Marketic
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Forumrxes
Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.
calvinnme
John Carradine plays an Egyptian priest who is ordered by George Zucco to go to America and bring back the mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Meanwhile, in New England, Robert Lowery is in love with Ramsay Ames, who happens to be of Egyptian descent. In fact, she is really the reincarnation of the Princess Ananka, whom Kharis had/has/always will have the hots for. Lowery's professor, played by Frank Reicher, manages to decipher some hieroglyphics, which brings us to a major hiccup in the plot points. You see, the big breakthrough for Reicher comes when he translates the number "nine." So apparently he can translate hieroglyphics, but not Egyptian numerals. We quickly move to major idiotic point number 2. While Reicher is brewing 9 tana leaves, the mummy just happens to walk out of the woods nearby. Where has he been hiding since the last film? This leads to major idiotic point number 3. The tana leaves are supposed to sustain Kharis, so what does he do? He chokes the stuffing out of Reicher and shuffles off without taking a sip.The ending is nonsensical, especially since, if memory serves, Ananka awakens in the next film in Louisiana.There are so many other goofy plot points that they are too numerous to mention, but here are a few. Ames' hair starts developing white streaks; people notice, but nobody mentions it to her. One of the investigators declares "If those aren't mummy footprints, I'll eat 'em". Where did such a strange expression come from?The supporting cast is good, headed by Barton MacLane as a detective. For film buffs, silent leading lady Claire Whitney has a substantial part as Reicher's wife. The producers also threw a bone to silent film western star William Desmond by having him appear in one scene, with no dialogue.
GL84
Still alive and searching for his long-lost love's remains, the mummified Kharis sets out to find her body and comes across a college student reincarnated as his love which puts his rampage in jeopardy as he tries to save her.This turned out to be quite the enjoyable effort in the series. More than anything else, what works here is the rather large amount of screen time given to the mummy, having a chance to really get a lot of scenes even if he's just shuffling through the background though this one does have some enjoyable moments. Among them are the early attack at the professor's home along with the abduction later on which manages to feature a lot of fun in the initial abduction and transportation scenes along with the scenes of the crises of faith in the temple all making this one quite enjoyable. There's still several other big highlights here, the big one obviously being the finale in the hideout as the mummy tries protecting the girl from the townspeople attempting to reclaim her back while it wages a secondary fight to hold off his attempts to get with her and the end result of all this action is the fire-packed burning of the building in a spectacular display. As well, the sequence in the museum works rather well as the ceremony to restore her is nice B-level charm and the resulting encounter with the guard makes for a rather exciting time. Finally, this one fully explores the connection history of the tanna leaves in resurrecting and controlling the mummy, all of which helps this one overcome its few flaws. Frankly, the biggest stumbling block here is the inherent cheapness in practically everything from the special effects to the mummy costume and even the sets in the different hideouts which are quite obvious and really distracting at times. Also, despite the fact that the mummy has a lot of screen time most of it is random shot of him shuffling around in brief interstitial scenes without really showing it doing much. It really makes these scenes pretty questionable, almost as questionable as the decision to have a hideout with a gimpy-legged creature on top of a mineshaft with a one- hundred-plus inclined slope to get to it. The concept is pretty stupid and is executed similarly. It's not as big a detriment but it does stand with the other flaws.Today's Rating-Unrated/PG: Mild Violence.
snicewanger
The Mummy's Ghost is the third in the "Kharis" the Mummy series and Griffin Jay's script is more or less a rehash of the same old lady in distress plot line of the first two with a twist ending that is a grabber.Director Reggie LeBorg was Chaney's buddy and knew Lon would be pretty well crooked when the lunch break was over, particularly when Lon was in his mummy makeup. Jack Pierce got very tired of Lon's constant gripping and moaning about it. There is a story that LeBorg told about the scene where Kharis strangles Prof Norman. Frank Reicher was one of Hollywood's most respected character actors. When the scene started rolling, Chaney went charging in,grabbed Reicher by the throat and pushed him into the wall. Chaney had been hitting the bottle and was pumped. When Chaney broke off, Reicher screamed "He almost killed me!" and proceeded to verbally ream Chaney a new one, calling him unprofessional and stupid. Chaney just sat there in his mummy makeup muttering an apology and shivering in shame. Chaney's glass breaking scene when Ananka's mummy dissolves is yet another legend. Again he fortified himself with some Jack Daniels and did the whole scene himself without a stuntman. He cut his chin under his mask on a shard of glass, you can see the blood at the end of the scene.Acquanetta had been originally cast in the Amina/Ananka role but she injured herself on the first day of shooting. Ben Pivar claimed, however, that LeBorg had demanded that she be replaced during rehearsals because of her poor acting. Anyway, the beautiful Ramsay Ames was thrown into the part with just a few days notice, which may account for her confused look.in most of her scenes. Ramsay had been hired to appear in musicals because of her singing and dancing talent but Universal kept casting her in horror and mystery films. Robert Lowery was way too old to play a college student and wasn't happy about being cast in the movie. He seemed to have a "lets get this thing over with attitude" throughout the film.The plot holes and lack of continuity in the Mummy series are well known and have been pointed out in many knowledgeable sources. Kharis is a killing machine and not a sympathetic creature as some of the other Universal monsters are. His tendency to kill senior citizens is yet another reason not to root for him. Watching The Mummy's Ghost isn't the worst way to spend an hour and is essential if your are following the series.
Michael_Elliott
Mummy's Ghost, The (1944) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A high priest (John Carradine) travels from Egypt to America to locate the bodies of Kharis (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and Princess Ananka. Once in America the priest seems to think that the princess has had her spirit lifted into another body so Kharis must get to her and kill anyone who stands in his way.THE MUMMY'S GHOST is perhaps the weakest mummy film in Universal's series, although fans of monster movies will probably still find it mildly entertaining. I think there's a lot more that could have been done with the film but it's clear that the studio wasn't interested in anything fresh or original but instead they were just trying to deliver a quick "B" picture and that's pretty much what they've done. The film manages to have a few decent ideas scattered throughout but when you really think about it, the story doesn't add much that the previous two didn't do.Once again we've got a high priest bring the mummy back to life who once again goes out looking for his long lost love. This time out I found the mummy make-up to be the least attractive and perhaps this was due to its star Chaney simply refusing to wear more. It's well-known that Chaney and make-up artist Jack Pearce weren't exactly on the best terms. Carradine is good in his brief role and it's also fun seeing George Zucco back on hand. The supporting players are also decent.The biggest problem with the film is the rather bland direction and even at 61-minutes not too much happens. I think it doesn't help that the quality is obviously a lot lower than the previous three films so the decline is right there in front of you. I think the best thing working for the picture is the climax, which ends in a way that you really don't expect it to. THE MUMMY'S GHOST isn't classic Universal but fans of the series will still want to check it out.
