The Mummy's Hand

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For the Mighty Max cartoon episode, see The Mommy's Hand.
The Mummy's Hand
The-mummys-hand-movie-poster-md.jpg
Film poster
Directed byChristy Cabanne
Screenplay by
Story byGriffin Jay[1]
Produced byBen Pivar[1]
Starring
CinematographyElwood Bredell[1]
Edited byPhilip Cahn[1]
Music by
Production
companies
Universal Pictures Company, Inc.[2]
Distributed byUniversal Pictures Company, Inc.
Release date
  • 20 September 1940 (1940-09-20)
Running time
67 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States[2]
Budget$84,000

The Mummy's Hand is a 1940 American black-and-white horror film directed by Christy Cabanne and produced by Ben Pivar for Universal Studios. The film is about an Egyptian mystic named Andoheb (George Zucco) who is ordered by his High Priest (Eduardo Ciannelli) to guard over the mummy of Kharis (Tom Tyler), who can be revived or neutralized by burning a handful of tanna leaves. Meanwhile, archeologists Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford) try to persuade magician Solvani (Cecil Kellaway) to finance an expedition in search of Ananka's sarcophagus. They are joined by Solvani's daughter Marta (Peggy Moran) and Andoheb disguised as the professor of Egyptology at the Cairo Museum. Kharis is ordered to kill off expedition members Dr. Petrie (Charles Trowbridge) and Ali (Leon Belasco) while Andoheb becomes attracted to Marta who he plans to kidnap and make immortal.

The Mummy's Hand was made after the financial success of two other Universal horror films: Son of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man Returns which led to the studio making a follow-up to The Mummy. The film had what was described as a "modest" budget and reuses footage from The Mummy as well as reusing nearly the entire score from Son of Frankenstein. The film was shot with a planned budget of $80,000 but went $4,000 over-budget as production completed. The film was released on September 20, 1940 and was followed by a sequel titled The Mummy's Tomb in 1942.

Plot[]

In Egypt, Andoheb travels to the Hill of the Seven Jackals in answer to the royal summons of the High Priest of Karnak. The dying priest of the sect explains the story of Kharis to Andoheb, involving the theft of sacred tana leaves that can restore life to the dead Princess Ananka, who Kharis secretly loves. Kharis' penalty upon being discovered is to be buried alive, without a tongue, and the tana leaves are buried with him. During the cycle of the full moon, the fluid from the brew of three tana leaves is to be administered to the creature to keep him alive. Should despoilers enter the tomb of the Princess, a fluid of nine leaves will restore movement to the monster.

Meanwhile in 1940, down on his luck archaeologist Steve Banning and his sidekick, Babe Jenson, discover the remnants of a broken vase in a Cairo bazaar. Banning is convinced it is an authentic ancient Egyptian relic, and his interpretation of the hieroglyphs on the piece lead him to believe it contains clues to the location of the Princess Ananka's tomb. With the support of the eminent Dr. Petrie (Charles Trowbridge) of the Cairo Museum, but against the wishes of Andoheb, who is also employed by the museum, Banning seeks funds for his expedition. Banning and Jenson meet an American magician, Solvani (Cecil Kellaway), who agrees to fund their quest. His daughter Marta is not as convinced, thanks to a prior visit from Andoheb, who brands the two young archeologists as frauds. The expedition departs in search of the Hill of the Seven Jackals, with the Solvanis tagging along. In their explorations, they stumble upon the tomb of Kharis, finding the mummy along with the tana leaves, but find nothing to indicate the existence of Ananka's tomb. Andoheb appears to Dr. Petrie in the mummy's cave and has the surprised scientist feel the creature's pulse. After administering the tana brew from nine leaves, the monster quickly dispatches Petrie and escapes with Andoheb, through a secret passageway, to the temple on the other side of the mountain. The creature continues his periodic marauding about the camp, killing an Egyptian overseer and eventually attacking Solvani and kidnapping Marta. Banning and Jenson set out to track Kharis down, with Jenson going around the mountain and Banning attempting to follow the secret passage they have discovered inside the tomb.

Andoheb has plans of his own. Enthralled by Marta's beauty, he plans to inject himself and his captive with tana fluid, making them both immortal. Jenson arrives in the nick of time, and guns down Andoheb outside of the temple, while Banning attempts to rescue the girl. However, Kharis appears on the scene and Banning's bullets have no effect on the immortal being. Marta overheard Adoheb tell the secret of the tana fluid and tells Banning and Jenson that Kharis must not be allowed to drink any more of the serum. When the creature raises the tana serum to his lips, Jenson shoots the container from his grasp. Dropping to the floor, Kharis attempts to ingest the spilled life-giving liquid. Banning seizes the opportunity to overturn a brazier onto the monster, engulfing it in flames. The ending has the members of the expedition heading happily back to the United States with the mummy of Ananka, and the spoils of her tomb.

Cast[]

Cast is sourced from the book Universal Horrors.[1]

Production[]

Following the financial success of the revival of the Frankenstein series with Son of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man series with The Invisible Man Returns, Universal Pictures dediced to revive their The Mummy series series with The Mummy's Hand.[1] The film's budget was set at $80,000 and began filming towards the end of May 1940.[1]

The authors of the book Universal Horrors described the budget as "modest" and noted that cost-cutting for the film involved using stock shots taken from The Mummy, leftover sets from James Whale's film Green Hell, and musical scores almost entirely lifted from Son of Frankenstein.[1][3] The producer for the film was Ben Pivar, who Reginald LeBorg described as the epitome artless, noncreative studio executive who was often crude and occasionally seemed illiterate.[3]

The Mummy's Hand's production continued into mid-June, which led director Christy Cabanne and his crew to film into overtime hours.[3][4] According to Peggy Moran, she had to be on set at 6am to do hair and makeup and filming began at 8am and would occasionally work as late as 4am the next day.[4] Moran commented that "they could do that with people like me because we were under contract. The law requires that outside talent only work for X-number of hours, but me they could work all the time!"[4] When asked about her fellow cast, she spoke positively about Dick Foran ("very nice and friendly") and Wallace Ford ("very funny always").[5] On Tom Tyler who played Kharis, she never met him without his make-up on, stating that he had to be at the studio at four in the morning and he couldn't talk with his make-up on.[6]

The film still went over-budget and slightly over-schedule costing an extra $4,000.[4] The film was finished editing before the end of June.[4]

Release[]

The Mummy's Hand was distributed by Universal Pictures Co. on September 20, 1940.[2] According to Variety, their screening of the film had certain scenes tinted an "eerie green".[4]

The film was followed by the sequel The Mummy's Tomb in 1942 which followed the storyline of two key characters from The Mummy's Hand and included several minutes of footage from The Mummy's Hand flashback sequences.[7][8] Unlike some of the other horror films produced by Universal, The Mummy's Hand was not reissued for theatrical release in the late 1940s and early 1950s.[7]

Critical response[]

From contemporary reviews, film critic Bosley Crowther wrote for The New York Times, "It's the usual mumbo-jumbo of secret tombs in crumbling temples and salacious old high priests guarding them against the incursions of an archaeological expedition, led this time by Dick Foran, Peggy Moran and Wallace Ford. While the scientists busily explore dank passageways and decipher weird hieroglyphics on tombs and chests, jackals howl outside, the native work-gangs mutiny and the mummy is always just around the corner. Once or twice Miss Moran makes a grimace — as if she had caught an unpleasant odor — and screams. Otherwise every one seems remarkably casual. If they don't seem to worry, why should we? Frightening or funny, take your choice."[9] The Philadelphia Record found that the films plot was "sheer nonsense" but that the film "manages to raise a few more goose pimples than other recent horror movies."[7] "Hobe." of Variety found the film to be "muddled in the writing and clumsy in the production. Direction and photography are bush league. Acting varies from violent mugging to smooth under-playing."[7]

Graeme Clark of The Spinning Image comparing the movie with Boris Karloff's and granting 6 out of 10 stars, writes, "This was no eerie love story across the millennia, this was straight fright fare with Universal Studios' least-loved monster, here in the form that viewers would know him best, shambling, strangling, singleminded and mute. A nice touch is that his eyes have been blacked out for his closeups, giving him an undead look. However, more than half the short movie is over before we get to the creepy chase scenes..."[10]

The film holds a 67% "Fresh" rating on aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 9 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10.[11]

References[]

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Weaver, Brunas & Brunas 2007, p. 229.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c "The Mummy's Hand (1940)". American Film Institute. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Weaver, Brunas & Brunas 2007, p. 230.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Weaver, Brunas & Brunas 2007, p. 231.
  5. ^ Weaver, Brunas & Brunas 2007, p. 233.
  6. ^ Weaver, Brunas & Brunas 2007, p. 235.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Weaver, Brunas & Brunas 2007, p. 237.
  8. ^ Weaver, Brunas & Brunas 2007, p. 305.
  9. ^ Crowther 1940.
  10. ^ Clark.
  11. ^ "The Mummy's Hand". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 26, 2015.

Sources[]

External links[]

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