The Mummy's Hand (1940)

Not a bad movie for a rainy Saturday afternoon. It's a little serious and a little bit fun. Keep an open mind and realize this isn't a million dollar production and it can be very enjoyable.

Ultimately, this spawned three sequels that develop the tales of "Kharis" (this time Tom Tyler) as he is raised from his perpetual living death to reconcile with his "Princess Ananka". By far the best of them, this film starts off with Dick Foran ("Steve Banning) and Wallace Ford ("Babe Johnson") as two hapless archaeologists who accidentally discover and defile the tomb of "Kharis" who, together with his menacing, megalomanic High Priest "Andoheb" (George Zucco) are not best pleased. Revived by his potent elixir of Tan leaves, the mummy sets off to wreak vengeance on his desecrators - and, of course, to find his long lost gal whom he hopes will buy into his new "been in a terrible fire/hospital" look. The production is a bit basic - there is plenty of repetitive use of the same shots but the cast/writing in this are quite decent - Cecil Kellaway and Eduardo Cianelli are quite effective at keeping the story moving along between strangulations and it's got quite a good conclusion too. No relation to Karloff's 1932 version, but still quite an enjoyable development go the them that I rather enjoyed.