Saturday, October 11, 2014

2014 Horror Countdown: The Mummy's Hand (1940)



The Mummy’s Hand (1940), dir. Christy Cabanne, Universal Pictures

When 1932’s the Mummy hit the theaters, audiences were amazed by Karloff’s performance as the immortal menace and like every other film the idea for a sequel was tossed around, but it wouldn’t be until 1940 before audiences saw another shambling monster from Ancient Egypt. Note the use of ‘another’; unlike the other sequels mentioned the Mummy’s Hand takes an entirely new cast.


                                                                http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/The_Mummy%27s_Hand_Insert.jpg 




Andoheb (George Zucco) travels across the Egyptian desert to the Hill of the Seven Jackals and meets with the High Priest of Karnak (Eduardo Ciannelli). The High Priest is dying, but before he goes he needs to pass the secret of his order to his successor, Andoheb. Some centuries ago, a prince named Kharis (Tom Tyler) was in love with the Princess Ananka. 

The princess grew sick and died. Kharis, mad with grief, broke into the sacred chamber of Isis and stole their tana leaves in an attempt to bring her back to life. He was caught and his punishment was to be mummified alive and made to stand watch over Ananka for all eternity. The High Priests have kept the princess’s tomb a secret, including her massive treasure, from the outside world ever since. Kharis is still around too, as the remaining tana leaves the key ingredient in maintaining the mummy. If the tomb is ever disturbed, then the High Priest must use the full formula to restore Kharis to life to wreck his vengeance. Andoheb swears to keep the tradition.

Meanwhile, American archeologist Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and his comic relief sidekick Babe Jensen (Wallace Ford) are down on their luck and down to their last few bucks. Spying an ancient urn in a bazaar, Banning feels that his luck could change, as the urn claims to be a map to the tomb of Ananka. Taking it with him to the local university in hopes of some funding, he finds Dr. Petire (Charles Trowbridge) interested, but opposition comes from…Dr. Andoheb, who claims the urn is an obvious fake and refuses the grant.
Ignoring Andoheb, Banning finds another source of capital, namely the Great Solvani (Cecil Kellaway), a magician who is in slightly better financial straits than Banning, but not by much. The pair strike a partnership, but Andoheb tries to convince Solvani’s daughter Marta (Peggy Moran) that Banning is little more than a conman, but Marta is swayed to Banning’s side. The group sets out, but they end up finding not Ananka, but Kharis. 

This is too close for Andoheb’s comfort, so he treks out to the tombs and uses the tana potion on Kharis, whittling the party down person by person. He then decides to use the potion on Marta for some reason.
By this point, the Universal Horror films were slowly being resigned to the b-movie circuit. At 67 minutes, this is about as threadbare a film as possible. Everything rushes to the climax, although it is rare when the sidekick does more to save the day than the hero, although honestly Ford’s role could have cut entirely and it would have had no impact on the story. The reusing footage from the Mummy didn’t help matter either. 


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