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The Mummy's Hand/The Mummy's TombRating:
Release Date: 28 August, 2001 Retail Price: $29.98 OUR Price: $8.99 You SAVE: $20.99! Cast: Complete Cast (12 total) |
The Mummy's Hand/The Mummy's Tomb Reviews
SOLID "B" MOVIE ENTERTAINMENT
The Mummy's Hand is the first sequel to the Mummy although it would not appear until eight years after the original. It opens by re-using footage from the original with just a few scenes re-shot showing Kharis stealing tana leaves replacing the scene where Karloff as Imhotep steals the scroll of Thoth.
We are introduced to Horror vet George Zucco as Andoheb, high Priest of Karnak and guardian of the secret tomb of princess Ananka. We are shown how he can control the mummy Kharis by giving him a fluid made of tana leaves.
Cut to Dick Foran as "Steve Banning", a down on his luck archeologist and his partner Babe Jensen. Banning makes a discovery of the location of Ananka's tomb and puts together an expedition to uncover the tomb, funded by American Magician The Great Solvini and his daugher Marta.
Soon, Andoheb sets Kharis on their trail to kill them after they discover Ananka's tomb.
The Mummy's Hand, and the later three sequels would all be "B" movies, re-using much stock footage. There isn't really much of a plot here other than to give Zucco a change to let the Mummy (played by western star Tim Tyler) run wild...well, shamble wild. But hey..the second sycle of Horror was running wild at Universal so they were cranking these out fast.
Foran is the usual handsome hero and Wallace Ford as Babe jenson provides the usual sidekick comic relief so common in these movies.
Certainly no classic and director Christy Cabanne was NO Karl Freund...but it's still a fun movie and a quick watch at just over 60 minutes.
"The Mummy's Tomb" is a direct sequel to the "Mummy's Hand and takes place 30 years later. Almost the entire first 12 minutes of the movie uses footage from the Mummy's Hand as Steve Banning, now an old man, relates the events of discovering Anankas tomb and fighting the Mummy Kharis, as he speaks to his son, John and his fiancee Isabel.
Universal was never above trying to save a few bucks by re-using footage from previous films.
We also find out that the High Priest Andoheb (George Zucco) and the mummy were not killed and that Andoheb is passing on guardianship of Kharis on to Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey). He is to go to America and destroy Banning and his family for desecrating Ananka's tomb.
We now cut to Mapleton, MA, as Kharis begins his nighly rampages of revenge. Wallace Ford Reprises his role as "Babe" although strangely his last name is changed from Jensen to Hanson.
The other big change is Lon Chaney Jr. taking over in his first go as the Mummy, Kharis. He cuts a more imposing figure than Tim Tyler and the makeup was far superior as he appeared much more decrepit can decayed.
Overall it was a refreshing change to move the setting to the States where everyday people were encountering the Mummy in a terror.
Adequate Entry into Universal's Classic Monsters DVD Series
Not much has been made out of these new 'double-featurette' Monster set-ups yet. I picked this particular set up at a local store before buying any more. The transfers are very sharp looking and of high quality; there are sure no complaints about how the movies themselves look.
However, sad to say that these are pretty lacking in the cool extras that the original classic Monster releases had - track commentary, mini-documentaries and photo galleries are completely missing. What you do get for extras (assuming this set is indicative of the rest of the 2-for-1 releases) are sparse 'text only' production notes which may hold a little interest for fans; select cast bios and filmography; and vintage trailers for the movies (I do not recall seeing a 'Mummy's Tomb' trailer before so that was kind of cool). And for what little it is worth the jewel-box packaging art/design is also pretty disappointing (...). On the other hand, it is kind of nice of Universal to go for a somewhat more economically minded 'two for the price of one' format with these releases; I guess if they had to sacrifice some of the extras to acheive this.....personally I (like many serious fans) would rather have paid more and seen the documentaries and heard the commentary!
All things considered; the movies themselves are the bottom line and if this set is a fair representation of the rest of the new series, they look great and are definetely worth picking up. Sadly, a lack of cool extras as we had become used to with the original Classic Monsters DVD releases knock these a little bit down from 'Must Own' status.
More Customer Reviews (5 total)
