy during the film, and while I too am unforgiving of such practices, in this case I think they help the festivities rather than detract from them. All in all, THE MUMMY'S HAND remains one of the better efforts from the 1940's and definitely the best of the Kharis pictures.

This movie wisely decides to proceed on a different track entirely than the masterful Karloff "The Mummy". Very few horror films could match the earlier entry for sheer atmosphere and dreamy menace.

Instead, "The Mummy's Hand" opts more for adventure, with a generous helping of laughs thrown in. We follow the trail of two American treasure hunters as they seek the lost tomb of Ananka. Little do they know that the tomb is protected not only by a fanatical cult, but also the living mummy Kharis, who has become the guardian of the woman he once loved. Dick Foran is extremely likable as Steve Banning and seems like a regular guy. As wise-cracking sidekick Babe, Wallace Ford sometimes annoys but not to the point where you actually want to see him get killed. Peggy Moran is fiery and most attractive as Marta. Naturally she winds up butting heads with Steve and naturally they are attracted to each other.

Two grand old actors really liven things up. Cecil Kellaway is delightful as the scatterbrained magician the Great Solvani who bankrolls the expedition. And George Zucco has a signature role as Andoheb, sinister high priest of the cult of Karnak who controls Kharis. Much time is devoted to the workings of the Karnak cult and the mechanisms that animate Kharis. The lore of the tanna leaves starts here. Nine are needed to fully animate Kharis, but if he ever drinks the brew of 10 tanna leaves, "he will become a monster the likes of which the world has never seen". Sadly, we never really see what Kharis would be like with an overdose of tanna leaves.

Cowboy star Tom Tyler makes for a creepy mummy in his few scenes. Totally lacking the charismatic presence of Karloff, he instead opts for the familiar crawling lurch that would later become a parody. His blacked out eyes are particularly unnerving.

A little bit too much comedy and not quite enough Kharis keep this from being really top notch, but it's still quite an enjoyable programmer.

An Egyptian man is told by is father an account of a Priest named Kharis who was in love with a Princess Annanka, and wanted to bring her back from the dead by stealing Tana leaves. There's no indication that she was in love with him. He is caught, and his tongue cut out, and buried alive with Tana leaves. The Egyptian man in the current day made high priest and is given the responsibility of keeping Kharis semi-alive with doses of three liquefied Tana leaves. If the Princess' tomb is going to be violated, then Kharis is to be revived with nine Tana leaves to destroy those responsible.

I found it odd that a man who was going to desecrate Annanka's grave was given the responsibility of guarding it. Perhaps it was poetic justice, and he lacked the ability to want to try to bring her back to life again. Indeed, the mummy of Kharis lacks the ability to do much more than move and carry out orders, and desire Tana leaves almost like a junkie.

Two men from Brooklyn stumble across a vase with a clue as to the whereabouts of Annanka's tomb. They see the opportunity to become rich and famous. They run it by the head of the Egyptian museum, who is the high priest, as it happens. He tries to dissuade them. His dual identity reminded me of Karloff's dual identity as mummy and scholar in The Mummy, to which this is only thematically a sequel.

The Brooklynites manage to get funding from a fellow Brooklynite and stage magician. After some trouble with his daughter, who was led to believe they were frauds, they go to find the tomb. (Oddly, one of her lines seems to have been dubbed in "I'll fix them with my trick revolver," to what purpose I'm not sure.) This of course means that a mummy is going to come to life! The mummy is given creepy jittery all-black eyes which was neat.

"The Mummy's Hand" is actually quite a good film but it takes a bit of a while to warm up. The build-up takes up about 25 minutes or more but still good.

George Zucco - excellent as villains - is on good form as the evil Egyptian High Priest who plans the destruction of the people who desecrate the tomb of an Egyptian princess.

Tom Tyler is OK in the title character (now called Kharis).

Released in 1940, "The Mummy's Hand" was one of the earliest horror films from the second cycle from "Universal" studios.