Director: Leslie Goodwins
Writers: Bernard Schubert, Leon Abrams
Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Peter Coe, Virginia Christine
1 Hour
Get it from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2zIQRUK
A bunch of people With random accents hang out in the nightclub and talk about things; they’re singing and having a great time. The conversation turns to the mummy that caused all the problems twenty-five years ago.
The scene changes to government men who intend to drain the swamp. The men say the swamp is haunted.
Dr. James Halsey and a new Fez Man come to talk to the boss. They have been sent to recover the bodies of Kharis and Princess Ananka that were lost in the swamp. A man runs in and says one of the men has been killed. Yep, Antwon’s lying in a pit with a knife in his back. There’s also an empty imprint of a man’s body- a bulldozer might have uncovered the mummy.
That night, Fez Man goes out in his boat and meets a follower. They go to a hidden ruined monastery above the swamp. Two sarcophaguses are stored up there. One of them holds Kharis. The other is empty; they still have to find Ananka. Fez man explains to his henchman about the tana leaves.
We get another flashback to Ananka and Kharis’s story. The scenes are re-used from “Hand of the Mummy.” The human version of Kharis doesn’t look anything like Lon Chaney Jr. There’s way too much exposition and talking here, but eventually they shut up and give Kharis his tana leaves. The caretaker comes in and tells them they all have to leave. Kharis kills him.
The next day at the construction site, Ananka gets up. She starts out shambling slowly, but the sun rejuvenates her. The mud washes off, and she looks like a regular girl lost in the swamp. The only word she says is “Kharis!”
Kharis eventually tracks her down, but she runs away from him. She passes out on the side of the road where she’s picked up by a couple and taken to the doctor. Kharis comes within inches of killing the couple, but they get lucky.
Ananka wakes up, and now she can speak English. She can’t remember who she is or why she’s there. She starts working with Dr. Hauser as a lab assistant; she can read and write, and she understands his scientific notes. She knows all about Ananka and Kharis, but doesn’t realize that she’s connected to all that.
That night, Kharis comes for her again, and again, she runs. The doctor tries to intervene and dies for his trouble. After a lot more talk, he finally catches her. He brings her to Fez Man, who gives her tana leaves. Fez man’s servant stabs him in the back, and then Dr. Halsey knocks out the servant. He wakes up, and the two fight as Kharis comes in. Kharis recognizes that the servant has broken his vows and goes after him.
Kharis kills the servant just as the monastery collapses, killing them both.
They go in the other room and find Ananka. She’s turned back into a mummy herself.
Commentary
In the flashback, they don’t even have Lon Chaney play Kharis. It’s clearly not him playing Ananka’s high priest. Also, 25 years have passed, but it’s still only 1944. The accents and racial stereotypes used in the film wouldn’t fly today, not even a little bit. The character “Cajun Joe” sounds very, very Italian.
It’s funny that Kharis’s right arm doesn’t work until he needs to carry something, then it works just fine.
I’m really very glad we binge-watched these, as they are all four so similar they’re going to all run together in my memory very quickly. They’re worth watching, but I can see why people burned out on the Mummy. Each one was just a rehash of the previous one. As bad as the Frankenstein movies eventually became, at least they tried to do new things with it every once in a while.