THE MUMMY’S HAND (1940)
Article #252 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-23-2001
Posting date: 4-8-2002

An archaelogist discovers a vase which he believes shows the way to the tomb of princess Ananka. Little does he know that the tomb is guarded by Kharis the mummy, who will kill anyone who tries to enter the tomb.

The first time I saw this movie on my local Creature Feature they got the reels mixed up and I ended up watching the first half of THE MUMMY’S HAND and the second half of NIGHT MONSTER; no wonder it didn’t make any sense. I managed to finally catch it several years later. The movies in the Mummy series (of which this was the first; the original THE MUMMY does not belong, though some of its footage is used) weren’t the best of Universal’s horror output, but they were good enough to get by. George Zucco and Edouard Cianelli are both having fun as Egyptian high priests, and Tom Tyler was quite good as Kharis (I love that bizarre thing they do with his eyes). Also on hand is Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, and that perennial wisecracking reporter Wallace Ford (NOT playing a wisecracking reporter in this one). It’s also nice that the mummy attacks avoid having the mummy chase someone, as the fact that he could actually catch someone seriously trying to get away always seemed fairly hard to swallow.