And the scene I'm talking about is of course Princess Ananka's awakening from the swamp. Played by the pretty Virginia Christine, this one scene alone stands out from what is a fairly ordinary movie (if still better than the Mummy's Tomb). Ananka's hand slowly rises to the surface of the newly drained swamp, and Ananka herself pushes her way up through the mud and sludge looking like some grotesque manikin. It's a genuinely eerie moment, and one of the best in any Universal 40s horror flick.
The rest is basically Lon Chaney's Kharis strangling his way through the cast of characters when they get in the way of his reunion with Ananka. Even if you've seen the previous movies very little of the story makes sense. The swamp into which he sank in The Mummy's Ghost has mysteriously moved from New England to Louisiana; Ananka for some reason is given life and health by the sun (unexplained, though possibly something to do with Amon-Ra being a Sun God), she frequently runs away from her mummified suitor and then calls for him when he's not around (the soul of the princess presumably coming and going at will - or when the script-writers needed it). Chaney lumbers through the part. He publicly stated he hated the role, but in truth there isn't really anything inventive for him to do.
This is still an atmospheric little B-movie for all its plot inconsistencies. Some nice moonlit shots of the Mummy lurching down the steps of the abandoned monastery and a good sequence where Kharis almost reaches a car containing Ananka before it speeds away just in time. Universal don't really, er, wrap things up with the end, which seems to suggest another sequel was just around the corner. The Mummy's Curse would prove to be last in the series. At least until Abbott and Costello roughed him up!
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