Thirty Years Later
A new high priest of Karnak shakes the dust off of the ancient mummy named Kharis and promises to avenge the death of his predecessor in The Mummy’s Tomb. The 1942 film is a direct sequel to 1940’s The Mummy’s Hand and features Lon Chaney, Jr. taking over the role of Kharis, previously portrayed by Tom Tyler.
The film opens up thirty years after The Mummy’s Hand. Steve Banning (the returning Dick Foran) is telling his family the story of how he and his pal, Babe (Wallace Ford, also reprising his role from the previous film), along with the Great Solvani and his daughter, Marta, battled the evil Kharis and his caretaker, Andoheb. Roughly twelve minutes of footage from The Mummy’s Hand is used during this opening sequence and features Peggy Moran and Tom Tyler in their roles as Marta and Kharis, respectively.
Unknown to Steve, Andoheb and Kharis survived the battle. Andoheb (the returning George Zucco) is dying, however, and entrusts the protection of Kharis to a new high priest, Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey). He makes Bey swear to avenge his death by murdering the entire Banning family so that their bloodline will be lost to history. Bey promises to do so and immediately heads for Banning’s hometown of Mapleton, MA.
Bey takes a job as the caretaker of the local cemetery and wastes no time eliminating members of the Banning family. Steve is the first to be murdered, his neck crushed by Kharis. Soon enough, Steve’s older sister, Jane (Mary Gordon), is also murdered. Prior to her death, Steve’s son, Dr. John Banning (John Hubbard), contacts Babe. When Babe arrives in town, he tells the police that they are dealing with a supernatural being. The police blow off Babe and he is eventually murdered by Kharis as well.
Bey begins seeking out more members of the Banning family and comes across John and his girlfriend, Isobel (Elyse Knox), during a quiet moment together. Bey becomes enamored with Isobel and, forgetting his pledge to Andoheb to only use Kharis for revenge against the Bannings, decides to have Kharis capture Isobel and bring him to her so that he can make her his immortal wife and give him children to extend his own family’s bloodline. Kharis reluctantly does as Bey commands, confused as to why he isn’t supposed to murder Isobel.
Finally convinced that an undead mummy is the cause of the murders, the police and townspeople form a mob and seek out Bey. Bey is shot dead by the sheriff (Cliff Clark), while attempting to murder John Banning, and then the mob gives chase to Kharis, who is fleeing with Isobel in his arms. The film comes to a head at the Banning home. Does Banning rescue Isobel? Will Kharis escape? Watch The Mummy’s Tomb to find out!
I really enjoyed this film. It was great to see many of the actors from the prior film returning in their original roles. Of the new cast, I really enjoyed Elyse Knox as Isobel. She and John Hubbard worked well on the screen together and, simply put, she’s gorgeous. The supporting cast also did fine jobs.
Lon Chaney, Jr. doesn’t have much to do in this film except lumber around and choke people. When it comes time for the face-off with Banning near the end of the film, he gets to flex his muscle a bit. Jack Pierce did a great job of making Chaney look spooky, and even managed to mirror Tom Tyler’s look somewhat from the previous film. Gone, however, are the black eyes that made Tyler’s Kharis so evil looking.
I also want to mention that the Blu-ray edition of this film, part of The Mummy Legacy Collection from Universal, looks wonderful. The picture is crisp and the audio sounds great. This is one of the finest transfers from film to disc that I’ve come across in the Universal Monsters Legacy line.
Thanks for reading my post. The Mummy’s Tomb doesn’t get as much love as other Mummy flicks, but I really like it. It continues Kharis’ story well and adds new and interesting characters to the tale without sacrificing the efforts of those from the previous film.
Ken's Alternate Universe! 