Review of The Mummy's Tomb (1942) by James H — 05 Jun 2005

This is easily the worst of the mummy films, despite the strong premise. Killing off the survivors of the last film was a logical way to go, and could have been much more interesting than what is prevented here.

First, they set the film thirty years after the previous film, so the old magician is obviously dead, and we soon find out that his daughter is too. Dick Foran briefly reappears as Steve Banning. Wallace Ford is back too, but his character is now Babe Hanson instead of Babe Jenson. Regardless, he puts up one hell of a fight, I don't care what anyone says about mummy victims just standing there getting strangled. The priest has survived, and so has Kharis. It seems the fire only disfigured him, which explains why he now looks like Lon Chaney Jr.

After a long flashback sequence, detailing the events of the last film, the priest sends his successor and Kharis to America to get revenge on the survivors of the expedition, and the Banning family. There's not much more to it. the movie's only an hour long, and the flashbacks take up nearly a fourth of it. The remaining story is simplistic.

This film is a loss that can be skipped over unless you need closure from the last film or you intend to watch the next one. Of course you could skip over The Mummy's Ghost straight to The Mummy's Curse, and you wouldn't be any more lost than anyone else.