“The devil’s on the loose and he’s dancin’ with the mummy.”
While draining a swamp in the Louisiana Bayou workers disturb the resting place of the mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney). Two representatives of the Scripps Museum, Dr. James Halsey (Dennis Moore) and Dr. Ilzor Zandaab (Peter Coe) show up. They believe there are two mummies in the swamp. Kharis and Ananka. They have come to search for them. Pat Walsh (Addison Richards) runs the company that is draining the swamp. While Ilzor and James are talking to Walsh about their plans, a workman rushes in. Another workman has been found murdered in the swamp.
Later Ilzor meets Ragheb (Martin Kosleck). Ilzor is a High Priest of Arkam and Ragheb is his disciple. They found the mummy of Kharis and have squirreled it away in a deserted monastery. They raise Kharis with the tana leaves. Meanwhile, in the swamp the reincarnated Ananka (Virginia Christine) rises from her muddy grave. She wanders into a pond and rinses off the mud. Cajun Joe (Kurt Katch) finds the girl wandering in the swamps and brings her to Tante Berthe (Ann Codee). Tante is the owner of the local pub. While Joe goes for a doctor, Tante is killed by the mummy. Ananka runs off into the night.
Ananka is later found unconscious beside the road. Halsey and Betty Walsh (Kay Harding) find her and take her to Halsey’s camp. Ananka is suffering from amnesia. She begins working with Halsey and shows an unusual knowledge of ancient Egypt. Her stay at the camp is short when Kharis comes looking for her. Everywhere Ananka runs, the mummy is not long behind.
“The Mummy’s Curse” was released in 1944 and was directed by Leslie Goodwins. It is the last of the Universal Studios mummy series. Unless you count Abbott & Costello’s version. It is also the third mummy movie where Lon Chaney plays the mummy.
This is the most un-sequel sequel I’ve ever seen. First the swamp the mummy went into in Massachusetts, is now a swamp in the Louisiana Bayou. (Apparently you can get there from here.) Also there are now two priests to contend with. We still get flashbacks from the previous movies in the form of stock footage. Not only do we get a retelling of the story we also have little snippets of Boris Karloff and Tom Tyler as the mummy to add to Lon Chaney’s portrayal. The timeline of the movies are also a little odd. It is 25 years later than the previous movie. The fist mummy movie of the sequel string “The Mummy’s Hand” takes place somewhere around 1940. “The Mummy’s Tomb” is 30 years later. “The Mummy’s Ghost” doesn’t say when it takes place but it is not long after so let’s give it a year. “The Mummy’s Curse” is about 25 years after that. That would make “The Mummy’s Curse” take place somewhere around 1996. It still looks like 1944 to me.
Although I love a good mummy movie, Universal stopped making them. At least until 1999. It appears that Universal lost all control over Kharis.