Back To The Sand!
1932’s The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff as Imhotep/The Mummy, was an immensely popular film. It has remained popular over the years and has been rebooted twice by Universal with the successful Brendan Fraser film trilogy that started in 1999 and the less well-received Tom Cruise vehicle that flopped in 2017. Way back in 1940, however, Universal decided to give the classic Karloff film a slightly soft reboot with 1940’s The Mummy’s Hand.
Gone are Imhotep, Ankh-es-en-Amon, and the Scroll of Thoth. Instead we have Kharis (Tom Tyler), Princess Ananka, and sacred tana leaves. The film opens with the dying High Priest of Karnak (Eduardo Ciannelli) telling Professor Andoheb (George Zucco) about Kharis and his love for Princess Ananka. When she dies, he steals tana leaves from beneath the statue of Isis in the hopes that he can revive her. He is captured while stealing the leaves and sentenced to be buried alive. In order to prevent such a crime from happening again, Pharoah Amenophis has the tana leaves buried with Kharis.
After telling the story to Andoheb, the priest tells him that he is now the new protector of Ananka’s hidden grave and that he must use the tana leaves to sustain her protector, Kharis. If anyone discovers Ananka’s tomb, Andoheb is instructed to pour the juice of nine tana leaves into Kharis’ mouth in order to revive him and protect his love.
We are then introduced to our two heroes in the film. Archaeologist Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and his friend, Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford), are a pair of men who’ve just run out of research money and have been instructed to return to the United States because their adventures so far have proven to be fruitless. In a local market, Banning stumbles across a vase that might reveal the location of Princess Ananka’s long lost resting place. Excitedly, and against Babe’s wishes, Banning seeks out the help of Dr. Petrie (Charles Trowbridge) at the Cairo Museum. Professor Andoheb is also there and he dismisses the vase as a fake in order to prevent Banning from discovering Ananka. Still believing the vase to be authentic, Banning begins looking for someone to finance his expedition.
Banning and Babe find financial support for their expedition through a traveling magician from the United States named The Great Solvani (Cecil Kellaway). Solvani agrees to fund the duo as long as they agree to share any profits with him. Andoheb, aware of what’s going on, seeks out Solvani’s daughter, Marta (Peggy Moran), and tells her that a string of false expeditions are asking for financial support in order to steal the funds instead of use them for research.
Wary of Banning and Babe and intent on protecting her father’s investment, Marta tags along with her father on the expedition. Andoheb follows them, unleashes Kharis, and the mummy starts to eliminate members of the expedition one by one in search of tana leaf juice placed throughout the expedition’s campsite by Andoheb. Andoheb also plans to capture Marta and inject her and himself with juice from the tana leaves in order to become immortal.
Banning, Babe, Solvani, and Marta find themselves alone in the desert after Kharis kills or scares away the rest of the expedition. A battle ensues and Banning and Babe end up having to face off with Kharis and Andoheb, all the while attempting to save Marta from immortal misery! Can they do it? You’ll have to watch the film to find out.
Despite being a mild rip-off of its predecessor (scenes were even used from the original Mummy film), I really enjoyed The Mummy’s Hand. Unlike Boris Karloff’s mummy, who was only viewed in his wraps for a few minutes at the beginning of The Mummy, Tom Tyler spent the entire film under wraps except for a few scenes early on in the movie. Wallace Ford and Cecil Kellaway stole the show with their comedic performances. Dick Foran and Peggy Moran played their characters relatively straight, although Moran did have one very funny scene involving a gun and Babe. George Zucco was excellent as the devious villain of the film.
Tom Tyler had no lines in this film, but his shuffling mummy would prove to be popular. Another aspect of his mummy that captivated audiences was his blacked-out eyes and mouth. Despite a convincingly spooky performance, Tyler would not reprise the role of Kharis in any of the sequels that followed. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of Captain Marvel in the classic Republic serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Tyler starred in silent and early sound Westerns but never became a popular star. Rheumatoid arthritis would eventually slow his career and he passed away at the young age of fifty.
Thanks for reading my post. Get ready for another exciting entry in my Thirty-One Days O’Horror series tomorrow!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 