Raiding 'The Mummy's Tomb'

Some miscellaneous thoughts:

**MILD SPOILER WARNINGS**

Dick Foran and Wallace Ford, the leading man and comic relief of the last film (The Mummy's Hand) return, playing their characters as old men, even though both films seem to have been set in the present. This time the mummy kills them both; it's a relief knowing neither got away with being so annoying in the earlier film. Foran is slightly better here, seeming to have more fun underneath his old-age makeup. Ford does less well, seeming to have aged into something completely different from the jaunty Brooklyn guy he was as a young man. Now he's dressed as a proper old British gentleman, lost his accent and is fairly colorless.

The new leading man is the son of Foran's character. He's smoother and more sophisticated, but just as dull. Elyse Knox, the blonde leading lady is a knock-out – but a terrible actress.

Turhan Bey is a terrific villain. Lon Chaney has a bit more personality than the previous mummy (played by Tom Tyler). His makeup is even more effective, and on the whole he is more frightening.

This movie has many effective moments, even though it's riddled with careless stupidities in the script. The mummy passes several townspeople, but all they see is a shadow crossing their faces; yet this frightens them inordinately; and no one seems to doubt that this "shadow" is somehow connected to the murders. There are lots of details like this that just feel silly and wrong – even for a movie about a living mummy.

Much of the stock music, especially the mummy's main theme, is welcome.

All the movies in this Kharis series seem to have interchangeable titles. How am I going to remember which movie is which?

Two teenagers in a parked car start necking while the mummy passes them by. It's a brief scene, and the teens get off easy. But their encounter prefigures many such scenes in later horror movies, where teenage characters will dominate the action.


... Justin