The 4th film in the Kharis series. Workers in a Louisiana swamp uncover the body of the mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.). Again, a priest animates him with tana leaves, and they search for the now arisen Princess Ananka.
Somehow, the New England swamp (there are swamps in New England?) from The Mummy’s Ghost has been transported to the Louisiana Bayou. Hmmm. But should I expect any better continuity from the people who set this film twenty-five years after the last, but both are in the 1940s? At least the setting allows some racial variation from the normally pale, Universal monster movie cast. However, when that brings us Goobie, the black stereotype who actually utters the phrase, “Aaa d’nm know M’sta Walsh,” I think the normal all-Caucasian world is less offensive.
As a parody, this might have been a quality movie, and it looked like they were going that way for a time. In the previous films (The Mummy’s Hand, The Mummy’s Tomb, and The Mummy’s Ghost), people just stood there waiting for the Mummy to finally kill them, but here, he pops up behind a couple standing by their car. They never notice him, step out of his grasp when he reaches out, and eventually get into their car and drive off with the mummy standing by, frustrated. There is a monastery on a hill in the middle of the swamp and the amnesiac girl is given a job as a research assistant. This is pretty funny stuff. Ah, but it is played straight.
The story is the same as in the previous three films so there’s nothing of interest in that. Again, a long clip from The Mummy’s Hand (which is slightly altered footage from 1932’s The Mummy) is used to pad the overly short movie.
So why watch this flick? There’s no overwhelming reason, but the amnesiac Princess Ananka is actually interesting, and has more personality than the previous, collegiate princess (which is hardly an impressive statement). The rebirth of Ananka, rising out of the swamp and gazing at the sun, is a great scene—the sort of thing Universal monster films are remembered for. Nothing else in The Mummy’s Curse is worth a second look.