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Film: The Mummy’s Ghost
Year: 1944
Director: Reginald Le Borg
Writer: Griffin Jay, Henry Sucher and Brenda Weisberg
Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine and Robert Lowery
Review:
This is a movie that I picked up years ago when searching out the Universal classics. This is one that I hadn’t watched yet. I’m a fan of The Mummy from 1999, but these tend to not always work for me. It is crazy though I was interested in the history from Egypt and their mythology while growing up. This was watched now as part of my Foray through the Fours.
Synopsis: Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.), the mummy, is given a sacred potion that grants him eternal life to search for his lost love, Princess Ananka, despite the unending curse that haunts him.
We start this seeing Yousef Bey (John Carradine) travel into a cave to meet with a high priest, played by George Zucco. Yousef is given his mission. He’s to go to America, use the Tana leaves to get Kharis as well as the mummy of Princess Ananka. They are then to return to Egypt.
The movie then shifts us to the United States and in the classroom of Professor Norman (Frank Reicher). He is teaching about Egyptian history. This is an interesting way to fill us in on the backstory from the earlier movies. What we know is that the mummy wreaked havoc, but people still don’t necessarily believe it. In class there is Tom Hervey (Robert Lowery). He is fascinated by this history, part of it due to his girlfriend. Her name is Amina (Ramsay Ames).
Tom visits her after class and we see her get upset when the topic of Egypt, mummies or anything of the like is brought up. This was something else that I thought was interesting to introduce. These two go on a date and that night, Professor Norman is translating a container that has hieroglyphics on it. He thinks that he’s discovered the missing piece and inside of this is Tana leaves. He brews them and this draws Kharis from the woods. Amina is also drawn to the house. She faints while Kharis strangles the professor.
Yousef arrives in the US and he’s trying to track down this mummy. He brought Tana leaves with him, which works to summon Kharis. There is an issue with their plan when they break into a museum to steal the remains of Ananka. The curse only kept her soul in the body when it was in its resting place. The mummy crumbles, causing Yousef and Kharis to figure out where her soul now lives. The police are involved, trying to prevent any more deaths. It is quite difficult with a creature like this roaming the countryside.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I’ll start then is my issue with the Universal classic sequels. This one is just retconning what happened in the earlier movie. I’ve noticed that the mummy films from them have more issues than others. The first sequel is more of a retelling of the first movie. How The Mummy’s Tomb ends doesn’t get explained here. I won’t destroy this movie over it, but I wanted to point that out.
Now that we have that out of the way, this feels like The Mummy Returns, which is the sequel to the 1999 remake, borrows from this one. It was obvious early on who Amina was. I like how this is managed. She is a woman who has ancestors in Egypt. Tom is in love with her so his interest in the heritage of her people interests him. The only issue there is that it makes her uncomfortable to talk about. He still presses the subject. I’m guilty of this as well, so I can’t fully pick him apart. Regardless, I do think that Tom is a good guy for the most part. How Ananka and Amina are connected was interesting as well.
A gripe I need to bring up here involves the character of Yousef. The first one is that I don’t love casting Carradine in the role. It would have been better to cast someone of Middle Eastern descent. I can be forgiving due to the time this came out, plus they’re using a solid actor in Carradine. This character is pointless though. He’s there to help fill in the backstory. It isn’t until late that he factors back in. It is there that it is rehashing a concept from the earlier film. This just felt lazy for me.
I’ll then end out of the story with positives in that I like how they’re sticking with lore set up previously. The Tana leaves are supposed to be extinct, but I can forgive that there are leaves that were stashed away. Having Kharis run amuck in the American countryside is good. There’s also an interesting thing that happens at the end with him and Amina. It went darker than I expected which helped me enjoy this more. I also like the slipped in commentary about other countries coming into Egypt, stealing items and then being punished for it. Can’t fault the logic there.
Let’s then go over to the acting. Chaney brings good size and how he moves as the mummy. He fits the role well. I’ve already mentioned my problem with the casting of Carradine. I also think that they underutilize the character. Part of that could be the hour runtime. Lowery is good as our lead. Ames is as well, even though I don’t love that they make her a ‘damsel in distress’. It is explained in my opinion through events in the story so I’m forgiving. Barton MacLane and the other police officers were fine. I liked Zucco’s cameo. Reicher worked in his role. Overall, the acting was solid across the board.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I’d say that this is made well enough. The cinematography captures the area where this takes place. I thought that it looked good. I’ll credit the framing to help hide any seams on the effects. I loved the look of the mummy. That was a strong part. This is limited to the effects outside of that. I’d say that the soundtrack was quirkier than I’d expected. That was something that stuck out to me and I appreciated it.
In conclusion, I thought that this movie was fine. In the grand scheme of what it is doing, it is rehashing quite a bit from the earlier movies in the series. It just didn’t feel like they were bringing much new to the table outside of the subplot of Amina and Ananka. I did appreciate that. The acting though was good across the board. Just slight nitpicks there. This is also made well enough with the look of the mummy, the soundtrack and cinematography leading the way there. This has a short runtime so it flies by. I’m just not the biggest fan of these movies so take what you will there.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10