The Mummy's Hand (1940)
1h 7m | PG-13
A couple of young, out-of-work archaeologists in Egypt discover evidence of the burial place of the ancient Egyptian princess Ananka. After receiving funding from an eccentric magician and his beautiful daughter, they set out into the desert only to be terrorized by a sinister high priest and the living mummy Kharis who are the guardians of Ananka’s tomb.
Director: Christy Cabanne
Studio: Universal Pictures
Genre: Horror, Adventure, Fantasy
Video: 720p
Cast
Dick Foran
as Steve Banning
Peggy Moran
as Marta Solvani
Wallace Ford
as Babe Jenson
Eduardo Ciannelli
as The High Priest
George Zucco
as Professor Andoheb
Cecil Kellaway
as The Great Solvani
Reviews
Not a bad movie for a rainy Saturday afternoon. It's a little serious and a little bit fun. Keep an open mind and realize this isn't a million dollar production and it can be very enjoyable.
Ultimately, this spawned three sequels that develop the tales of "Kharis" (this time Tom Tyler) as he is raised from his perpetual living death to reconcile with his "Princess Ananka". By far the best of them, this film starts off with Dick Foran ("Steve Banning) and Wallace Ford ("Babe Johnson") as two hapless archaeologists who accidentally discover and defile the tomb of "Kharis" who, together with his menacing, megalomanic High Priest "Andoheb" (George Zucco) are not best pleased. Revived by his potent elixir of Tan leaves, the mummy sets off to wreak vengeance on his desecrators - and, of course, to find his long lost gal whom he hopes will buy into his new "been in a terrible fire/hospital" look. The production is a bit basic - there is plenty of repetitive use of the same shots but the cast/writing in this are quite decent - Cecil Kellaway and Eduardo Cianelli are quite effective at keeping the story moving along between strangulations and it's got quite a good conclusion too. No relation to Karloff's 1932 version, but still quite an enjoyable development go the them that I rather enjoyed.