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The Mummy’s Tomb (1942)

Dir: Harold Young

30 years after the events of “The Mummy’s Hand“ the archaeologist who discovered the tomb of Ananka, Stephen Banning (Dick Foran), is now an elderly widower, his wife Peggy having passed away.
His best friend and fellow explorer Babe (Wallace Ford), now also an elderly gentlemen, lives not far from him.
Stephen also has a grown up son named John (John Hubbard) who’s engaged to the beautiful Isobel (Elyse Knox).

The High Priest, Andoheb (George Zucco), who was believed shot and killed when Stephen rescued Peggy from his clutches and burnt his murderous mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr) all those years ago, actually survived along with the badly burnt Kharis. 
Now the aged, dying, Andoheb is (like his own father did to him) passing on the sacred duty of controlling Kharis to a young High Priest named Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey) whom he orders to go to America, taking Kharis with him so the mummy can take vengeance on all those, along with their families, who defiled the Princess Ananka’s tomb.

Upon arrival in America Mehemet Bey takes no time in sending out Kharis on his ghastly mission as the past comes back to haunt the Banning family….

 

Moving along at a much faster pace, with far more mummy action, than the previous film, “The Mummy’s Tomb” is a ridiculously maligned (second) sequel to the unconnected Karloff mummy film and is normally ranked far behind the first, but inferior, sequel “The Mummy’s Hand”.
But this lowly status is quite simply unjustified.

Getting rid of every single scrap of dated comedy that held up proceedings in the previous film, this movie is not only far more entertaining from a ‘rampaging mummy’ point of view, but far darker (and unusually brave) enterprise that plays far more like a true horror movie than its predecessor.

The opening flashback, while a strikingly aged Stephen tells the story of what happened, ironically removes most of the ‘go nowhere’ first half of “The Mummy’s Hand” in this re-telling despite this flashback being needlessly extended itself for the purposes of simply setting up its own story.
But much of the criticism this flashback footage now gets is as unjustified as the general negative comments the film gets lumbered with.

Yes, it does take 10 minutes out of the 60 odd minute running time of the film but “Hand” also had a flashback to get through (using footage from the Karloff film) as well as burdening us with a horror-free, tired comedy filled, 25 more minutes before we even get to the mummy/
So in fact this re-cap in “Tomb” still leaves us with far more time left in the film for ‘mummy action’ than the three times as long build-up to it in “Hand”!
There was barely 30 minutes of time left in “Hand” to do anything with the Mummy, and yet here there is about 45 minutes. And sure enough, after the re-cap, the film wastes no time in getting down to the action.
So to criticise “Tomb” for wasting it’s scant running time while at the same time ignoring the needlessly long build-up to anything remotely mummy related happening in “Hand” is simply ludicrous.

That’s not to say the film does not have faults.
You do have to wonder why it took a massive 30 years to get this revenge plot sorted out and the lumbering mummy is given some rather unlikely help in his murderous endeavours by would be victims failing to simply run away.
But this is still one of the most surprising sequels ever made due to the, amazingly unusual for the time it was made, ruthless attitude towards it’s stock heroic characters and the startling change in tone from the film it followed on from.

Chaney (replacing Tom Tyler) as Kharis lacks the creepiness the mummy had in the previous film as they don’t utilise the blacked-out eyes effect (though his fire scarred eye is quite effective and well used in a ‘looming over the bed‘ sequence) and he has far less ghoulish close-ups compared to Tyler but otherwise he’s as much of a physical (if a bit fatter!) presence.
And he certainly gives Kharis an air of unstoppable power even if having a mute and unrecognisable Chaney seems to be more aimed at publicity name recognition than for any acting ability he might bring to the role.
The murders are still pretty weak as, just like in “Hand”, they consist of mostly out of frame throttling.
But the attack scenes themselves are more energetic and injected with a bit more action.

Acting is the basic stock artist stuff, nothing bad but generally bland. The new characters certainly fare the worst.
Zucco has fun again but is on screen for such a short time he fails to make the same impression as he did in the previous film.
Dick Foran is basically the same as he was before, but he plays the age of his character well.
The biggest improvement is Wallace Ford who, now Babe has been stripped of his slapstick humour, has a chance to put in a strong turn and give his character some gravitas.
Turhan Bey is okay as the Priest, but is certainly not a patch on Zucco.

After much atmospheric mummy action and some surprisingly calculated deaths of popular characters (that still seems astonishingly unusual, and would only really be repeated with such brutal efficiency 48 years later in “Maniac Cop 2”) it all culminates in a ’modern day’ version of the typical ‘the peasants are revolting’ set-up which leads us into an enjoyable, fire-filled, finale that’s far more exciting and on a far grander scale than that seen in “Hand”, with some impressive (and quite dangerous looking) action set in and around a burning house.

Overall then what we have in “The Mummy’s Tomb” is a second sequel that fixes most of the faults the first sequel had, takes a very different and much darker attitude to proceedings and takes some unusual and brave narrative decisions. And as such it deserves a much better reputation amongst horror movie critics. Certainly a better reputation than it’s predecessor that’s for certain.