Oct 081944
 
two reels

The 3rd film in the Kharis series.  In Mapleton, Massachusetts, the mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) is animated once again by tana leaves.  Joined by an Egyptian priest (John Carradine), he searches for the body of Princess Ananka to take it back to Egypt.  But her spirit has been reincarnated into the body of a college girl.

How many times can you tell the same story?  Kharis is a one trick pony and that pony was tired and lame to begin with.  Kharis wants Ananka back.  Gee, I guess the two previous films (The Mummy’s Hand, and The Mummy’s Tomb) didn’t cover that.  There’s yet another Egyptian cult priest to aid him, just like before.  There is nothing, absolutely nothing new, different, or interesting going on.

The Mummy moves like those bandages are for multiple fractures.  You can laugh at the victims who don’t run away (or walk away, or even crawl away), but you won’t be terrified, or even believe it could happen.  A single monster this slow is never frightening.  Nor is one in an obvious rubber mask.

The college setting and characters add nothing.  The girl/princess has too little story to make her sympathetic (or even noticeable).  The useless boyfriend has “generic” stamped on his head.  The police, while immediately accepting that there is a mummy running around (shouldn’t you then call in scientists and the army?), are too incompetent to follow him, even when he drags his leg while traipsing through mud.  But these are cops who don’t notice a monster climbing down a tall ladder right behind them, so I shouldn’t expect them to be able to track anything.

John Carradine manages to give some personality to his Egyptian priest, but it is a thankless role.  Are religious fanatics normally so easily distracted by a pretty girl?  Aren’t there any cute chicks in Egypt who won’t think he’s evil?

The beauty of the cinematography of the early Universal films is missing.  Instead of the high contrast, innovative look of Frankenstein or even The Wolf Man, The Mummy’s Ghost has the look of ’50’s drive-in fare. The supposed night scenes are particularly painful.

Considering the re-tread story and characters, the ending is surprising.  Director Reginald Le Borg had to argue for the unusual finale—not what I would have expected from him considering his failings in all other aspects of directing.

My rating is being generous.

The Kharis series end with The Mummy’s Curse, which was also released in 1944.

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