The Mummy's Tomb

Starring: Dick Foran, John Hubbard, Lon Cheney Jr., Wallace Ford, Elyse Knox, George Zucco
Directed by: Harold Young
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Action, Drama, Horror
1942

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An Egyptian priest travels to the United States to exact revenge on those who desecrated the mummy's tomb.

Review:

Tim: It took eight years between the original Mummy and the sequel, but only 2 years to make this a trilogy. There were some interesting choices made with this third film. Some of them I appreciated, even as I was slightly befuddled by them. This is also the first "true" sequel of The Mummy franchise, as the second film had nothing in connection with the original.

Despite the fact that this film was made only two years later, in terms of story, it jumps forward 30 years. That means in this franchise, the film takes place in the 1970s (which looks oddly like the 1940s). This was interesting, because it requires the actors to wear makeup to make themselves look older. I'm not sure of another film that took this route- keeping the same characters, just making them much older. I do appreciate the continuity from the previous film- it really made this film feel like a true sequel.

We pick up with Stephen Banning (once again played by Dick Foran) as a older man. He retells the story of his mummy adventure to his son and his girlfriend. One thing I disliked is that this film used stock footage from The Mummy's Hand. In fact, the first ten minutes of the film are basically a recap of the previous movie. That's even worse when you consider the entire film is only 60 minutes long. Why use 1/6 of the film to recap what we've already seen?

Meanwhile, in Egypt, a priest decides it's finally time to enact his revenge for Banning's desecration of the tomb of Ananka. While he waited thirty years, I'm not quite sure. Anyway, to seek his revenge, the Egyptian priest brings the mummy Kharis to America.

The mummy creates his usual havoc, killing one member of the Banning family after another. The most ridiculous part of this is that John Banning, Stephen's son, takes this all in stride. He never seems particularly upset that so many of his family members and friends are killed. He never sheds a tear or seems particularly distraught, and his conversations eventually turn to getting married. It was a completely inhuman, unrealistic reaction to the events of the film. If a mummy killed your father, aunt, family friend, and put another family friend in an unresponsive mental state, wouldn't you be worried for your own safety? It was completely absurd.

I was glad to see Dick Foran again, as well as Wallace Ford as Babe Hanson. I was also glad George Zucco made another appearance. John Hubbard provided nothing good as John Banning, and his performance just left me cold. I was very impressed with Elyse Knox, although she had far too little to do. I really wish she had more screen time. It was very cool that Lon Cheney Jr. played the Mummy, although he was unrecognizable in the role.

I know I was critical of The Mummy's Hand for the absurd actions of the human characters, and I have those same complaints here. One of the most ridiculous aspects of all these films is that Kharis, the mummy, moves so incredibly slow, and yet he manages to kill quite a few people. They scream and throw their hands up, but nobody thinks to run away. While the previous film had a lot of flaws, I enjoyed that more than I did this one. I appreciate that this film took a different path, but I'm still scratching my head on why they decided to jump thirty years into the future. It was a questionable decision, and it adversely affected much of the film.

The conclusion to the movie is pretty average, it's nothing especially exciting or memorable. The townsfolk rise up and you know the rest. The whole film was average, and the movie's flaws really detract from the overall story. This isn't a terrible movie, but The Mummy's Tomb is my least favorite entry yet.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Mummy (1932), The Mummy's Hand, Dracula, Frankenstein