Director: Harold Young
Writers: Griffin Jay, Henry Sucher
Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Dick Foran, John Hubbard
1 Hour, 1 Minute
Get it from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2zIQRUK
Banning, from the first movie (Dick Foran), explains the story of the mummy to his son, John. This is a way to recap the previous movie. There’s a short flashback from the “Hand of the Mummy.” Banning has aged, and thirty years have passed, although both films sort of vaguely take place in 1942 (there is at least one WWII reference). The movie’s only an hour long, but the flashback/recap literally takes twelve minutes and shows all the good action bits; it’s completely possible to skip the previous movie.
Andoheb is now old, and he, too, now passes the torch to a younger priest. Kharis still lives, and he’s got the same mission. There’s a new “Fez Man” in Egypt! Mehmet Bey travels with a large crate of relics from Egypt to America. He wears the same amulet we saw in the previous film. He and Kharis are out for revenge on the defilers of Ananka’s Tomb. He’s already gotten a job as caretaker of a cemetery.
Once he gets settled in and the moon is high in the sky, Bey burns the required nine tana leaves.
Banning’s dogs start going crazy as Kharis climbs up the wall to his bedroom. Kharis kills Banning. Kharis returns to his tomb before anyone sees him. Bey tells him “only three more remain, then we can return to the land which gave us birth.”
John goes through all Banning’s stuff, and he can’t find any enemies that would want to kill him.
That night, it’s time for another murder. The hired man shoots Kharis twice and then keels over in fear. Kharis then kills Banning’s older sister, who had nothing whatsoever to do with Egypt. Still, she’s a blood relative of the man who raided the tomb, so she was on the list.
The media is all over this, and newsmen from around the country come to town to cover the story.
Babe comes to town for Steve’s funeral, and he explains the Mummy stuff to John. Then he explains it to the sheriff, who doesn’t believe him. He explains everything to a reporter, but Bey is sitting behind them listening.
That night, the Mummy walks right down the center of main street. He finds Babe and kills him on the street. The forensic expert confirms that the strip of cloth and mud that they found actually did come from an ancient Egyptian Mummy. Now the sheriff knows what to look for.
John gets his draft notice, and he’s going to be a Captain, working for the Surgeon General. He and Isobel need to get married tomorrow before he leaves. Bey sends Kharis to grab Isobel; suddenly, Bey decides he wants her for his own immortal wife. Kharis doesn’t like the idea, and almost kills Bey right then, but he turns and obeys. Kharis grabs the girl and heads home.
One man tells the sheriff that the caretaker over at the cemetery is an Egyptian. Maybe he’s behind all this?
The villagers gather in a mob with torches and head for the cemetery. Bey prepares the tana leaves for Isobel, but before he can give it to her, the villagers arrive. He has Kharis take her out back and hide while he deals with the rabble. Bey pulls a gun on John, but the sheriff shoots him.
The whole gang chases down Kharis back to the Banning house. He goes up to the balcony with Isobel in his arms, but the villagers set the house on fire. John and Isobel clmb down safely, but Kharis is trapped and burns.
We then see newspaper reports that John and Isobel got married, and then they get on the train to head to Washington.
Commentary
They went all out bringing back actors and characters from the first movie to literally pass the torch to the next generation. This time, they’re forgotten all the comedy nonsense. It’s almost as if they wanted a reboot, but had to make this a sequel for some outside reason.
Lon Chaney Jr. was the mummy this time. It could just as easily have been Bob from the accounting department. He’s unrecognizable, doesn’t get any lines, and is always shot in the dark. The makeup looks good, but again, that could have been anybody inside there.
Why it took thirty years for Kharis to go get revenge is anyone’s guess, since Andoheb explains in the beginning that getting shot wasn’t that serious and that Kharis was fine too. They really jumped through a lot of hoops to bring in a new, younger cast without throwing out the previous story.