THE
MUMMY'S HAND (1940)/THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1942)Directors: Christy Cabanne, Harold Young
Universal
THE
MUMMY'S HAND (1940)/THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1942)Universal has done fans of the classic monsters a great honor by releasing two-for-one double feature discs of their beloved horror films. With this DVD we begin the career of Kharis the living mummy, and the first two of four movies which bear no resemblance to the 1932 Boris Karloff original, THE MUMMY.
In THE MUMMY'S HAND, Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford) are Americans in Egypt who decide to search for the tomb of the Princess Ananka and her jewels. Securing funding from a jolly magician (the delightful Cecil Kellaway) and his lovely daughter Marta (Peggy Moran), the amateur group embarks on a desert expedition which leads them to Kharis, a 3000-year-old mummy (Tom Tyler) who loved Ananka and is being kept alive by evil high priest Andoheb (George Zucco). Attempting to protect the tomb of Ananka, Andoheb feeds ancient tana fluid to the mummy and sends the monster on a mission to kill anyone in its path that dares to defile the tomb of his beloved Princess. Kharis deals death but is ultimately destroyed by fire in the climactic finale.
THE MUMMY'S HAND layed the foundation for mummy movies to come and remains one of the finest of its kind. It's easily the best of the four Kharis films, though some find Babe's lighthearted comedy a bit much to take. Truth is, Wallace Ford and his fellow actors make the characters they play very enjoyable. As the mummy, Tom Tyler gives a creepy performance in the limited role (his black expressionless eyes are chilling) and always gets down to serious monster business when onscreen. All this makes for a thrilling 60-plus minutes of pure fast-paced fun.
Two years later came THE MUMMY'S TOMB, which takes place 30 years (!) after HAND. Although it should be 1970 (a hotel receipt in HAND was clearly dated May 12, 1940) everyone dresses and acts like it's still 1942. No matter. This is still a nicely paced continuation (though we have to sit through ten minutes of footage from the previous film first) as Turhan Bey takes over as new high priest Mehemet Bey. His long-overdue mission is to go to the United States with the charred but still functioning Kharis (now played by Lon Chaney) to destroy the living members from the old expedition and their families. Dick Foran and Wallace Ford return to reprise their roles in old age makeup, and Elyse Knox is the new leading lady with whom Mehemet falls in love and seeks to make his high priestess. After a string of murders, Kharis is pursued by an angry mob (often represented via stock footage of torch carrying villagers from the original FRANKENSTEIN!) and is set on fire one more time for good measure.
Lon Chaney never liked playing the mummy, and he makes little impact in the role, though its certainly a tough part to bring to life. Be that as it may, THE MUMMY'S TOMB is a standard but effective time waster, quick and painless and good solid fun.
Picture-wise, these black and white films have never looked better. This is not to say they don't have their problems; they each have little spots and scratches here and there (HAND much more so than TOMB), but they still appear sharp and detailed for their age. Graininess is very slight and not a problem, though THE MUMMY'S HAND is a bit grainier than THE MUMMY'S TOMB. I tend to dislike grain in a DVD, but yet didn't feel it was necessary to turn down the PICTURE control on my set to reduce it. There hasn't been any type of restoration here, but these two films fare better than the first batch of Universal discs because the technology had already been improved for their VHS masters.
The 2.0 mono sound is very loud and crisp and free of surface noise, yet there are quite a few "pops" in the soundtrack to THE MUMMY'S HAND. There are also subtitles included, which is always nice when you want to catch a phrase you never could make out.
Just the fact that we have two movies on one disc is a fine "Bonus," but we are also given a Realart re-release trailer for each film. Still galleries are sorely missed, but the different menu screens throughout the disc present some nice photos anyway. There are Production Notes on the menus which are shortly but sweetly written by expert Tom Weaver, giving us enough interesting information that an audio commentary cannot in this case. There are also biographies and filmographies for every cast member and director, which is very nice to have. I can't resist mentioning here that it could have been possible to include even a brief talk with Peggy Moran (HAND) and Turhan Bey (TOMB). Both are still with us, and both have been to various fan shows over the years.
One minor technical problem worth noting is that after viewing the first film you are not able to access the second without either stopping and starting the disc or (the best way) just hitting the TITLE button on your remote. Something to remember when you have your Mummy Marathon.
So, Universal has come through with this generous dose of classic monster mayhem. With these DVDs I haven't enjoyed these films this much since I was a kid, and that's saying something. They have recognized their fans and given them something they can be very happy about. (Joe Lozowsky)