The Mummy's Ghost: Reviewing The Kharis Tetralogy

 

By Joe Gibson

 

“The Mummy’s Ghost is pulp horror at its finest.  I confess to loving this lean, mean, never-a-wasted-minute B programmer from Universal.  There's no excess fat to trim from this film.  It’s like watching a good comic strip – every scene is key to the horror tale.  The film never takes itself too seriously, but at the same time does not descend to camp level.  It’s a damn good hour’s entertainment.  Film students who want to see how a good B film could provide fun to 1940’s movie-goers should make The Mummy’s Ghost required viewing.  It would have been great to view this in a theater with say, House of Frankenstein.” – Doug Gibson (From Plan9Crunch’s previous review of The Mummy’s Ghost.  Link here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-mummys-ghost-is-lean-mean-universal.html)

 

Introduction

 

Having argued the previous films in this series Adventure and Slasher respectively, I am now in somewhat of a dilemma since I do not think either fits The Mummy’s Ghost, but that raises more questions as to why this series stopped those specific types of experimentation.  It could be as simple as new director Reginald Le Borg having different sensibilities or that he expected to make a comedy and was saddled with this script or that he had troubles with some of the actors, especially Lon Chaney Jr that would limit his creativity.  Regardless of the reason, I am confident that this film is unlike its predecessors, mostly due to its presentation.

 

The opening of this film is not a call for sinister avenging so much as essentially a job interview for John Carradine’s Yousef Bey to retrieve Kharis and Ananka juxtaposed with a college class where Professor Norman explains the last film’s events in ways that would affect my previous review (first, he confirms that the flaming house was Banning’s which was easy enough to ascertain but is good to have confirmation of, and second, he says that hundreds of people saw Kharis, which would seem to imply the town and mob were bigger than we saw, which, as I kept bringing up makes that film far more contrived scene by scene if Mapleton is anything larger than a very small town).  Andoheb summarizes events a little differently than before, calling their order after the Hill Arkam rather than the temple of Karnak or waters of Kar and somewhat explicitly connecting the failed love of Kharis and Ananka to the temptations Andoheb and Mehemet Bey already fell to, which lays the groundwork for Kharis to be treated as a dynamic character and not just a slasher villain.  In this juxtaposition, Andoheb and Norman are also set up as mentor foils for young Tom Hervey and Yousef Bey, the wise old men with different perspectives on the events.  Most importantly, Yousef’s task isn’t to mete out revenge but just retrieve Kharis and Ananka (the conflict between Yousef, Tom and Kharis being that Ananka might not be as dead as we have been led to believe, despite also being a corpse in the museum).

 

So if the film has some set-up of Yousef securing resources and authority to venture deep into America and raid Ananka’s museum tomb to bring her back, while Tom learns the history from a mentor with different goals for keeping Ananka there (similar to the previous High Priest’s brief scenes instructing Andoheb in the first film), is this film just a morality swapped version of the adventure that was The Mummy’s Hand?  Not exactly.  While Kharis’ violence was only shown off at the end of The Mummy’s Hand on account of him being near dead for most of it (also being near dead at the start of this film I might add), Kharis gets an attack in on Professor Norman very soon into this movie (he was brewing 9 tana leaves for reasons I’ll get to later). The scene isn’t shot with the same creativity or suspense as any of Kharis’ earlier scenes.  While Kharis’ action of “kill where I find the tana leaves” dates back to Andoheb’s instructions in The Mummy’s Hand, the focus of the scene is actual on the mystery of what is going on with Amina Mansori, Tom’s Egyptian girlfriend, who is compelled to follow Kharis and begins to age rapidly whenever she sees The Mummy (a far cry from anything in that first Kharis film). 

 

There is also not enough context to suggest Yousef could reasonably see the Mapleton college crew the same way Steve saw the Priests of Karnak, since, outside of Norman’s obsession with tana leaf study getting in the way of his wife asking him to go back to bed (of which Andoheb would most likely approve given his monologue about romantic attachments being forbidden), there is not nearly enough done to actually compare the college and the cult of Arkam.  That is completely fine because you would not come to the conclusion of them being similar without overthinking this remarkably simple and straightforward film.

 

As the quote at the top of this review says, the movie is very efficient, trimming any of the fat that might skew it in any other direction than just “quintessential Universal B horror movie,” so let’s just get into the actual review.

 

Review

 

Robert Lowery as Tom Hervey and Ramsay Ames as Amina Mansori lead this film as the third major pair of lovers in this tetralogy, but they are actually very refreshing and possibly the best couple so far.  Tom Hervey is a man of action like Steve that won’t hesitate to jump into action for his girl but also has enough of John’s clinical perceptiveness to not jump to conclusions and be able to accurately take in stimuli as it occurs (but not enough of John’s scientific nature to fully forget his girlfriend and get absorbed into study: most of Tom’s smartest moments are being able to understand and console Amina).  Amina, meanwhile, is naturally a bubbly and intelligent woman that keeps Tom on his toes with shared banter but harbors some mysterious secret that not even she seems to fully understand about Egypt and Kharis. 

 

The town somewhat stigmatizes Amina, through Tom’s college friend and possible roommate urging Tom to tactlessly press her on any question related to Egypt and the town and a newspaper clipping sensationalizing the fact that she, an Egyptian woman, might be involved in a Mummy crime, but Tom genuinely loves her and wants to know about Egypt because of her (rather than everyone else wanting to know more about her because of her connection to Egypt).  The film mines this relationship for effective drama, as we watch Tom try to salvage his relationship with the confused but still reciprocating Amina from circumstances neither one can control or understand.

 

Still set in Mapleton, this story interestingly has new leads but keeps the townsfolk or at least the idea of the townsfolk consistent.  As aforementioned, Professor Norman returns, after analyzing Kharis’ wraps in the previous film, and Mrs. Martha Evans is now a more significant character, with a husband Ben, and now the owner of Banning’s dog King (who, along with Tom’s dog Peanuts, is once again hostile to Kharis).  King gets to be one of the only characters to survive an actual fight with Kharis, while Ben is not so lucky.  Professor Norman repeats some version of the Steve + Babe role in Tomb where he is the main authority figure that gets murdered very quickly, but he actually takes us to some interesting places in terms of figuring out the overall morality of this series.

As I mentioned, he becomes obsessed with the tana leaves and their purported life extension (only academically though) to the point of extensive tests and study, even choosing to study them over his wife, and that gets him killed by Kharis, because he had finally cracked the code that it was 9 tana leaves required during the full moon to give immortality.  Norman will say that it only works during the full moon, which it won’t be after the night of his murder, but the film proceeds with all of Yousef’s later Kharis tana feedings successfully, likely indicating that Yousef’s prayers to the Amon-Ra directly impact this process in lieu of the moon.  Yousef’s prayers, despite being very successful, do not actually seem to work to control Kharis, who carries out his own agenda of seeking food and having one last fight with a Banning (King) on the way to his summons from Yousef. 

 

It is unclear whether or not Norman revived Kharis by melting his 9 tana leaves (in which case Kharis was lying dormant, which has not been established as an ability) or if Kharis was subsisting somehow on his own.  Andoheb does say that Kharis will never die because he has to protect Ananka eternally, which takes us to some interesting possibilities, because it begs the question why the High Priests keep feeding him the tana leaves if he can live years burnt all over without them.  I see two options. 

 

One is that this is an extension of the pattern I noticed where Andoheb (and now all priests of Arkam) are very irresponsible with the amount they give Kharis, and he only needed the initial dose to become immortal.  Going along with this, Norman’s scientific grounding explains his surprise that 9 leaves were required (he implicitly has never tried burning that much because he clearly values this near extinct resource far more than the priests do), so we have finally identified another part of what makes the Arkam priests unsustainable (the first being how treating relationships as taboo makes each of them more allured by the prospect).  The other option is very interesting and uses some of the previous canid symbolism. 

 

Is it possible, based on how Mehemet at least dehumanized Kharis and Andoheb ordered him around, that the priests of Arkam actually have been treating Kharis as a dog, essentially giving him treats intermittently so he’ll not only stick with them for more but also do tricks for them?  Kharis learns over the course of the films, wanting to kill Mehemet Bey for making Andoheb’s same mistake, and, in this film, Kharis has the most independence he has had after fending for himself, so the tragedy here is that Kharis is not actually a lapdog.  He is the untamed wolf, and the jackal, because they are the ones that sing for him.  Dogs, of which there are two significant ones in this film, hate Kharis because he is being treated as one but does not naturally have their loyalty since opposing the cult is what led to his curse in the first place (Tom’s mistaken guess as to why Peanuts is barking at one point is that he heard another dog barking and had to respond, so the film, even if jokingly, supports this interpretation).  Obviously, there are other ways to describe Kharis’ journey “from guardian to avenger to frustrated lover,” but I have always had trouble truly articulating how the Priests of Arkam can have the literal gods of this universe on their side yet also be so misguided, and this possible allusion explains some of that.

Kharis is a very active character in ways that I think are designed to go over the audience’s head upon a first viewing so that the surprise of his opposition to Yousef can still occur.  Once we break it down, Kharis primarily goes to Norman to feed and then finds Yousef, also to feed (which technically demonstrates a lack of independence except that there is implicitly some years since the previous movie during which time he has been fine, and it does not make sense at this point that he would choose not to take his favorite food).  Chaney’s performance is somewhat muted by virtue of the heavier makeup to simulate being in the much larger house fire (it baffles me that the one thing Universal always seems to take into account with continuity is that directly after a fire, the monster should look more burnt, but everything else, including character names is up for revision.  It’s a miracle that Karloff’s Bride of Frankenstein performance happened to be better than his original one, because this is a very easy way for Universal to shoot themselves in the foot, as this film shows). 

 

However, it seems clear based on the one limb he can use to express himself that in his scenes with Yousef, all he cares about is the tana fluid or Ananka tomb that he is directly grasping at.  Yousef happens to have the food he likes and a plan that will get them closer to Ananka; that is why he goes with him.  Yousef doesn’t order Kharis around the same way the previous masters did, and that should also indicate that things are different this time.  When Ananka turns out to be reincarnated rather than in the museum, Kharis has a tantrum and meltdown that only stops when Yousef promises they can still find Ananka.  Again, Yousef noticeably does not order Kharis to kill the night watchmen, because Kharis is thinking, not following orders.  (That will become important in Yousef’s final moments.)

 

After this point, discussion with another Egyptologist, Dr. Ayad from the museum, convinces law enforcement they should replicate Norman’s experiment to lure Kharis there and trap him in a hole, while Tom resolves to take Amina to his people in New York.  The framing of “his people” is interesting because one of Amina’s main worries is that she will not be accepted due to being Egyptian (since the Sheriff is making a very big deal of her connection to this crime that at least the characters involved think he wouldn’t if she weren’t Egyptian), and Tom assures her that his family is already planning to accept her as a Bride.  She is concerned and reticent, but Tom’s wit and romance is enough to comfort her.  Their kiss is broken off as it begins, an effective symbol for their relationship as a whole.  Tom consistently pronounces the dog’s name Peanuts without the proper enunciation and declares Peanuts to be her bodyguard for the night before they leave for New York.

Yousef, following prayers to Amon-Ra, does order Kharis to find Ananka, but Kharis does not leave until Yousef tells him how.  Meanwhile, Dr. Ayad figures out the 9 tana leaves bit with help from Mrs. Norman (previous films implied 3 leaf fluid was only administered to a sleeping Kharis only to keep his heart beating, so I see no issue here that any less than 9 would not register in experiments), and Dr. Ayad’s conduct in this experiment shows off a failing of Norman’s, in that Norman did this experiment without any help or safety, consumed by his obsession, while Ayad carries this out the scientific way.  The rational and scientifically minded John and Ayad are the characters these films think we should aspire to be.

 

Kharis starts to kidnap Amina, and “Ananka” is compelled to walk over to him and pass out, while Peanuts follows.  Tom also tries to find them, after Mrs. Blake alerts him (she also finds the Sheriff, complicating the Inspector’s plan that was involving the entire town at this point).   Peanuts guides Tom to the hiding place of Kharis and Yousef over a slow amount of time (the tension in this film isn’t slow moving Kharis, but the slow moving people trying to rescue his love from him).  Interestingly, it seems that Kharis chooses to bring Ananka back instead of going after the tana fluid.  

 

As Yousef is supposed to kill Amina, some disembodied voice tempts him to make her immortal and live with her forever.  Though I have speculation on the importance of this plot point, I do not necessarily like it because it implies the predatory actions of Andoheb, Mehemet and Yousef may not be of their own volition, but the film and Kharis’ story needed the otherwise asexual Yousef to gain this attraction, so it might as well happen this way.  Amina turns older before Yousef’s eyes, convincing him to give her tana leaf juice.  Kharis is very unhappy about this and attacks Yousef.  And here we see actual orders from Yousef that fail.  For the first time, someone checks the body of a murdered priest of Arkam, as Tom does not have the context that both the Mummy and John Carradine are bad guys.  We should remember that whatever voice reached Yousef, most likely a god, wanted Amina restored to youth and to live eternally.

 

With Tom knocked out by Kharis, Peanuts alerts the mob to Kharis’ location.  Kharis, holding Amina, incidentally outmaneuvers the entire mob by climbing down the lair as they climb up (or maybe he just is that intelligent), but Peanuts is persistent (and if they were going to have a dog be this important to the story, my speculation on the symbolism of dogs vs wolves in Kharis’ story is important since Peanuts and King never once betray their masters). 

 

Amina starts to age even more rapidly in Kharis’ arms, and I must also speculate that, because her tomb’s inscription mentioned she would have a second chance not definite forgiveness from the gods, the very abrupt temptation of Yousef was that chance for her to live again since otherwise she would ultimately age too fast and die again in Kharis’ presence (I know that the following film will go against this, but we have to first concern ourselves with what each film means and not the retcons that will come, since I do not recall the High Priests ever calling their cult Arkam before this film but now that is true).  The mob chases Kharis into a swamp, where he and a very ancient looking Ananka sink, presumably to their shared final resting place.  Everyone leaves the swamp except Peanuts, who sits and waits for Amina.

 

This is a rather dark ending, especially for this series, and that is probably the most unique part of this film from any other Universal B horror film.  It brings to mind the ending to House of Frankenstein, where a similar scenario played out, except there villain protagonist Dr. Nieman absolutely deserved his fate.  Here, every main character is helpless, either dead (in the case of Yousef, who has top billing), desiccated and possibly dead (Amina), unable to stop Kharis or bring themselves to stay by the swamp (Tom) or unable to stop Kharis or bring themselves to leave the swamp (Peanuts), except for Kharis, whose agency is the reason we are in this situation in the first place.  This ending has some good suspense because we are close enough to Kharis to understand possible reasons he chose this but not close enough to pin down the specific meaning, so that, upon a first watch, this climax could have reasonably gone in a lot of different directions.

 

Conclusion

 

The Mummy’s Ghost is a really stupid title for this movie (since, unlike The Ghost of Frankenstein, we do not see said Ghost), but I suppose there are options for what it could mean, each of which touching upon a different theme of the film.  When Kharis finds the corpse of Princess Ananka, he touches it, and it disintegrates while Amina wakes up in bed.  Obviously, Amina is Ananka brought back to life by the power of the gods, and she is as much a Mummy as Kharis is.  It is her ghost that stimulates her to become uncomfortable once it resurfaces, the ghost that is tied to Kharis.  However, I just said that she is as much a Mummy as Kharis is, a statement that goes both ways. 

 

This film is largely about Kharis gaining more independence, and he is the main character in the scene where Ananka’s body disintegrates as well as several other scenes.  The events of this story stimulate Kharis’ dormant and repressed ghost that initially rebelled against the celibacy of the cult which has now controlled him for 3,000 years.  It is frustrating but I think speaks to the thought that went into the film that this incredibly stupid title actually fits its own film the best so far in the Kharis saga (I have argued in the previous reviews that The Mummy’s Hand and The Mummy’s Tomb should have swapped titles to more accurately portray their subject matter).

 

If we are speaking in terms of creativity, I would say The Mummy’s Hand might be the best, and for ambition, The Mummy’s Tomb seems to have trail-blazed Slasher storytelling, but in terms of containing the least issues and most consistent product, The Mummy’s Ghost is that.  Again, this all depends most on how each of us views movies and how we appraise their quality, what flaws we notice and what merits we think counterbalance them.  My analysis here is by no means the final word on this tetralogy, within or outside of Plan9Crunch.  We all have different takeaways, and may the best argumentation win!

 

Due to the finality of not only this film’s ending but also of Kharis’ character arc and the Kharis and Ananka story, I almost wonder if this should have been only a trilogy.  For all its flaws, it’s a far more cohesive trilogy than Brendan Fraser’s Mummy films, and Griffin Jay and Henry Sucher (joined by Brenda Weisberg for this one) would not return to write The Mummy’s Curse, nor would Reginald Le Bord return to direct.  However, we cannot end this story here, since The Mummy’s Curse did come out pretty much immediately after this film in the same year of 1944, and it actually does end Kharis’ story.  We shall examine that one next time.  While you wait, I recommend you read our older review of The Mummy’s Ghost, linked above and also here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-mummys-ghost-is-lean-mean-universal.html .