A Mão da Múmia

Easily the best of the four "Kharis" films made by Universal as follow-up to their 1932 original The Mummy. The film differs dramatically in scope and mood from the original. Whereas the original was darkly romantic, mystical, creepy, this first sequel goes more for humour than suspense and romance. Dick Foran and Wallace Ford are two archaeologists out of work in Egypt who come across some pottery that leads them to the final resting place of the Princess Ananka. Just made High Priest of Karnak, George Zucco has pledged his life to defend the secret of her resting place. What ensues is a good, interesting, sometime humourous tale of Zucco trying to thwart Foran, Ford, and their backers, Cecil Kellaway and Peggy Moran. Obviously not backed with a huge budget, this mummy film is fun. Foran is very good as the male lead. Ford is bearable at best, but Kellaway is as always a charming, affable presence on the screen. Moran is beautiful and effective in her role. But it is George Zucco's film, as he utters the great lines that have come to be associated with the "legend" of Kharis. Zucco has great screen persona and this is really one of his great roles. Tom Tyler, a western star, plays the bandaged one with reasonable aplomb(okay, effectiveness if you prefer). Although nothing in stature to Karloff's interpretation of the Mummy, Karl Freund's methodic direction, and the dark atmosphere of the original The Mummy, The Mummy's Hand is enjoyable and has given us the story of Kharis.

Not a sequel to Boris Karloff's THE MUMMY (1932), but the start of an entirely different series of unrelated films featuring a new mummified prince called Kharis. A group of amateur but likable treasure seekers search for the tomb of an ancient princess, but they encounter the still-living mummy instead, bent on destroying anyone who would dare defile the ancient Egyptian gods.

While not a great Universal horror movie by any means (one critique would be the re-usage of the same exact shot again and again of Kharis shambling about in the wilderness) this was the first and best of four Universal films featuring the mummy Kharis. At this stage of the game the formula was still fresh and not at all clichéd or monotonous, so that already places HAND at a distinct advantage over its other sequels and spin-off's. Tom Tyler makes one very creepy mummy, all arthritic and twisted, with weird eyes that are optically blackened out for full effect in chilling closeups (albeit the same repeated closeup). George Zucco takes top honors as the deliciously mad High Priest who keeps the mummy alive and killing via the sacred brew of nine ancient tana leaves. Dick Foran, Wallace Ford, Cecil Kellaway and the perky Peggy Moran are all very pleasant as the awkward explorers who stumble upon Kharis' cursed tomb. Comic relief is well used throughout, but never becomes intrusive, as the action always remains dead serious whenever the mummy takes center stage.

*** out of ****

The producers of the original `Mummy' film obviously had not thought about a sequel. They turned the mummy, Kharis, into a pile of dust at the end and destroyed the Scroll of Toth, which the mummy used to invoke his murderous spells and control the partially reincarnated Princess Ananka.

The `Mummy's Hand' was made eight years after the original had burned the storyline bridges. Therefore, the writers had to start over and hope we weren't really paying much attention to the continuity. Not surprisingly, lots of cut footage from the original film was thrown in to set up the story. This time around, instead of a scroll in a stone chest, we now have an urn full of tana leaves.

This loose sequel introduces the value of the fluid of the tana leaf to give the mummy power (carried on into subsequent mummy films) and the mummy's murderous nightly romps to eliminate those who would find and violate the tomb of the Princess. The principal investigators this time are Dick Foran, the hero and straight man, and Wallace Ford, the formula sidekick who wisecracks his way through the movie with typical nervous bravado. The rest of the mandatory characters are the evil high priest, the older scientist, an attractive female and of course, the mummy.

This movie takes on the familiar 40's mystery formula: murders mixed with comedy relief. The original film was a classic, but the `Mummy's Hand' and the mummy films that followed through the mid 1940's quickly reverted to type. They looked more like entries in a B-movie serial than the subsequent chapters of a classic horror film story.

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 other three Universal Kharis films succeeding were pretty uninspired and uneven, though not without their good parts, however The Mummy's Hand while less than perfect and not exactly great is actually rather decent. Universal are nowhere near at their best here and The Mummy with Boris Karloff also from Universal from eight years earlier is the better film, but of the four Universal Kharis films The Mummy's Hand is easily the best of the four and the only one to come close to a good film.

It does start off rather sluggishly and takes too long to get going, it's all relevant but one does wish that the film got to the point quicker than it did. Two performances didn't come over so good, Wallace Ford's bumbling gets irritating after a while and Eduardo Ciannelli is for my tastes rather stiff. And I do have to agree about some of the comedy, some of it is witty and amusing but too much of it was intrusive and unnecessary so it felt more annoying than funny.

Visually however The Mummy's Hand is a solidly made film, the best-looking of the four Universal Kharis films most certainly, everything's professionally shot, moodily(appropriately) lit and crisply edited, the sets are suitably atmospheric and it's clear what the time and place is meant to be. The score fits well and is haunting, again the best score of the four films, being very stock in the other three. The story while not much new is interesting and doesn't try to do anything too simple or complicated, while it has more than one type of film genre it didn't feel muddled or have the feeling of not-knowing-what-it-was-trying-to-be and once it gets going it is quick moving and is pretty exciting and atmospherically spooky. The direction is decent and while none of the performances are award-worthy the performances are solid enough, George Zucco's excellent(brimming with sinister authority) performance standing out. Cecil Kellaway is very likable and Tom Tyler is surprisingly good as Kharis, he's actually genuinely unnerving(particularly the eyes). Dick Foran is amiable and Peggy Moran brings charm and spunk to her role.

Overall, a decent if not great film and easily the best of the Universal Kharis films. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox