The Mummy's Curse

Coming after THE MUMMY'S GHOST, this limp and repetitive last entry in the Kharis series may be the weakest of all four, and it's kind of gratifying that Universal finally stopped the cookie cutter here. It's by no means awful, but by now there's a severe case of "been here, done that" festering about and there isn't much new to help us along. Lon Chaney merely goes through the motions to get his paycheck and gives the most listless of his three mummy performances. Peter Coe takes the award as the worst high priest, but Martin Kosleck is an okay choice as his treacherous assistant even though he isn't given enough to do. The script is little more than a plodding chase which has the clumsy Kharis always coming within inches of seizing his beloved princess, only to narrowly miss her time and time again as she manages to escape from his grasp.

One redeeming quality is Virginia Christine's first appearance as the reincarnated Princess Ananka. Her resurrection sequence from a muddy swamp is not only the high spot of this picture, but it's one of the best in the entire saga. By the way, what's interesting is that if keen viewers of THE MUMMY'S HAND recognized from a quick hotel receipt shot that the story began in 1940, and then you add up the "30 years" later of THE MUMMY'S TOMB & THE MUMMY'S GHOST, and top it off with the "25 years later" of THE MUMMY'S CURSE, you'd see that this entry would take place in 1995 ... !?!?

** out of ****

There is still life in this curse, barely. The premise has ran its course. Too many familiar scenes and the thrill is just hanging on. This although is still creepy to watch and fun for a rainy night. The living mummy Kharis(Lon Chaney Jr)now seeks his lost love(Virginia Christine) in the bayous of Louisiana. Also notable are Kurt Katch and Jackie Lou Harding. A "mummy" fan's must.

Even in America we're not safe as bulldozers unearth the ancient Egyptian mummy and his favorite obsession, Princess Ananka

Kharis is on the loose again. Of course, being on the loose for this mummified foot-dragger means he's a danger only to those too dumb to run. Fortunately, these movies are loaded with slow-learners. Actually, this is one of the better of the series, with lots of shadowy atmosphere and a really nubile Mrs. Folger otherwise known as Princess Ananka (Virginia Christine). No wonder Kharis is so anxious to carry her off, especially in that flowing white gown. I'd trade for his bandages and gimpy foot any day. And catch her rising jerkily from the swamp. These moves are enough to make you doubt whether she's human or not.

Too bad the rest of the cast seems at times to be sleep walking, except for Addison Richards (Maj. Walsh) and Kay Harding (Betty) who manage some lively personality. Peter Coe is a particularly unfortunate choice as the high priest. He sounds about as scary and exotic as my next-door neighbor. But who cares. It's old tangle foot and the moody gloom that keeps fans like me tuned in.

This entry in the "Mummy series" is unlike all the others, but that's what makes it interesting!

One of THE most interesting sequences in this film is when the Princess awakens in the bog (due to the sunlight), and slowly rises to her feet, totally covered with mud, and staggers to town. A very dramatic scene!

1944's "The Mummy's Curse" was the fourth and last of the Kharis series, third to star Lon Chaney in the title role, and the only one not included in Universal's popular SHOCK! television package, having to wait for 1958's SON Of SHOCK, the same fate that befell beloved classics like "Bride of Frankenstein," "The Ghost of Frankenstein," and "House of Dracula." Going from a Massachusetts swamp to the Louisiana bayou is certainly a stretch, but not as much as setting the date an incredible 25 years later. The unexceptional Peter Coe ("House of Frankenstein") is this film's bland High Priest of Arkham, Ilzor Zandaab (his screen time quite limited), his recent disciple, the lascivious Ragheb (Martin Kosleck), providing all the knife wielding villainy to spice up the proceedings. An excavation of the swamp leaves one man dead, the knife still in his back, and a space just large enough for a mummy; shortly afterwards, another finds a hand emerging from its burial place, revealing the now revived Princess Ananka (Virginia Christine), who had gone down with Kharis at the conclusion of "The Mummy's Ghost." Making her way to a nearby lake, the Princess emerges perfectly coiffured (every hair in place!), if a bit wet and amnesiac, spelling death for all those who take her in. There are solid roles for veterans Addison Richards, Holmes Herbert, Kurt Katch, Charles Stevens, William Farnum, and Ann Codee, criminally unbilled as Tante Berthe. Popular years later playing Mrs. Olsen in the Folgers commercials, Virginia Christine scores impressively as Ananka (her natural blonde locks hidden under a jet black wig), light years better than the insipid Ramsay Ames in "The Mummy's Ghost" (her other Universal horror was the doomed prostitute who encounters Rondo Hatton's Creeper in 1946's "House of Horrors"). This marked the end of Kay Harding's brief stardom at Universal ("Weird Woman," "The Scarlet Claw"), while Martin Kosleck, previously seen in the still unissued "The Frozen Ghost," continued his scene stealing ways in "Pursuit to Algiers," "House of Horrors," and "She-Wolf of London." For a role he so fervently despised, Lon Chaney's Mummy again fares well, his frustration palpable, continuously (even comically) one step behind his beloved Princess (the climax finds them both headed permanently to Manhattan's Scripps Museum). This appears to have been the most popular of his three outings, reprising the role in 1959's Mexican "La Casa del Terror" and on television's ROUTE 66 (the 1962 Halloween broadcast "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing," opposite Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre). "The Mummy's Curse" made a total of six appearances on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater- Sept 25 1965 (following 1963's "Battle Beyond the Sun"), Feb 10 1968 (following 1933's "The Invisible Man"), Sept 30 1972 (following 1944's "House of Frankenstein"), Jan 25 1975 (following 1960's "The Lost World"), Sept 20 1975 (following 1969's "Godzilla's Revenge"), and Apr 23 1977 (following 1935's "Bride of Frankenstein").