(1940)
Dir - Christy Cabanne
Overall: MEH
The Mummy's Hand breaks Universal's streak of solid sequels to their initial monster movie properties, coming off as a hare-brained, exasperatingly dull follow-up. The production itself is hardly A-rent. Footage from The Mummy is used and played off as if it is relevant to the completely different story and characters, none of the actors are noteworthy names either then or now, (Lon Chaney Jr. would not take over the role of the resurrected Kharis until the next installment), and the musical score is recycled from Son of Frankenstein. Wallace Ford's wisecracking comic relief is more lame than funny, the romance between Dick Foran and Peggy Moran is forced and predictable, George Zucco is hardly the cinema's most menacing villain, and the title mummy does not appear until more than halfway through the film. Throw in a completely anti-climactic ending and director Christy Cabanne unable to concoct even the flimsiest amount of mystical, Egyptian-inspired atmosphere, and it is simply a dud from front to back.
(1942)
Dir - Harold Young
Overall: MEH
Universal's lazy, bare minimum sequel agenda continues with the third Mummy entry The Mummy's Tomb. Though the film is only an hour long, it spends the first ten minutes as a montage of footage from the previous The Mummy's Hand, therefor leaving only fifty minutes to tell virtually the same uninteresting story yet all over again. Strapping on the bandages for his first of three appearances as Kharis, Lon Chaney Jr. takes over for cowboy actor Tom Tyler, yet the role still allows for little to do besides silently and slowly stumble around with a single arm outstretched. The fact that Chaney is completely disguised under a mask anyway makes his involvement even more pointless since somebody could have been grabbed off of the street and done an identical job in such a part. On the plus side, the lousy comic relief of the last installment is done away with, but between the regurgitated plot, dramatic music undermining any and all attempts at eerie atmosphere, and a cast that is as forgettable as they come, it all just makes a person long for the days when the studio actually tried, (at least a little bit) to provide some proper goosebumps to their monster movies.
(1944)
Dir - Reginald Le Borg
Overall: MEH
While Universal finally resisted the urge to reuse past footage from their earlier installments, the next sequel The Mummy's Ghost still cannot come up with anything unique to say story wise. Once again George Zucco's High Priest, (who was presumed to have been killed off twice already), initiates another lieutenant, this time John Carradine who is about as Egyptian as Boris Karloff is, except far less exotic looking. Zucco summons him in the Temple of Arkam to sick Lon Chaney Jr.'s Kharis on more people that have disregarded the ancient gods and blah, blah, blah. Also once again there is another beautiful female who is believed to be the reincarnation of an Egyptian Priestess because we may as well throw that already used trope in as well. The cut and paste script offers up only the most minute details that differentiate it from past Mummy movies. Chaney gets a little more screen time comparatively, but he is still just a lumbering, emotionless brute who chokes people with one hand, slowly walks around to blaring music, and carries the hypnotized, pretty girl off. The ending at least is strange and something that has not been seen before, but it is also enormously anti-climatic and stupid.
(1944)
Dir - Leslie Goodwins
Overall: MEH
Set in the multi-cultural swamps of...New England?..., The Mummy's Curse wraps up Universal's Mummy franchise with a predictable whimper. Only a hour in length and once again delegating precious minutes to recycled footage from previous movies in the series, (including the flashback sequence from the original The Mummy for the third time), Lon Chaney Jr. is still slowly stomping around after being awoken by more idiots who have learned absolutely nothing from the last several times that such a thing went terribly wrong. Not that continuity matters any more than the desire to come up with something unique to justify another B-level sequel in the first place. To be fair, there are a couple of visually striking moments such as Virginia Christine rising up out of the mucky swamp, plus the script focuses on Kharis trying to be reunited with his lost love instead of just following orders to murder people who desecrated her grave, (the latter angle of which was used in all three of the preceding movies). Still, the performances are particularly dull and little to no excitement is garnished from the repetitive plotting. At least Abbot and Costello would star in a halfway decent installment eleven years later.
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