THE MUMMY'S TOMB

US, 1942, 71 minutes, Black and white.
Lon Chaney Jr, Dick Foran, John Hubbard, Wallace Ford, Turhan Bey.
Directed by Harold Young.

The Mummy's Tomb is one of-many short B-budget horror features from Universal Studios in the '30s and '40s. It follows on The Mummy, a successful series with Boris Karloff. Here, Lon Chaney appears - as he did in so many of Universal's horror films. The plot combines elements of the familiar Mummy story with elements of the Frankenstein's story.

1. Horror enjoyment?

2. Universal Studios - judge horror films? Black and white photography? Studios, special effects, their brevity?

3. The popularity of the films, their tradition? This film borrowing elements of the Frankenstein story?

4. The narrative, the telling of the story, its effect, the audience listening and participating?

5. Egypt, exploration, the revelation of the tomb, opening it up, the mummy, its curses? American archeologists and the effect of the curse? The Egyptian priests, meddling? The being buried alive? The stories about the mummy, its coming to life again, monstrous? Violence? The kidnapping of the heroine? The crowd converging on the fire and its death?

6. Banning and the effect of the curse? The consequences? The priest, his being instructed, keeping the mummy alive, commanding it, his death?

7. The popular horror style of the '40s? Possibilities, imagination? Nightmares and monsters?