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Film: The Mummy's Curse
Year: 1944
Director: Leslie Goodwins
Writer: Bernard Schubert
Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Peter Coe and Virginia Christine
Review:
This was a movie that I picked up on DVD years ago. It would have been after college when I decided that seeking out Universal classics would be a good place to expand my horror film knowledge. It is interesting that I loved Egyptian mythology growing up. I liked the remake of The Mummy from 1999, but for whatever reason, I haven't enjoyed these older ones. This doubled as a Foray through the Fours film for me after reading about it in the Horror Show Guide encyclopedia.
Synopsis: shipped to Louisiana, the mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) from Egypt roams the bayou, tormented by his forbidden love for Princess Anaka (Virginia Christine).
We start this off at a local bar that is owned by Tante Berthe (Ann Codee). Cajun Joe (Kurt Katch) shows up and creates a stir. The swamps around them are supposed to be cursed by the mummy, ever since it ended up here 25 years ago. This is recapping the events of the earlier movie when Kharis and Amina went into the quicksand. I don't think the mummy has been seen in that time though.
The people living in the area are also concerned about a project where they're going to drain the swamp. Maj. Pat Walsh (Addison Richards) oversees this project. He does what he can to calm the people down, but they don't fully trust him. He’s an outsider. Back in his office we meet his niece who works as his secretary, Betty (Kay Harding).
A duo also shows up here, wanting to retrieve the mummy of Kharis. He is Dr. James Halsey (Dennis Moore), and he comes with Dr. Ilzor Zandaab (Peter Coe). They're from the Scripps Museum, which was trashed at the hands of the mummy in the previous movie. At first, Pat doesn't want them interfering. With the help of Betty, they're able to put that ease that it will be after their work is done.
Things change when a worker is found murdered. There is a knife in his back. A local doctor, Cooper (Holmes Herbert) shows up at the scene. The murderer turns out to be Ragheb (Martin Kosleck). He is working with Ilzor who secretly a high priest from Egypt. He's part of the same sect who controls Kharis. Their goal is to take both Kharis and Anaka back to Egypt. Kharis is found so they perform the ritual to return life to him. Amina is also found. She wakes up and is helped by Cajun Joe. He takes her to Tante Berthe's place. The problem is that Kharis follows her, killing anyone in his way. Amina then seeks refuge with James, Betty and Dr. Cooper. The more that Kharis kills, the faster this group works to find out who is behind this before it is too late.
That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I'll start is that this film, like others in the series, has timeline issues. I'm not fully sure if anyone went back to double checking things. If memory serves, they already did a time jump of a decade. This one is 25 years after what happened in The Mummy's Ghost, putting this in the 1960s if that one was taking place in the year of release. It's been a bit since watching the earlier mummy movies, but I believe that this timeline should be closer to 1997ish. That is something I'll figure out with my second watch.
Taking that out of the equation, I do like the concept of this movie. I don't truly know where the previous movie took place. This is setting up that Kharis got sucked into the quicksand and that swamp is in Louisiana. I can roll with that idea. It is a good touch to have that the local people are superstitious. They believe that the swamp is cursed and that the mummy is why. We then have people from the city coming in and messing with their way of life. It doesn't amount to much outside that murders start. I do like the tension that is built that not everyone is safe.
There isn't a lot more to go into the story, but we get an interesting touch here that an old monastery is the base for these priests from Egypt. We have a religion that pre-dates Christianity taking over this abandoned monastery. Another thing is that this one explains that a surplus of Tana leaves was buried with Kharis, so that fixes an issue I had. It was part of his punishment for his love for Anaka. This was a small thing that fixed a bigger issue for me.
Since this only runs about an hour long, there isn't more I need to discuss for the story. Let's move on to the acting. Chaney is back as Kharis. His size and how he walks works for the mummy. He isn't given much to work with aside from that and his grunts. Coe and Kosleck are good as our priests from Egypt. I do like that Ragheb is more reckless. It creates issues. It is interesting to me that Christine is taking over as Anaka/Amina. It is problematic from these last three actors is that none are of Middle Eastern descent. Doesn't ruin it, but I would prefer more representation. Moore is good as our hero. I'd say that along with Richards, Herbert, the rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I'd say that this still being early cinema is fine. I do like that this is set in the bayous of Louisiana. Funny being that this is a mummy film. The cinematography and framing were fine. They try different things to build tension. One shot where Kharis is approaching and the characters don't notice. The look of the mummy was good. Don't have much in the way of effects outside of that. I'd also say that the soundtrack was fine without necessarily standing out.
In conclusion, this movie is fine. There are problems that are just built into this series from the start. This one does feel like they finally decided to build off the earlier one and have this mummy run amuck in Louisiana. An issue I have with that though is that they dedicate a decent amount of time to recapping the earlier movies. I'm not sure that we necessarily need that. The acting is fine. This is made well enough with the cinematography, framing and the look of the mummy leading there. This is in line with the rest of the later films for me. It is decent without doing anything horrible. Just issues with timeline being the leader there.
My Rating: 6 out of 10