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Best movie of this year hands down!

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Chaney, like Karloff, hated the Mummy makeup (Chaney was no fan of the Wolfman transformation, either). Karloff said his Mummy make up took longer than Frankenstein. My question is why not put Chaney's name over the title for marquee value (which was done) but let a Chaney double or Tom Tyler, the original Mummy in "The Mummy's Hand" play the monster. With all that makeup and rags, it's difficult to recognize Chaney anyway. Besides, half the time the Mummy stumbles around in virtual darkness. How long is Chaney actually in the three films he did as the Mummy? Maybe 20 minutes each, if that? Pay Chaney, let's say, $2,000 for his name on the marquee in each picture, but let Tyler do the heavy lifting. To satisfy Tyler (who'll probably get the scale salary), list him in the beginning and end credits, but give him a character name NOT in the movie.

The other three Universal Kharis films succeeding were pretty uninspired and uneven, though not without their good parts, however The Mummy's Hand while less than perfect and not exactly great is actually rather decent. Universal are nowhere near at their best here and The Mummy with Boris Karloff also from Universal from eight years earlier is the better film, but of the four Universal Kharis films The Mummy's Hand is easily the best of the four and the only one to come close to a good film.It does start off rather sluggishly and takes too long to get going, it's all relevant but one does wish that the film got to the point quicker than it did. Two performances didn't come over so good, Wallace Ford's bumbling gets irritating after a while and Eduardo Ciannelli is for my tastes rather stiff. And I do have to agree about some of the comedy, some of it is witty and amusing but too much of it was intrusive and unnecessary so it felt more annoying than funny.Visually however The Mummy's Hand is a solidly made film, the best-looking of the four Universal Kharis films most certainly, everything's professionally shot, moodily(appropriately) lit and crisply edited, the sets are suitably atmospheric and it's clear what the time and place is meant to be. The score fits well and is haunting, again the best score of the four films, being very stock in the other three. The story while not much new is interesting and doesn't try to do anything too simple or complicated, while it has more than one type of film genre it didn't feel muddled or have the feeling of not-knowing-what-it-was-trying-to-be and once it gets going it is quick moving and is pretty exciting and atmospherically spooky. The direction is decent and while none of the performances are award-worthy the performances are solid enough, George Zucco's excellent(brimming with sinister authority) performance standing out. Cecil Kellaway is very likable and Tom Tyler is surprisingly good as Kharis, he's actually genuinely unnerving(particularly the eyes). Dick Foran is amiable and Peggy Moran brings charm and spunk to her role.Overall, a decent if not great film and easily the best of the Universal Kharis films. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox

"The Mummy's Hand" has all that you can expect from a good old fashioned mummy movie. An adventurous group of archaeologists (led by Dick Foran and Wallace Ford), while searching for the hidden tomb of the Princess Ananka accidentally stumble into the tomb of the mummy Kharis, who was buried alive 3,000 years prior as punishment for trying to revive the deceased princess. The entire cast is great, and at times funny, for this movie has a lot of comic relief. Peggy Moran plays her part well as the witty Marta Solvani. Tom Tyler is also good as Kharis. Props and set design are very detailed, even though some of the sets were recycled from previous Universal pictures. Stock footage from 1932's "The Mummy" is used during the flashback sequence, along with some originally recorded footage. Overall, The Mummy's Hand is a nice suspense picture and while it may not have you screaming, it still keeps you entertained.

I love reviewing "B" pictures. There's always plenty to talk about. This one is distinguished by the presence of George Zucco who, with his penetrating voice and staring eyes, always makes a great villain. Tom Tyler is rather scary too as the Mummy, while Cecil Kellaway has an interesting part – or rather a part which he makes interesting by various clever tricks of sleight-of-hand. Adorable "B"-picture star, Peggy Moran, makes a super-attractive heroine, though Dick Foran and especially Wally Ford as the hero's let's-go-back-to-Brooklyn buddy, are cast in more conventional mold. Eduardo Ciannelli contributes a riotous performance as an aged priest. In fact, the dialogue as a whole is a marvelous compendium of unintentionally hilarious clichés. My top favorite is spoken by Dick Foran: "There are a lot of strange things happening around here that need a lot of explaining – but there's nothing we can do about it tonight!" Alas, Woody Bredell's photography is a bit below his usual high standard. The picture was obviously made in haste, though the sets are very impressive. However, the shot where the hunters first burst into the cave tomb, is such a great composition with its rim lighting, it makes up for the otherwise very ordinary lighting in most of the picture. The plot, of course, is an out-and-out steal from the first part of Karloff's The Mummy – and even utilizes some of that original footage in a flashback. Christy Cabanne's direction I'd rate as surprisingly competent, given the atrocious script. He manages to put across quite a few thrills and scares. And reverting to Cecil Kellaway, despite his presence way down the cast list and the misspelling of his name, Cecil gets quite a few close-ups. In fact the rest of the players are also often similarly indulged. The Mummy himself (played by Tom Tyler, soon to star in the Captain Marvel serial) is quite scary. And as for the music score, it's a wonderful compendium of Universal "B" horror themes.