The Mummy Sequels -- 1940-1944 -- NR

The Legacy edition of the Mummy included its four sequels between 1940 and 1944, each more disappointing and ridiculous than the preceeding one. Rather than waste four posts on these moves, I'll just summarize them in one.

The Mummy's Hand -- 1940 -- This first sequel set the stage for the travesties that followed. We have clips from the Mummy's backstory rewritten and occasionally reshot to fit the new storyline. Now there's a cult that keep a Mummy named Kharis alive to protect the tomb of Ananka. This first film does make an effort to create a good picture, but instead of the intelligent whole dangerous man that Imhotep was, Kharis is just a Mummy with a limp and a bad arm. This cult is dedicated to keeping Kharis alive and killing anyone who gets at Anaka's tomb. As luck would have it, that's just what happened. It flows decently until the end when the characters suddenly all take stupid pills to increase the drama. The cult leader steals the girl (don't know why). The hero fires shots at the Mummy to stop him from getting at the magic leaf potion (instead of taking two steps to the right and kicking the stand over). This was the only good effort of the bunch.

The Mummy's Tomb -- 1942 -- We bring back the hero from the last movie to spend 10 minutes of this 60 minute film recapping the Mummy's Hand. Now a new cult leader brings Kharis to the USA to kill the hero's family, who are all so two-dimensional that it's impossible to care when anyone is killed. This movie tries really hard, but ultimately fails by throwing in a mob chase scene we had almost escaped from when we left the silent era. We wipe out the moster by bruning down the family mansion. Yeah, that was smart. And of course, the leader kidnaps the girl for no apparent reason, and most of the action occurs under the cover of the brightest full moon you'll ever see in your life that resembles the afternoon sun.

The Mummy's Ghost -- 1944 -- Now, we are quickly descending into modern monster sequels by bringing in the teenagers played by late twenty year olds (?). Now a new cult leader (blessed by the same cult leader that dies at the beginning of the last film) has to bring Kharis back to Egypt along with Ananka's body. The characters might possibly be one-dimensional (though a good effort was made to fill out the hero to almost two-dimensional...we're shooting for three), but at least they found a reason to kidnap the girl. The premise derails the continuity of the previous movies, and it ends in a ridiculous mob chase scene where the mob clairvoyantly finds where the Mummy and the cult leader are hanging out just after the Mummy betrays the cult leader. For further unexplained reasons, the girl ages until she dies of old age. What!? 

The Mummy's Curse -- 1944 -- Maybe there is an unwritten rule that states that all sequels must be worse than the last one, but this one succeeds on that point alone. EVERYTHING in this movie happens without explanation or apology. Mummy wanders around looking for Ananka. Ok. Chick who was Ananka reincarnated rises from ground and likes sunlight. Dunno why. There is no character development among any of the characters in this film, and we all got zinged with an obligatory romantic involvment between two characters that was hardly hinted at throughout the film. 

The real kicker if you get down to the dates of these films (and I love this):

The Mummy's Hand happens in 1940 (presumably).

The Mummy's Tomb is 30 years later, so 1970.

The Mummy's Ghost gives no dates at all, so we'll stick to the same year.

The Mummy's Curse is another 25 years later, but those are some seriously vintage cars for 1995.

Arsenic and Old Lace -- 1944

Imagine, if you will, coming home to the two women who raised you to announce you've been married and are going off to Niagra Falls on your honeymoon. They insist on throwing a small party before you go which doesn't dent your plans much. As you're looking for something, you stumble across a dead body.

When you announce the find to your aunts, expecting horror, you get a non-chalant response about it being Mr. Hodgkins, and they not only already know about him being there, but they put him there after poisoning him as a public service. They plan on holding a proper service for him later when they bury him with the other 11 men they've killed. And that's just the beginning.

This film was based on a successful Broadway play and is incredibly funny in nearly all of its dealings, even when it is at its darkest. Mortimer (played by Cary Grant) is nothing short of dumbfounded by the blase attitude given by his aunts who are equally confused as to why he is so flipped out. We have a slew of other equally strange and unique characters that only add to the comedy and enjoyment of this story. Even the quirks are comedic as opposed to annoying, like so many quirks can be.

Now, this film was very obviously based on a play with the complete action taking place in a single set. A handful of things happen outside the great room of the house, but not much. This means that since you're looking at the same set for almost the entire film, you have to rely on the actions of the characters to keep the film moving. It moves pretty well once it gets going, but the pace takes a little bit to kick in because we're working in the beginning to acclimate ourselves to what's going on, and new characters are almost constantly introduced. So every time someone new pops in, we have to let up a little bit to get used to someone new, but it's done fairly quickly. 

Definitely one of the better films out there. I found myself laughing constantly throughout the antics of these characters who have all lost their minds.