Main Cast: Lon Chaney, Jr., Dick Foran, Elyse Knox, Turhan Bey, John Hubbard, Mary Gordon
Release Year: 1942
Country: US
Run Time: 71 minutes
Plot
You cannot keep a good mummy down forever and Kharis is back in this sequel to The Mummy's Hand, which itself was something of a remake of the classic Boris Karloff thriller of 1935, The Mummy. Although assumed to have been killed by Stephen Banning (Dick Foran) in the previous film, Andoheb (George Zucco) has miraculously survived and is now planning a terrible revenge on both Banning and his entire family in Mapleton, MA. With High Priest Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey) as his faithful companion, Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) takes up residence in a Mapleton graveyard where the mysterious Mr. Bey somehow has obtained the job of caretaker. At the first full moon, the mummy is fed enough tanna leaves to break into the Banning residence and kill the now elderly Stephen. To find out what exactly happened, the dead man's son, John (John Hubbard), gets in contact with Babe Hanson (Wallace Ford), one of the members of the original Banning expedition to Egypt. Neither Babe nor John can prevent Kharis from killing Stephen's sister, Jane (Mary Gordon), or from kidnapping John's blonde fiancée, Isobel (Elyse Knox). A posse of upset citizens advances to the graveyard where Mehemet Bey has been promising to literally spend an eternity with Isobel. Interrupted in these romantic pursuits, Bey hands the girl over to Kharis before being shot by John. Carrying a prostrate Isobel, Kharis shuffles back to the Banning estate, which is soon set afire by the mob. Isobel is rescued in the nick of time by John and Kharis perishes in the flames. Or does he? ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Review
Opening with quite a bit of explanatory stock footage from The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb is neither the best nor the worst in Universal's second wave of horror films. Lon Chaney Jr., who played the title role in The Wolf Man the previous year, reportedly hated the character and no wonder: When all is said and done there is only so much that a monster swathed in bandages can do and Boris Karloff and Tom Tyler (of Hand) had already done it. Entirely obscured by makeup and gauze, Chaney was mainly cast for his name; most of the action scenes were actually filmed with his double, Eddie Parker. The lucrative franchise refused to go away, however, and Chaney went on to suffer through the pedestrian The Mummy's Ghost and The Mummy's Curse (both 1944). Like other series films of the 1930s and 1940s, the Mummy pictures became a testing ground for new talent and both John Hubbard and Elyse Knox gamely play their cardboard characters as if they believed in them. Neither became stars, though, the latter being rather better known as Mark Harmon's mother. Still and all, The Mummy's Tomb is fairly entertaining fare and it is fun to see the angry villagers from the original Frankenstein back in action via stock footage. One question remains: Why did Wallace Ford's character change from Babe Jenson to Babe Hanson somewhere between The Mummy's Hand and The Mummy's Tomb? ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Jack Otterson - Art Director, Harold Young - Director, Miton Carruth - Editor, Hans Salter - Composer (Music Score), Hans Salter - Musical Direction/Supervision, George Robinson - Cinematographer, Ben Pivar - Producer, Griffin Jay - Screenwriter, Henry Sucher - Screenwriter, Neil P. Varnick - Short Story Author
The film begins with a long recap of what happened in The Mummy's Hand as told by Stephen Banning, the hero of the first film now an old man. The film features many scenes from the last "mummy" film to tell the story. After the recap Banning, the man who found the Ananka tomb 30 years before, is killed in his own house in New England by the mummy after a high priest has vowed revenge on the men who entered the tomb years before. Banning's old partner, 'Babe' Hanson, is also targeted. As the Banning family is killed off one by one, the high priest (Turhan Bey) decides to take a young woman as his bride instead of killing her. He orders the mummy to kidnap the woman. Angry villagers, led by Banning's son, hunt down the monster and again burn it to death.
Critical reaction
Critical reviews of the film are mostly negative. Film critics felt the movie failed to live up to the standards of other Universal horror films.
Lon Chaney, Jr. disliked the role of Kharis the mummy. Make-up artist Jack Pierce spent up to eight hours to wrap Lon Chaney. A rubber mask was used for long shots.
For unknown reasons, Wallace Ford's character's name is changed from Jenson from the previous film to Hanson in this film.
