The Mummy's Hand (1940)

An ancient mummy is revived to destroy the invaders of the 3,000 year-old tomb of an Egyptian princess.

Director:

Christy Cabanne

Writers:

Griffin Jay (story), Griffin Jay (screenplay)

Stars:

Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, Wallace Ford

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dick Foran	...	Steve Banning
Peggy Moran	...	Marta Solvani
Wallace Ford	...	Babe Jenson
Eduardo Ciannelli	...	The High Priest (as Eduardo Cianelli)
George Zucco	...	Andoheb
Cecil Kellaway	...	Mr. Solvani (as Cecil Kelloway)
Charles Trowbridge	...	Dr. Petrie
Tom Tyler	...	The Mummy
Sig Arno	...	The Beggar (as Siegfried Arno)
Eddie Foster	...	Egyptian
Harry Stubbs	...	Bartender
Michael Mark	...	Bazaar Owner
Mara Tartar	...	Girl
Leon Belasco	...	Ali

Storyline

A couple of comical, out-of-work archaeologists (Dick Foran and Wallace Ford) in Egypt discover evidence of the burial place of the ancient Egyptian princess Ananka. After receiving funding from an eccentric magician (Cecil Kellaway) and his beautiful daughter (Peggy Moran), they set out into the desert only to be terrorized by a sinister high priest (George Zucco) and the living mummy Kharis (Tom Tyler) who are the guardians of Ananka^Òs tomb.

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Plot Keywords:

archeologist | resurrection | tana leaves | magician | mummy | 

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Taglines:

The tomb of a thousand terrors!

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Horror

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 September 1940 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Mummy's Hand

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

67 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shooting began late May-June, 1940, released September 20.

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Goofs

A little before 15 minutes into the movie, Professor Andoheb refers to "the Inca ruins in Mexico". Yet the Incas never were in Mexico. In reality, the Incas were centered in Peru with their empire stretching from Ecuador to northern Chile.

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Quotes

Marta Solvani, Stage Name of Marta Sullivan: Where do they live?
The Great Solvani, Stage Name of Tim Sullivan: Where do they live? Where do they live? Where do they live? Go in the window...I don't know.

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Connections

Featured in Cinemassacre's Monster Madness: The Wolf Man (2007)

User Reviews

Classic Film Transitions to Classic Formula

The producers of the original `Mummy' film obviously had not thought about a sequel. They turned the mummy, Kharis, into a pile of dust at the end and destroyed the Scroll of Toth, which the mummy used to invoke his murderous spells and control the partially reincarnated Princess Ananka.

The `Mummy's Hand' was made eight years after the original had burned the storyline bridges. Therefore, the writers had to start over and hope we weren't really paying much attention to the continuity. Not surprisingly, lots of cut footage from the original film was thrown in to set up the story. This time around, instead of a scroll in a stone chest, we now have an urn full of tana leaves.

This loose sequel introduces the value of the fluid of the tana leaf to give the mummy power (carried on into subsequent mummy films) and the mummy's murderous nightly romps to eliminate those who would find and violate the tomb of the Princess. The principal investigators this time are Dick Foran, the hero and straight man, and Wallace Ford, the formula sidekick who wisecracks his way through the movie with typical nervous bravado. The rest of the mandatory characters are the evil high priest, the older scientist, an attractive female and of course, the mummy.

This movie takes on the familiar 40's mystery formula: murders mixed with comedy relief. The original film was a classic, but the `Mummy's Hand' and the mummy films that followed through the mid 1940's quickly reverted to type. They looked more like entries in a B-movie serial than the subsequent chapters of a classic horror film story.