Review of The Mummy's Hand (1940) by Buddy B — 16 Jul 2006

The Mummy's Hand.

Starring: Dick Foran, Wallace Ford, Peggy Moran, and George Zucco.

Director: Christy Cabanne.

A pair of down-and-out Egyptologists (Foran and Ford) are about to pack it in and head back to the States when they uncover the location of the long lost tomb of Princess Anankha. Unfortunately for them, an evil cult leader (Zucco) and the immortal, tomb-guarding, tanna leaf-tea slurping mummy Kharis will kill to keep the secret of the tomb.

An adventure flick with a heavy dose of lowbrow comedy, "The Mummy's Hand" is often mis-described as a sequel to the classy 1932 "The Mummy." It is not. This movie (and the three sequels that follow) are completely unrelated to the 1932 movie, despite the copious use of stock footage from it. (Most obvious differences, the mummy here is named Kharis, as opposed to Imhotep, and has a different backstory. Then, there's the fact he's a mindless who goes around strangling people where Imhotep never had to lay a hand on his victims.).

If one recognizes that this film shares nothing in common with the Boris Karloff film (except that they were both released by the same studio), "The Mummy's Hand" is a rather nice bit of fluff. It's also the first film to feature the real Universal Studios mummy, as Imhotep was an intelligent, scheming, and more-or-less natural looking man, not a mute, mind-addled, bandaged-wrapped, cripple like Kharis.