The Mummy's Ghost (1944)


The Mummy's Tomb was a bit of a disappointment.  It wasn't terrible, but it spent about a quarter of its runtime playing clips from The Mummy's Hand before getting into what little story there was.  There was also a 30-year time jump, but either the expedition to find Ananka's tomb suddenly happened in 1910 or someone - most likely Griffin Jay, who wrote the script - didn't consider that there was never going to be enough money to make this happen in 1970, much less 1975, which is when this movie is taking place.   

After killing Stephen Banning, Babe Hanson and others associated with the original expedition, Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) is destroyed in a fire.  Or, at least, that's what everyone thinks.  Yousef Bey (John Carradine) is tasked by an aging Andoheb (George Zucco), the High Priest of Arkan, to go to America and bring back the still living Kharis as well as the body of Ananka so that she may return to her resting place.  He does so, but Professor Norman (Frank Reicher) discovers the secret of the tanna leaves beforehand and is killed by Kharis. 

With the Mummy obviously back the authorities go on alert.  Tom Hervey (Robert Lowery) is an archaeology student who is dating an Egyptian woman named Amina (Ramsay Ames) who is found passed out near the professor's residence, thus raising suspicion.  When Yousef and Kharis go to the museum to retrieve Ananka's body they find it has disappeared, as it turns out the princess's spirit was reincarnated into Amina.  Rather than follow his orders, however, Yousef decides he wants her for himself, which is a major mistake as Kharis is still very much in love with her.  

The Mummy's Ghost repeats some of the same beats as the previous two films but does attempt to do a few things different.  The review of previous events is less than a minute and done by Professor Norman as a lesson rather than taking a huge amount of the movie's time replaying the two previous films.  The idea of Amina's hair slowly turning white due to contact with Kharis gives some hints at what is to come, and John Carradine makes for a strange antagonist in Yousef Bey.  

I have no idea why the dates weren't fudged and why it's now the High Priests of Arkan, especially since Jay was still contributing to the scripts. Unless someone had a copyright on "Karnak" the changes do not make sense, as Andoheb is still the guy in charge of one of the worst secret societies in cinematic history. 

Otherwise, this is another cheap b-movie feature from Universal, barely making it over the hour mark.  Despite that it still tells a decent story, tries to do a few things different and, in fact, has quite a shocker for an ending.  Still, it is sad to see Chaney relegated to stumbling around in makeup rather than getting a chance to shine in some real sequels to The Wolf Man. 

The Mummy's Ghost (1944)
Time: 61 minutes
Starring: Robert Lowery, Ramsay Ames, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, Frank Reicher
Director: Reginald Le Borg

 

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