The Mummy's Curse (1944)


Although I wouldn't say that the Kharis films were the greatest series in Universal history, at least the first one was quite fun and the last was a bit poignant.  Both The Mummy's Hand and The Mummy's Tomb have similar patterns, with Kharis knocking people off and whatever priest of Karnak or Arkan (depending on the film) suddenly letting his little pharaoh get the best of him instead of fulfilling his duty.  That duty often involves getting revenge on those who violated the tomb of Princess Ananka and, somehow, this all takes place in a 1970s that looks very much like the early 1940s. 

The thing that set The Mummy's Ghost apart from the rest is a theme that was heavily repeated in the 1990s film, which was the princess being reincarnated in modern times.  In this case it was an Egyptian woman named Amina who worked at the Scripps Museum in the fictional New England town of Mapleton.  She was marked and, when Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) and Yousef Bey find the body, it disappears and Amina becomes possessed by Ananka.  After Yousef decides he's got himself a bride, Kharis grabs her and takes her into a swamp where, as she ages, they both drown.  It was a good ending and, since Griffin Jay is not back for The Mummy's Curse, I'm pretty sure that is where they intended to leave it.  However, this series, though slight, was profitable, and it didn't cost Universal much to make, so they threw Chaney into the Mummy outfit one last time and, for some reason, now moved the location of the swamp from New England to Louisiana. 

Doctors James Halsey (Dennis Moore) and Ilzor Zardad (Peter Coe) arrive in a small Cajun town where a company led by Major Pat Walsh (Addison Richards) is draining the swamp.  The professors are there to retrieve the bodies of Kharis and Princess Ananka (Virginia Christine).  The locals are quite aware of the tales of the mummy and are sure a recent spate of disappearances is related to them.  It also turns out that Zardad is the latest High Priest of Arkan and Ragheb (Martin Kosleck), one of the workers, is his initiate.  They hope to bring the mummies back to Egypt and place them back in their tombs where they belong.

Where Kharis is activated by being given 9 tanna leaves during a full moon all it takes to awaken Ananka is a bit of sun once her portion of the swamp is drained.  She is found by a local named Cajun Joe (Kurt Katch) who brings her back to a local tavern, only to have the owner killed when Kharis seeks his princess out.  Doctor Halsey takes her under his protection, but soon Kharis carries her off and, as usual, things go awry. 

I know that none of the Universal monster films have ever managed to have a consistent internal canon.  There were never any initial plans for sequels to them as they were based on books or the plays based on the books.  Cinema, especially sound cinema, was new.  Serials definitely existed, but movies themselves were supposed to stand alone.  The changes made in these films make even less sense than the others as there are references to the previous events in each one, so moving from New England to Louisiana makes about as much sense as the fact that this movie, if we follow the timeline, takes place in 1995.  

Ananka rising from the mud is a well-done sequence and I wish there was more like that in this film.  Instead, it's a pretty jumbled retelling of the first three, hitting the same beats with the same outcomes, only Chaney's grip on sobriety seems to slip with each movie.  This series didn't really need to go beyond The Mummy's Hand and certainly could have been finished after the third film.  I am glad that after this they decided to wrap things up before they the series unraveled even further. 

The Mummy's Curse (1944)
Time: 60 minutes
Starring: Dennis Moore, Peter Coe, Lon Chaney Jr., Betty Ward, Virginia Christine, Martin Kosleck
Director: Leslie Goodwins

 

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