In The Swamps Of Louisiana, I Guess….
Released just a few month’s after The Mummy’s Ghost (July, 1944), The Mummy’s Curse (December, 1944) features Lon Chaney, Jr. once again as Kharis and he’s still after his beloved Ananka (Virginia Christine). The film has numerous continuity errors in it and uses footage from The Mummy (1932) and The Mummy’s Hand (1940). It goes so far as to include footage of Tom Tyler as Kharis before he is mummified. For these reasons, the film is considered the worst of all of the films in the Mummy franchise.
The plot of the film is basically the same as all of the other sequels to The Mummy’s Hand. A high priest of Arkam calls upon Kharis to find Ananka so that they can be returned to their proper burial site back in Egypt. While looking for Ananka, Kharis kills a few innocent people. Once he finds her and brings her back to the high priest, lust proves more powerful than duty and Kharis ends up deceived.
There are a couple of twists, however, that differ from the other films. In prior films, the high priest deceives Kharis and breaks his oath to protect both Kharis and Ananka. This time around, the high priest, named Zandaab (Peter Coe), is murdered in the final moments of the film by his disciple, Ragheb (Martin Kosleck), who falls for the local engineer’s niece, Betty Walsh (Kay Harding), and plans to do some very bad things to her.
Also, Ananka doesn’t want to be found in this film. Instead, she comes to enjoy being alive (but who wouldn’t?) and runs away from Kharis every time he catches up to her. As a result, a lot of innocent folks die trying to protect her. This made me dislike her a little bit. I also started to feel sorry for poor Kharis, who has spent a lot of time doing what others have told him to do.
The film’s continuity is out of whack as well. If you’ve seen the other Mummy sequels, you know that all of them take place in Massachusetts except for a few sequences that take place in Egypt. Somehow, The Mummy’s Curse magically whisks our mummies to the swamps of Louisiana AND takes place about twenty-five years after The Mummy’s Ghost despite everything looking pretty 1940’s contemporary.
The accents of the cast are all over the place as well. Cajun Joe (Kurt Katch) sounds more like he is of Mexican descent and Tante Berthe (Ann Codee) sounds like she was ripped right off of the streets of Paris. The other cast members sound like they are from pretty much any place but southern Louisiana. I’m from Louisiana, so I know what our accents sound like. These people aren’t from Louisiana!
Despite all of the goofs and questionable accents, I still enjoyed watching this film. I actually felt for many of the characters in this story, particularly Kharis, Cajun Joe, and Tante Berthe. Cajun Joe initially came off as a hustler, but proved to be a nice guy that tried his best to help Ananka. Tante Berthe took Ananka into her home. What did she and Joe get in return? They got choked to death by Kharis.
I also loved the sequence where Ananka rises out of her grave in the swamp. Her hand slowly rises from the dirt and then she slowly pulls herself out of the muck. During this particular scene, the film speed was quickened slightly, resulting in jerky, inhuman movements by Virginia Christine as she rose from the dead. This is one of the coolest sequences that I’ve ever scene. It’s a bright moment in an otherwise formulaic flick.
Yes, The Mummy’s Curse could have been a much better film. It comes across a tad lazy with brief moments of brilliance. The cast did fine jobs except for the bad accents, but this was still a decent movie. Give it a chance. Many people like it despite its multiple errors.
There are a few interesting tidbits about this film that I discovered in my research for this review. The last existing makeup piece by Jack Pierce, known for his legendary creation of Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein makeup and Conrad Veidt’s The Man Who Laughs, is from this film. The mask that Pierce made for Chaney in this film is on display at the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle, WA. Also, Virginia Christine, who portrayed Ananka, would go on to become Mrs. Olson in multiple Folgers Coffee commercials. The film is often erroneously listed as being released in 1945, but it was actually released on December 22nd, 1944 per IMDb.
Thanks for reading. We’ve got less than a week left until Thirty-One Days O’Horror comes to completion! Look for my double feature review tomorrow!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 