By Joseph Gibson
“The four Kharis films
all share a key plot element: the high priest, assigned to control Kharis,
abandons his vows to pursue a woman. Reworking the idea through four
films might get a bit old, but the Kharis saga does evolve….the changing plots
keep the series interesting.” - Frank Dello Stritto (in an interview with
Plan9Crunch. Link here:
https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-quaint-curious-volume-of-forgotten.html
)
In The Mummy’s Hand (1940),
Universal’s Mummy archetype changed from Boris Karloff’s Imhotep to Tom Tyler’s
(and eventually Lon Chaney Jr’s) Kharis. With this cosmetic change also
came a period of the most consistent and yet also experimental of the Universal
Monsters series. While Dracula, the succession of Universal werewolf
films, and The Invisible Man sequels meandered into disconnected anthology (and
the Frankenstein series that makes up the bulk of the franchise’s narrative
swapped protagonist monsters halfway through to the Wolf-Man), this tetralogy
remains focused on the saga of Kharis, even if it makes some very odd and
ill-advised decisions to navigate us through that story.
Before we proceed into
analyzing this film, it is important to pin down what genre(s) this and the
following films are aiming for. Focused more on quirky characters on an
expedition, the Mummy’s Hand does not fit cleanly into the Gothic horror model
one expects from Universal’s earlier works (especially Dracula 1931) where
consistent application of tension, whether or not each scene ends in a major
release, occurs throughout the film. This film, to some critics’ chagrin,
does not feature much terror or suspense until the end of the film when it
would structurally make sense to have tension in any film of any genre that
still has some horror elements. The original Mummy film with Boris
Karloff borrowed a lot from Dracula, so the comparison is a pretty easy way to
rule out that authorial intent if this new film is so different. Horror
comedy is an option of course, as character Babe Jenson comes off similarly to
the Costello role, while the Mummy’s hunts for his tana leaves are genuinely
suspenseful, but much of the film seems focused on the adventure to find
funding and navigate the temple. The Brendan Fraser Mummy films oriented
closer to adventure with horror elements, so I see no issue with a Mummy movie
being labeled adventure over horror if that reflects the priorities of the
film. That would make this film somewhat more slipstream by comparison,
since Brendan Fraser’s Mummy leans more into swashbuckling and has more runtime
to spend on adventure set pieces. As should be obvious, The Mummy’s Tomb,
the next Kharis film, is decidedly not an adventure movie. For what it is
worth, I will label that film a proto-slasher and highlight the shared tropes I
see next time (and will reserve judgment on the other sequels until we get to
them). This shows off a flexibility of genre for the Kharis films despite
similar plot and often experimental nature. Any more specifics into the
differences in genre intent between these first two movies will probably have
to extend to the differences between directors Christy Cabanne and Harold
Young, which is a comparison I am not yet qualified to make. Based on
what we can observe in each film, however, I believe my speculations into genre
to be mostly accurate.
One of the most frequent
jokes and honestly, at this point meme, about the Kharis tetralogy is that
based on context clues, the dating of this series is such that The Mummy’s Hand
takes place in the 1940s, with an immediate 30 year time skip (after which
point World War 2 is still happening), and by the end of this series, it is the
mid to late 90s without much difference in the way the world is portrayed.
Because I cannot weigh in on the clothing, speech patterns or technology of the
different decades, let me say that Babe’s pop culture references to Coney
Island hotdogs (origin 1867 - 1871), PT Barnum (died 1891) and pig latin (1598
- dog latin, 1866 - hog latin, 1800s - pig latin) in The Mummy's Hand are
reasonable for any timeframe in early to mid 1900s based on cursory
research. Frank Dello Stritto, in the postscript for his scholarly historical fiction book The Passion of The Mummy, said that there is one brief mention of the May 1940 date of Banning and Solvani's partnership, which Dello Stritto highlights as an unrealistic and unlikely time-frame. Given that the film started shooting in May 1940, I see no reason we cannot regard this similarly to mistaken clocks in old films more accurate to the shooting time than the film's. Thus, I will not mention the dates, except that it is entirely possible that The Mummy's Tomb might instead be in the 40s, making the timeline slightly better.
The film begins with
efficient introductions to three of the leads: Andoheb, the villain who begins
the film with a promotion from Lay-Priest to new High Priest after his mentor,
the previous High Priest, reveals Kharis’ backstory to him, Steve Banning, a
charismatic but impulsive accomplished researcher that spends their remaining
money on an ancient vase, and his best friend Babe Jenson, the comic relief
character that buys a dancing doll at the same market. Steve and Babe
circumvent a lot of the issues with their archetypal pairing because the film
allows for brief moments of comedic weakness in Steve (Marta pulling Steve out of
another wild Mummy chase at the end of the film) and surprising seriousness from
Babe (what he does to Andoheb at the end), while still feeling like the same
characters scene to scene. Andoheb, meanwhile, comes off as a convincing
manipulator, since, due to the Mummy’s late arrival into the action, his
manipulations of Marta, Petrie and through The Beggar are the main antagonistic
obstacles. Much of this success is due to the casting of George Zucco as
Andoheb, Dick Foran as Steve, and Wallace Ford as Babe.
As far as early symbols
and foreshadowing thematic content, navigating the stairs outside the Temple of
the High Priest of Karnak could be significant, since one of the first things
Andoheb does is climb those outside stairs on the way to greater power, and the
last thing he does in this film is fall down those stairs, when Babe and Steve
take away that power. Implicitly, Andoheb causes the rockslide that
uncovers Kharis’ tomb from a place of higher standing, which also matches his
attempted manipulations of Petrie through being a man of higher standing in the
Museum. This does not map through every scene or every instance of a
staircase, however.
More significant to this
conversation is the opening words of the film, as spoken by the previous High
Priest of Karnak. “For who shall defile the temples of the ancient gods,
a cruel and violent death shall be his fate, and never shall his soul rest,
unto eternity. Such is the curse of Amon-Ra, king of all the gods.” The
seal of seven jackals on the tomb reinforces this message, clarifying death to
whoever breaks the seal. And this does happen. It is one of the few
achievements the film allows to Petrie rather than divvying them up to Steve or
Marta (more on that later), because the film seems to think that the person who
broke that seal should die, which raises interesting questions about the
morality of this whole situation.
Kharis’ curse happens
because of the very human desire to be with his lover after death, and the High
Priests manipulate him as a servant but do so from a place of authority under
implicitly real gods. What makes Andoheb the villain of this movie is
protecting that secret, but the way he does it seems to break the rules outlined
by his mentor, which seems to be the reason he fails, not the pursuit itself.
Steve has an understandable motivation, genuine passion for archaeology (and
why not profit along the way?), but he comes off as obsessive and reckless in a
few key scenes. Dr. Petrie, an actual employee at the Cairo Museum,
disregards his boss to join Steve’s wild hunt for Ananka’s tomb that could
likely end in the death of them. Steve and Babe are fast friends with
their financier magician Solvani, but their early scenes do seem like them
playing each other in genuinely friendly ways that have consequences because
the way Steve is conducting this whole operation resembles a scam (making it
easier for Andoheb to convince Marta that it is). Not taking into account
the sequel, this film thinks that Steve, Babe, Marta and Solvani at least are
innocent of any specific wrongdoing, because Andoheb’s assistant The Beggar is
viewed as wrong for disliking Babe early on and does meet his death carrying
out the will of the gods against these characters (Petrie and Ali not being as
lucky as our core four). One could make a case that Marta is the
redeeming factor for Steve and Solvani (since she does not want to take part in
this expedition but takes responsibility, steps up and does the best at
deciphering the secrets, at the end preventing Steve from going on another one
of these and just being the voice of reason for her father Solvani), but I
guess the instant comedic karma of Babe’s bits must be enough to balance his
moral scales.
Solvani, real name Tim
Sullivan (as played by Cecil Kellaway) is an interesting character in this
film. While Babe is the kind of comedic character that is so against his own
volition, magician Solvani keeps in good spirits and directly steers into every
joke at his expense. There comes a moment in the film when Solvani is
drunk, with Marta trying to convince him not to go on the expedition, and,
despite still wanting to go, Solvani cannot resist the funniest outcomes
possible even if they are against his self-interests, continually cycling
through his magic bits and locking himself in a box. This is a very
unique type of character that would not tonally meld with a clear-cut Gothic
horror. Despite great focus early on, he is mostly a vehicle to introduce
Marta to Steve.
Charles Trowbridge plays
Dr. Petrie, a somewhat confusing character for reasons I’ve previously alluded
to. He is the only one of the expedition actually enrolled at the nearby
Museum, but he acts the least professionally, immediately breaking the seal and
failing to notice that the Mummy, whose skin he examines, is still alive.
He also, surprisingly enough, has undeniable similarities to Marta in such a
way that I wonder if the comparison was intended.
Like Marta, he starts the film with an older authority figure it is in his better interests to stay with but gravitates towards Steve upon their meeting. Dr. Petrie’s introduction sees him choosing the young and untested Steve over the higher credibility of Andoheb declaring the vase a fake, while Marta is fully determined to take Solvani away from Steve and Babe, until she sees Steve and decides to come along. Now, yes, I know the contexts are different in ways that speak to their individual character traits (and Steve is seductive to them for different reasons). Here, the characters are actually foils, since the context is almost completely reversed since Petrie is the ostensible expert that acts immaturely up to his death, while Marta is the magician’s daughter who turns out to be the most responsible character, at which point the story rewards her with Petrie’s skills and knowledge. I say this because, after Petrie dies, the film proceeds as if his previous contributions and observations of the tomb were Marta’s. She brings them back up to Steve and is the closest to figuring everything out until the end of the film. Just because I can see what they were doing with these characters does not mean I think it justified though. The adjustments that happen to Marta’s character do not feel earned but do make the movie more contrived than it needed to be. (If Marta were interested in Egyptology from the start, she would have joined the expedition for different reasons than protecting her father and attraction to Steve. That abrupt attraction to Steve at least has some justification due to juxtaposing his and Babe’s appearances but is still convenient. If she lacked the skills to interpret hieroglyphs, then the movie could not proceed, and if Andoheb did not happen to develop feelings for her, then, again the movie does not happen this way.)
That said, Peggy Moran
does a great job in the role, and her chemistry with the rest of the cast does
not seem out of place. If you just sit down and watch the movie, you will
not question when she starts talking to Steve about the tomb because it is just
our romantic leads sharing the screen. Their relationship is entirely
serviceable. I think The Mummy’s Tomb does such a good job fleshing out
what the loss of Marta means to Steve’s life that it makes one retroactively
view their relationship as stronger in the movie that featured it, but their
relationship in this film, while rushed and a little convenient, still serves
as a good basis for this franchise.
One of the larger issues
with this film, from the point when the Petrie and Marta switch occurs, is the
continuity. After the group finds Kharis’ tomb, they are disheartened to
find a male Mummy, but Petrie is going to study whatever they find anyways, and
so will Steve. Marta and Solvani say they are going to bed, and Ali, the
last of the native helpers sticking around, only does so to inform the others
that he cannot stay. Then, Andoheb feeds Kharis 9 tana leaves to kill
Petrie (the High Priest explains that three keeps Kharis alive, 9 will give him
movement, and any more than 9 will make him uncontrollable, each feeding
corresponding to the howl of nearby jackals), and the film resumes with Steve
finding Petrie dead and Kharis gone and Solvani entertaining Babe and Ali,
Marta eventually joining Steve in the research. The Beggar hides more
tana fluid to result in killing Ali and attacking Solvani, kidnapping Marta.
The way I interpret
these scenes is that Steve running off to get Ali and running back, finding
Petrie dead, must be in the same night, with a missing scene where he convinced
Ali to stay. Ali staying after another day passes where no one has heard
from Petrie strains credibility. Shortly
after all of this, Marta and Solvani go to bed again. If this is all the same night, then Kharis
should already be uncontrollable, which admittedly does not change much but is
just a very strange decision for Andoheb to make and requires additional
context (but if it is a different night, that also requires more context as to
why nobody checked on Petrie for that long).
From here, we get into
the tense scenes of Tom Tyler’s Mummy hunting for his tana leaves and coming
into conflict with our characters. I think The Mummy’s Tomb leverages
Kharis’ slow violent prowling better and more consistently, but this film is
again a start to unveiling this character and what he can do. Tom Tyler’s
eyes are better emphasized than his hands, so the title is confusing unless the
title is supposed to be about Andoheb in a figurative way (since audience
expectations after the very dynamic Imhotep would probably be for the High
Priest to serve The Mummy as a right hand) or perhaps to represent that the
Mummy’s limbs are being stimulated by the tana leaves, and not his mind.
There are a lot of interpretations, but I think The Mummy’s Tomb ironically
would have been the better title for this film.
Steve and Babe realize
the truth of the tomb’s layout from the lay-priest medallion of the Beggar and
take different paths to get to the Temple of Karnak. Steve’s path gets
the Mummy following him, while Babe shoots Andoheb, because the latter
erroneously believed he could still manipulate a weary Babe that’s already
endured all his tricks. Andoheb had tied up Marta to turn them immortal,
and a confrontation occurs between Steve and Kharis, where the film thankfully
does not give Steve the knowledge of the audience since he actually needs the
other characters to help him. Steve destroys the tana vial but does not
think to overturn the urn of the fluid, necessitating Babe’s shooting skills
once more. Kharis goes for the spilt fluid, and Steve sets him on fire,
seemingly just trying to knock the Mummy out with the torch holder. After
a quick bit in which Marta passes out, Babe comments on that and passes out
himself, all that is left is the happy ending where Steve, Marta, Babe and
Solvani are reunited, and Marta prevents Steve from buying another vase.
Conclusion
All in all, this film is
very enjoyable and a strong start for this saga; I noticed new merits and new
faults upon this rewatch that would make my rating a bit more nuanced than
before. This film is better as the first chapter than the entire story is
the most succinct way I can put it: a strong basis with room for improvement.
We shall see if the later installments keep the momentum going.
Check out an earlier Plan9Crunch Review of this film here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-mummys-hand-first-kharis-tale-from.html
And here is a link to an interview with Dello Stritto on his book The Passion of the Mummy: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-passion-of-mummy-interview-with.html
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