“If you were to kill me you would leave at large a monster whom only I can control.”
In ancient Egypt Egyptian Andoheb (George Zucco) travels to the Hill of the Seven Jackals. He has been ordered there by the High Priest of Karnak (Eduardo Ciannelli). The dying priest tells Andoheb the story of Kharis (Tom Tyler). When the Princess Ananka died he stole the tana leaves in hopes of restoring the life of the Princess. When he was discovered he was buried alive. The tana leaves were buried with him. The old priest now leaves Andoheb in charge of the mummy and the leaves. To keep the mummy’s heart alive he must give Kharis a tea brewed from three leaves each month on the full moon. Nine leaves will restore movement to the mummy.
Steve Banning (Dick Foran) is an archaeologist who is out of work and stuck in Egypt. In a Cairo bazaar with his assistant Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford) he discovers the remnants of a broken vase. He is convinced that it is an authentic Egyptian relic. When he interprets the hieroglyphs written on the vase he believes it has clues to the location of the tomb of the Princess Ananka.
Banning manages to get support from Dr. Petrie (Charles Trowbridge) of the Cairo Museum. Andoheb, who is also employed by the museum, is not happy. Banning also solicits funding for his expedition from an American magician, Mr. Solvani (Cecil Kellaway). His daughter Marta (Peggy Moran) has reservations about the project. She insists on going along on the expedition to find the Hill of the Seven Jackals and to keep an eye on where the money goes.
The team finds the tomb of Kharis but not Ananka. Andoheb wants to ensure that they don’t. He raises Kharis and sets him loose to dispatch anyone involved in the search. Kharis kidnaps Marta. Andoheb has become obsessed with Marta. He plans on making both of them immortal.
“The Mummy’s Hand” was released in 1942 and was directed by Christy Cabanne. It is the second Mummy movie made by Universal Studios. Several shots and sequences in this film, including the scene where Kharis is being buried alive, are lifted directly from Universal's 1932 original version of The Mummy. The make-up was done by Jack Pierce. This is not a sequel. It doesn’t continue the storyline and many of the characters are different. Including the name of the mummy. Instead of a scroll they have tana leaves. It’s more of a re-do. Look at it as a separate movie.
Unlike “Frankenstein” and “Dracula” the first and second Mummy movies were done eight years apart. Part of Universal’s delay was probably due to censor issues from the institution of the Hays Code. The original Mummy was a pre-code movie. Since the code was instituted horror movies got a lot tamer. As far as mummy movies go it’s decent. Zucco is as creepy as ever. There’s also more comic relief than needed. To me a horror movie should have more horror than comedy. Just sayin…