The Mummy's Tomb (Harold Young, 1942, USA)

The Mummy's Tomb is the third film in Universal Pictures' original Mummy franchise. Directed by Harold Young and with a screenplay by Griffin Jay and Henry Sucher, the film opens with a lot of reused footage from the prior film in the series - The Mummy's Hand - despite taking place 30 years after that film. After the initial exposition, we follow the mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) and his follower Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey) to the United States. Bey ends up taking a caretaker job at a local cemetery, where Kharis begins getting his revenge on locals in the scenic New England town of Mapleton. 

What follows is essentially the slasher model, wherein Kharis begins taking out various members of the town. Eventually, he and Mehmet are discovered, and the town exacts mob vengeance on them, burning Kharis in a fire. One of the weaknesses of the film is the extensive use of the footage from the prior film to pad out the film's short 60-minute running time. This reuse of footage takes up almost the first 10 minutes of the film. 

Thankfully the pace begins to pick up when the Mummy arrives in New England, and it is interesting to see the Mummy wandering around New England. We have some identification with the characters, but mainly this is a showcase for Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Mummy. The film's conclusion seems to reuse footage from Frankenstein. The film as a whole is largely inoffensive and mildly entertaining. Unfortunately, the New England setting is not used to its full potential. Lon Chaney, Jr's makeup here is done well, but his performance is the same usual lumbering that we have seen in other films in the franchise thus far. Overall, The Mummy's Tomb is somewhat forgettable in comparison to many other films in the Universal canon. 

5/10