The Mummy's Ghost (1944)

The Mummy's Ghost is the third of four movies in the original "The Mummy" franchise.It follows on from the previous film and yet another high priest has risen our mummy (Played again by Lon Chaney Jr). Once again he is after the reincarnation of his original love. Trouble is this is the third time we've seen the same plot.I'm not saying The Mummy's Ghost is any worse than the rest, it's just the same thing.What it does have however is a very shocking and surprising finale that I found very entertaining. Movies from this time tended to be very predictable so this came as a surprise.For fans this will entertain, but it could easily have been a stand alone movie.The Good:Fantastic finaleWell enough madeThe Bad:Some very hammy actingThings I Learnt From This Movie:Fainting was a big thing for women in the 1940'sMummy tantrums are hilariousAncient egyptian bandages were bullet proof

Jaunty music accompanies cartoon style credits over a backdrop of hieroglyphics, which indicates this is not going to be an exercise in particularly dark horror. We open with a clip from the previous film in this series, of George Zucco, his back to the camera, travelling up many stone steps to a secret temple. As it is, for the purposes of this film, we are required to believe it is actually John Carradine's Yousef Bey ascending the stairway. George Zucco is actually inside the temple, his character Andoheb explaining the Mummy's story from previous outings, with the help of further repeated clips from those excursions.The sequels to the original mummy (1932) are so similar they fall into 'this is the one with …' categories. 'The Mummy's Hand' 'was the one with' Tom Tyler in the titular role, and its follow-up 'was the one with Lon Chaney Junior's first outing'. Sadly, this one is 'the one with' Robert Lowery as the 'hero', Tom Hervey: truly the most objectionable, obnoxious character in any Mummy film up until the Brendan Fraser caricatures begun their spiel in 1999. What a cocky, arrogant fellow he is. This member of the audience is instantly on the side of Kharis, who is resurrected once more, without much fanfare to stumble through Universal's back-lot to find his Princess Ananka (Ramsay Ames).I sound unnecessarily harsh towards 'The Mummy's Ghost', but despite the above (and the reuse of stock music from other Universal horrors/clumsy day for night shooting), its familiarity is reassuringly enjoyable. We know what we're going to get from a Mummy film by this time – and we do. Of Chaney's outings as the monster, this may be his most powerful. From behind Jack Pierce's mask and wrappings, he injects some emotion into his hated Kharis (although Pierce's mask crumples like a Cabbage Patch Kid when the monster is seen to scowl). It is rumoured during Kharis' raging attack on the night-porter (Oscar O'Shea) in the Scripp's museum, that Chaney actually slammed the old man into a real pane of glass, smashing it and injuring O'Shea. Alcohol has not been ruled out.There's an amusing bit of business where the locals, lead by Barton MacLane's cranky Inspector Walgreen, cunningly fashion a disguised pit in which to topple the Mummy, who doesn't even notice and (slowly) walks straight past!Cocky Tom's girl Amina (Ames) is slowly transforming into the putrefying Ananka, which is a welcome inclusion into the plot, but the gradual whitening of her hair goes unnoticed by others throughout, stretching credulity somewhat. Her total transformation into a Mummy as Kharis carries her into the swamp at the end is a certain high-point, and a surprising unhappy ending, although at least she has been spared a life of married bliss with Hervey.

In a lot of ways, the original Universal Mummy series of movies set the blueprint for what a horror sequel should be. Consider all of the similarities to modern series like Friday THE 13th. The monster keeps returning film after film, even though we've seen him destroyed each time. Even more, there is seldom any rational explanation given for his return, he just simply is back because the studio needed him to be. Though there is some half-hearted attempt to connect the continuity of the series, for the most part each of the movies features completely different actors in completely different scenarios, the only common thread being the monster itself. Each sequel supplanted the atmosphere and quality of the original by increasing the violence and sex (okay, so by sex I'm talking about a hip-hugging night gown in this case, but it's the 40s, right). At this point in the Mummy series, they are pretty much following a cookie cutter format. We have George Zucco as the high priest of an Egyptian order initiating a new priest (in this case John Carradine). That priest's purpose is to resurrect Kharis the Mummy to avenge some wrong. Queue up a few random murders from the Mummy until we meet the modern reincarnation of the lost princess. Some drama unfolds until the Mummy can kidnap her, but instead the priest falls in love with her and ruins everything. I am not lumping the original Karloff classic into this mold. That's an excellent atmospheric creeper with a dreamlike tone, but the four Kharis movies pretty much follow the same path but with diminishing quality.If there are "positives" here I would say that Chaney puts some more effort into his role as Kharis in this one that he did in the previous MUMMY'S TOMB. I still don't understand why one arm doesn't work and I miss the hollow eyes that they employed in MUMMY'S HAND, but he's more physically imposing in this one. Also, this is the only classic horror film I can recount from memory that does not have your standard "hero saves the day" ending. I don't want to spoil too much, but it's pretty dark for a movie from this time period.Most everything else about this movie pales in comparison to the ones before it. The boyfriend and his college pals are just bad actors, with some terrible dialog written for them. They are just there for nothing more than to move the plot along. Same goes for the museum types and the police, who are all cardboard and offered nothing much to do. Even John Carradine, who I normally enjoy, is not nearly the maniacal villain that the previous priests were.It's not awful and there's still a lot of fun to be had in this movie, but it's not one of the best Uni sequels by any sort.

The Universal mummy series takes a step down with each entry but they're all fun. This time high priest George Zucco sends John Carradine after the infidels. Lon Chaney, Jr.'s back as the mummy, despite seemingly dying in the last film (we never saw an actual death, to be fair). Carradine tries to get the mummy of Princess Ananka but discovers her soul has been reincarnated in the body of a young woman (Ramsay Ames). Robert Lowery plays the leading man and Barton MacLane plays a cop. Ramsay Ames is a beautiful leading lady. It's easy to see why Lowery, Carradine, and even Kharis are crazy about her. Maybe these sequels are a little repetitive, but they're good times for me. I love Universal horror films. The Mummy series are short, fun escapist adventures with horror and some romance added to the mix. This one isn't the best but it's entertaining. Surprising ending too!