Movie Review – The Mummy’s Ghost (1944)

In The Mummy’s Tomb we learned that the mummy Kharis was still alive and (mostly) well despite being burned with fire at the end of The Mummy’s Hand.

Thirty years after the events in The Mummy’s Hand, Kharis was set to America along with Mehemet Bey to get revenge against the members of the Banning Expedition along with their descendants.  Although Stephen Banning and Babe Hanson were killed by Kharis, Banning’s son, Dr. John Banning, managed to kill Mehemet and defeat Kharis with the help of a mob of people.  The Mummy’s Tomb ended with Kharis being killed in a fire and John Banning marrying his fiancée, Isobel Evans.

Of course, that’s not the end of the story involving Kharis.  This is where the next film, The Mummy’s Ghost, comes into play.

After the failure of Mehemet Bey, the ageing High Priest of Arkam sends another follower to America to simply retrieve Kharis (allegedly still alive and well despite being set on fire *again*) and the mummified body of Princess Ananka, and to return them to Egypt so that they can rest in piece.  Of course, things don’t go as planned and the town of Mapleton, Massachusetts has to face the killer mummy one more time.

Directed by Reginald Le Borg, The Mummy’s Ghost features the return of Lon Chaney, Jr. as Kharis, Frank Reicher as Professor Norman, and George Zucco as the ageing Andoheb.  Newcomers this time around include John Carradine as Yousef Bey, Robert Lowery as Tom Hervey, and Ramsay Ames as Amina Mansori / Ananka.

The Mummy’s Ghost begins in Egypt as Yousef Bey (John Carradine) is summoned to a secret meeting with the High Priest of Arkam, Andoheb (George Zucco).  It looked like Andoheb died in the previous film after handing over the duties to Mehemet Bey, but apparently there must be a glitch somewhere in the space-time continuum.  Anyway, Andoheb proceeds to tell Yousef Bey about the history of Kharis and Princess Ananka, and the purpose of the tana leaves.  He also informs Yousef that although the world believes that Kharis was destroyed, the mummy is still, in fact, alive.  Kharis’s sole purpose is to guard the tomb of Princess Ananka.

Yousef Bey’s mission is to return Kharis to Egypt along with the mummified body of Princess Ananka.  Andoheb then hands over the official duties of being a high priest as Yousef swears to carry out his mission.

Meanwhile, in Mapleton, Massachusetts, Professor Norman (Frank Reicher) also explains the history of Kharis and Princess Ananka to his students in college, but his students don’t seem to take the professor history.  Some of them believe that this mummy was nothing more than a prank, a masked man running around and scaring people.

After his history class, one of the students, Tom Hervey (Robert Lowery), goes and visits his girlfriend, Amina Mansori (Ramsay Ames).  Amina is Egyptian by birth.  She has a nasty habit of staring off into space and going into a trance whenever anybody mentions the word Egypt.

That night has a full moon as Professor Norman is studying some hieroglyphics and working with tana leaves.  He believes to have stumbled upon a discovery with the tana leaves, but he won’t reveal the secret to his wife.  Unknown to him, the mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney, Jr.) is still alive and prowling the streets of Mapleton.  Kharis detects the scent of tana leaves, and he makes his way to Norman’s house.  When Kharis passes by the home of Amina Mansori, she wakes from her sleep and follows Kharis while in a trance.  Kharis then breaks into the professor’s house, kills Norman, drinks the liquified tana leaves, and then flees the house.  When Amina sees Kharis leaving Norman’s house, she loses consciousness and collapses to the ground.  We then see that a strange birthmark is now on her wrist.

A short while later, Tom hears the news of Professor Norman’s murder.

The coroner (Emmett Vogan) and Sheriff Elwood (Harry Shannon) examine the professor’s dead body and notice the suspicious mold around his throat.  Immediately they conclude that this was the work of the mummy.  It’s not known how, but apparently the mummy is back and he’s killing people again.  The late professor’s wife is in distress and cannot add anything to help the police with their investigation.  Amina is also uncertain to the events around Norman’s murder.  As we see, her hair is now slightly different and has some white streaks.  When Tom arrives in the house, he lies to the police and gives a quick alibi to Amina’s whereabouts before the murder.  She’s cleared as a suspect and free to leave the scene of the crime.

The town’s newspapers run headlines about the mummy being back in town, and possibly a connection with the Egyptian girl.  The people are warned to stay indoors at night and to lock their doors and windows.

Shortly later, Yousef Bey arrives in Mapleton and prays to Amon-Ra to aid him in his quest.  He then brews some tana leaves to attract Kharis.  The mummy senses the leaves and heads towards Yousef’s location.  Along the way he crosses a farm and murders an innocent farmer.  When the police arrive and investigate the murder, they’re convinced that it’s the work of the mummy.  They quickly organize a search party to hunt for the monster.

The following day, Yousef Bey visits the Scripps Museum and poses as a tourist.  He discretely eludes the tour group and hides inside of the museum until it closes and the doors are locked.  Kharis then breaks into the museum and joins Yousef at the exhibit featuring the mummified remains of Princess Ananka.  When Kharis reaches into the exhibit and tries to touch Ananka’s remains, the remains suddenly disintegrate.  At the same time across town, Amina wakes up screaming from a nightmare.

Yousef Bey believes that Ananka’s soul has been reincarnated into an alternate form.  This enrages Kharis and the mummy goes on a rampage through the museum, destroying everything in sight.  The sounds of attraction attract the museum’s security guard.  When the guard confronts Kharis, the mummy easily kills him.

When the police arrive to investigate this murder, they’re puzzled as to how the ancient Egyptian princess’s remains could have disappeared without disturbing the other artifacts.  Nothing at the scene of the crime seems to make any sense, so the police return to Mapleton and Professor Norman’s house to look for more clues.  There they discover that the mummy is really attracted to tana leaves.  Knowing this, they plan to build a trap to capture the mummy and use tana leaves as bait.

If they can build a deep enough pit, it’s possible that they can capture the mummy and hold it captive for further studying and, ultimately, its destruction.

Meanwhile, Amina is concerned with her recent trances and feelings of dread.  Tom offers Amina to elope with him to New York and get married, despite the sheriff’s warning for Amina to stay in town.  Amina agrees to Tom’s proposal, and the two of them make plans to leave the following morning.

In his hiding spot at an old mill, Yousef Bey prays to Amon-Ra for help in locating the new home of Princess Ananka’s soul.  After receiving a sign, he sends Kharis in that direction to find Ananka.

The police begin working at Norman’s house and prepare their trap for the mummy.  A deep pit is dug outside of the home, and some tana leaves are liquified.  As they’re working on the trap, Kharis locates Princess Ananka’s soul at Amina’s home.  Amina senses Kharis’s approach and goes into a trance.  She walks out into the yard and then faints when he approaches.  The mummy then picks up the unconscious woman and carries her away.

This abduction was witnessed by the caretaker of the house, and she quickly phones Tom and informs him of the situation.  He goes running off in pursuit of the mummy and Amina.  The caretaker goes to the police and tells them the story of the abduction.  The police quickly assemble a group of volunteers, and then the mob heads out to track down the mummy.  Both Tom and the mob follow the mummy’s footprints and try to catch him before it’s too late.

Kharis carries Amina into the old mill where she’s secured to a table.  Yousef Bey sees the birthmark on Amina’s wrist and recognizes it as the symbol of the Priests of Arkam, confirming that Amina is the reincarnated version of Princess Ananka.  When she awakens, Yousef informs her of this news.

As Yousef converses with a looks at Amina, he falls in love with the woman.  He wishes to use the tana leaves fluid to make himself and Amina immortal so that they can live forever.  This plan enrages Kharis as that is the spirit of *his* beloved woman from thousands of years ago.  By this point Amina’s hair has changed again and become completely white, looking more like the ancient Egyptian princess.  Kharis attacks Yousef Bey before he can make Amina drink the liquified tana leaves.  The mummy forces Yousef out of a window and he falls to his death.

Tom spots the mummy and he tries to attack him, but Kharis easily fends off the attack.  Tom is knocked backwards and is knocked unconscious when he hits the ground.  By now the mob has arrived and starts giving aid to Tom.  When the rest of the mob tries to climb up the rails and into the old mill, Kharis carries Amina down an escape ladder.  He then carries Amina to a nearby swamp.

The mob pursues Kharis, and Tom awakens and joins the chase.  They can only watch in horror as Amina continues to age rapidly and look more and more like Princess Ananka.

The Mummy’s Ghost ends as Kharis and Princess Ananka sink beneath the water, finally united in death.

So is The Mummy’s Ghost a good movie?

Not really.

For starters, the thrills and horrors from the previous Mummy films are absent from The Mummy’s Ghost.  There’s very little terror and almost no shock value.  The most horrifying scene is perhaps the final scene where Amina has transformed into an aged Princess Ananka, and she and Kharis go into the water to drown.  Otherwise, so far this is the tamest of the Mummy films.

It also doesn’t help matters that Andoheb is apparently back from the dead.  He died in the previous film when handing the position of power to Mehemet Bey, but here he’s alive again.  That’s a plot hole and continuity error between the two films.  It was an easy way for the makers of the film to establish a story here and connect the events in Egypt with those in Mapleton, Massachusetts.

Speaking of weird plot elements, how about Kharis himself?

At the end of the previous film, the newspaper headlines declared that the monster was killed.  That usually means that the police discovered the body and that it was, in fact, dead.  But according to this movie, not only was Kharis NOT killed by the fire (not really a surprise as we already knew that fire could not kill the mummy), but he’s apparently been walking around the town and countryside between the two movies.  Didn’t anybody see the mummy walking around, or at least see his footprints?

Anyway, The Mummy’s Ghost is just a mediocre movie from start to finish.  The plot involving Yousef Bey retrieving Kharis and Princess Ananka and returning them to Egypt wasn’t evil or sinister, Kharis only kills a few people, Tom Hervey is almost a useless character, Amina conveniently goes into a trance whenever Kharis approaches, and the mummy himself acts more human than monster.  On top of that, despite the film taking place mostly at night, it’s very clear that most of the scenes were filmed in broad daylight.

Were the producers even *trying* to make either a decent or convincing monster movie?

Couldn’t they have added at least something sinister to the film’s plot?  At least in The Mummy’s Tomb, the mummy was there in America to carry out vengeance killings on behalf of the deceased Andoheb.

The Mummy’s Ghost (1944) – movie trailer

It’s doubtful that very many people will find entertainment in this Mummy movie.  It’s still a classic Universal Studios monster movie, but this film lacks the punch, the horror, and the entertainment value as the previous Mummy films.  See this one only if you’re one of those people who wants to watch *all* of the Mummy films.