Who's The Mummy? Lon Chaney as Kharis
Mummy's Love? Virginia Christine as Princess Ananka
Where? Louisiana, Egypt (in flashbacks)
How Long? 60 minutes
Bizarrely, while following on from the events of The Mummy's Ghost, the New England swamp that Kharis carried his beloved into at the end of the earlier movie has now moved to Louisiana... without any explanation.
Which is odd because The Mummy's Curse not only features the usual flashback retelling of the mummy's origin but also features archaeologists from the Scripps Museum (as last time) and references to the previous efforts to return Kharis and Princess Ananka to Egypt.
Work to drain the swamp is being held up by superstitious workmen, fearful of the curse of the mummy after he disappeared there 25 years earlier (yes, another massive time jump as well).
Never fear though as Dr James Halsey (Dennis Moore) and Dr Ilzor Zandaab (Peter Coe), from the Scripps Museum, arrive to retrieve the bodies of Kharis and Ananka.
Hiding in plain sight, Zandaab is actually the latest High Priest of Arkam with his own designs on the mummy, assisted by the slimy Ragheb (Martin Kosleck), one of the work crew who is also a disciple of Arkam.
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| Virginia Christine |
Ananka's memory is a bit hazy, but she is taken by Cajun Joe (Kurt Katch) to the nearby café run by Tante Berthe (Ann Codee). Unfortunately, Kharis lumbers in and kills Berthe as Ananka runs away.
The lovely Ananka is later found by the side of the road by Dr Halsey and Betty Walsh (Kay Harding), the secretary of the work crew and niece of Pat Walsh (Addison Richards), head of the swamp clearance project.
There's a hysterically funny sequence as Kharis lumbers slowly towards Betty, then Dr Halsey's car, but they manage to get away with Ananka, totally oblivious to the presence of the mummy.
In their care, Ananka starts to come to her senses, and is later able to help Dr Halsey with his research, seemingly possessing an in-depth knowledge of Ancient Egypt.
Kharis, again, comes for Ananka, whisking her away to a nearby ruined monastery, where Zandaab has set up his base of operations.
Betty, looking for the missing woman, is lured to the monastery by Ragheb, who tries to force himself on her, but is interrupted by Zandaab, who ends up dead in the ensuing melee.
Halsey then turns up and tackles Ragheb, until Kharis intervenes, driven by Ragheb's betrayal of his oath. The two former allies fight until Kharis brings down the walls and ceiling of the monastery on them!
Meanwhile, too late to save the missing woman they had been looking for, Halsey, Betty, and the rest of the mob (there's always a mob) from the work site find the mummified remains of Ananka in an adjoining room.
The Mummy's Curse was the last outing for Lon Chaney Jnr in the monster role and the last 'proper' mummy movie from Universal for quite some time.
Strange plot decisions aside, the film's a mix of interesting ideas (bringing Ananka to life, presumably in the rejuvenated body of Amina Mansori from The Mummy's Ghost, for instance) and over-the-top, melodramatic, hammy, acting (sadly the beautiful Virginia Christine is rather prone to this).
It's also retreading very familiar ground - even with the unexplained location switch - of evil cult priests trying to return Kharis and Ananka to Egypt, so it's easy to see why Universal didn't bother to keep the franchise alive any longer.
The trouble with Kharis, once you accept the the horror of his having been buried alive and then kept alive by tana leaves, is that he is painfully slow, and has only one functioning hand (his right arm has remained largely immobile through all the movies to date, except when he's needed to carry someone).
As clearly demonstrated in the scene with Dr Halsey's car, unless Kharis can back his prey into a corner or paralyse them with fear, as presented, he isn't really much of a threat anymore.
The Mummy wouldn't return for 11 years and then it was in the comedy Abbot & Costello Meet The Mummy.
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