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Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Most Depressing Mummy Movie Ever? "The Mummy's Tomb" (Universal, 1942) (video)




(spoilers)

"The Mummy's Hand" (1940) was a lighthearted adventure with stalwart hero Steve...


...and bumbling comedy-relief Babe, who kept things from getting too grim.
The upbeat ending found Steve and Babe happy and victorious.

The film's sequel, "The Mummy's Tomb" (1942), is shockingly downbeat in comparison...
...as the "Mummy" series itself goes to the dark side. 

Former hero Steve is thirty years older and in comfortable retirement.
Until a vengeful Kharis returns to throttle him to death in his own bedroom.

The once happy-go-lucky Babe returns for Steve's funeral...
...and ends up, at long last, as another victim of the rampaging Kharis.

Even Steve Banning's elderly sister is killed, in a scene often cut from TV prints.

This "nobody is safe" motif, particularly with the deaths of the previous film's heroes...
...makes "The Mummy's Tomb" arguably the most unrelentingly downbeat entry in the series.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!



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