The Mummy's Hand (1940)

Great Film overall

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This B Universal horror film is pretty forgettable, in fact so much that when they did a sequel ("The Mummy's Tomb"), they had to give a prologue to indicate what had happened in the previous film to the characters played by Dick Foran, Peggy Moran and Wallace Ford. What they forgot was that the modern setting of the first film had a span of some thirty years going by into the second film, so the suspense of disbelief here and in the sequels is great. What is great about this film is the prologue where we are told about the history of Kharis, an Egyptian prince so in love with Princess Ananka that when she suddenly dies, he defies the gods of Egypt in trying to bring her back to life. This leads to his doom to spend eternity as a mummy, an undead soul with no rest. Suddenly, the blast of an Egyptian desert mountain opens his crypt, with the discovery of Kharis's tomb. Warnings from high priest Andoheb (George Zucco) puts them on the alert that their sins of blasting open Kharis's tomb will certainly spell their doom.This is an acceptable but inconsequential Universal horror film, entertaining for what it is, but something you'll instantly forget about once it is over. This will never be a replacement for the memory of the original "Mummy", so much more chilling than any of this series which continued on for three more films. A funny scene has the elderly Eduardo Cianelli as Zucco's father passing on the guardianship of Kharis to him, ironic because Zucco seems nearly as old as Cianelli's character. Ford provides some wise-cracking comedy, and the rhyming couple of Foran and Moran are the hero and heroine, destined to be star-crossed due to Moran's being put in peril when the mummy's revenge strikes. A few amusing moments with Sig Arno as a beggar are fun. But this is a second rate scare-fest at best, never convincing, and filled with a lot of plot holes. When the film is open, all plot threads seem to be tied up, so the idea of a sequel seems absolutely unnecessary.

Yes, it has all the usual stuff, a poor guy buried alive who vows to come back, a beautiful woman whom he will meet in another time, nine tanna leaves, a spooky guy who knows all this, an Egyptian agent who is there to make sure the old wrapper gets his due, and so on. Dick Foran is the male lead and he is really too lightweight for the part. As a matter of fact, the whole film is too lightweight to be much of a horror movie. George Zucco, whom I had never heard of a few years ago but have since grown to love, is the best part of the film. The mummy is some cowboy star and, once again, seems to be able to catch people, even though he can barely move. It's worth a look for the sets and there is a bit of humor and, of course, a silly love story.

Two Americans stumble upon a vase in a bazaar in Egypt which has a map inscribed upon it leading to the tomb of Princess Ananka who was buried 3000 years ago. They eventually obtain financing and set out to excavate the treasures within it. What they don't realize is that the High Priest of Karnak has sworn not to allow the tomb to be desecrated and he has the mummy of Kharis to assist him. Now, all things considered this isn't a bad plot to build a horror film around. However, rather than adhering to a specific horror scenario, the director (Christy Cabanne) also decides to throw in some comedic relief as well. This was a big mistake in my opinion because as a horror film it had some serious potential. Instead, the movie ended up being more suitable for a matinée than anything else. Throw in some very basic acting and the end result is pretty much an average B-movie. And that's a shame because it could have been much better.

It's a kind of ragout of Hollywood genres -- murder mystery, spoof, romance, story of exotica. Dick Foran is an archaeologist who stumbles on an ancient vase with precious secrets encrypted in its hieroglyphics. Wallace Ford is his comic sidekick. George Zucco is the fez-capped, oleaginous villain. Cecil Kellaway is a good-natured stage magician who joins Foran and Ford in their search for the ancient MacGuffin. Peggy Moran is the female.By this time, Universal Studios must have just about reached pattern exhaustion in its monster series. Dracula and Frankenstein had appeared eight years earlier and -- well, how many times can you revive the good Count or the hand-crafted monster. What is there left for them to DO? The original mummy with Boris Karloff appeared in 1932 as well but hadn't been exploited so ruthlessly. Maybe they thought it was time to revive Kharis again. It was a mistake. An entirely new approach appeared in, I think, 1948, with "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein." Universal said, "To Hell with it," and threw together Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, and the Wolfman in a farce. It worked pretty well. But then Universal ran THAT pattern into the ground. In the next few years Abbott and Costello met every monster in the Universal franchise and some that weren't.This is an inexpensive production. It seemed to me aimed more at kids than adults. It's hard to believe that Mary Shelly's original "Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus" was a serious look at the directions in which the scientific revolution might take us.