The tomb of a thousand terrors!

The Mummy's Hand
1940 | NR | 1Hr 7 Min | Horror | Universal

Director: Christy Cabanne

Writer: Griffin Jay

Stars:

Dick Foran

Peggy Moran

Wallace Ford

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.

Several shots and sequences in this film (including the scene where Kharis is punished by being buried alive) are lifted directly from Universal's 1932 original version of The Mummy, the studio's philosophy is: "Why re-stage and re-shoot something we've already got in the can?"

In all four Kharis movies, we get that famous mummy disfigured and presumably useless right arm. This action is still mimicked today.  Tyler's right arm is bent out at the elbow with his hand on his chest, and Chaney's hand and arm are tight against his chest. However, both are quick to bring the arm out to full use when picking up the heroine in each movie. Also, both Tyler and Cheney were right-handed, and both used their weaker hands to strangle their victims.