GOODE STUFF: MUMMY DEAREST by Dave Goode

One of the things I wonder about is why Kharis, the Mummy wasn't featured in ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. If nothing else as an exhibit in McDougal's House of Horrors. Probably because I love THE MUMMY'S HAND (1940), It's my all - time favorite mummy movie. Even without the presence of a masked wrestler. The film is a great little time killer at slightly over an hour in length. Produced by Ben Pivar and directed by Christy Cabanne this was the first in a series of Universal horror films from the 1940s featuring the undead menace of Kharis, the Mummy. The other movies in the series are THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1942), THE MUMMY'S GHOST (1944), and THE MUMMY'S CURSE (1944). Kharis is played in the first film by veteran B-Western and serial star Tom Tyler. And by Lon Chaney Jr. in the sequels. The movie also borrows footage from Universal's THE MUMMY (1932) starring Boris Karloff which gives Imhotep, the character played by Karloff and Kharis the same backstory. And is the reason a lot of people think THE MUMMY as part of the Kharis series.

The story in THE MUMMY'S HAND, written by Griffin Jay and Maxwell Shane, finds American archaeologist Steve Banning portrayed by Dick Foran and his partner Babe Jenson played by Wallace Ford in Cairo, Egypt. Banning purchases a vase in a bazaar that he believes could lead to the tomb of the Princess Anaka.

What Banning doesn't know is that his Egyptian colleague Professor Andoheb,
played by George Zucco, is the new high priest of Karnak and the master of Kharis, the living mummy who guards Anaka's tomb.

Receiving funds for an expedition from stage magician the Great Solvani and his daughter Marta played by Cecil Kellaway and Peggy Moran respectively. The quartet of adventurers set out to find Princess Anaka's tomb and encounter every mummy movie cliche there ever was. Actually this movie created most of those cliches.

It should be noted heroine Peggy Moran was the daughter of celebrated pin-up illustrator Earl Moran. And several publicity stills from the movie almost look like cheesecake poses.

In a number of Mexiluchahero movies you can find several South of the Border superheroes going up against Aztec mummies. Including el Santo,Blue Demon, and Mil Mascaras.

In the second movie in the Aztec Mummy series, THE CURSE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY (1957), there's an el Santo wannabe called the Angel who just may be the worst superhero in cinema history. He loses every fight he's in and then is contemptuously unmasked by the villain. I'd like to believe American luchador Dr.Judo could do a better job.