The 1940s universal Mummy cycle: a decade of decay or regeneration?

This paper explores issues of originality and artistry in Universal’s four film Mummy cycle of the 1940s and discusses how the historical precedent of The Mummy (1932), a much admired cinematic urtext, has overshadowed the immense cultural impact of this series. Collectively The Mummy’s Hand (1940), The Mummy’s Tomb (1942), The Mummy’s Ghost (1944) and The Mummy’s Curse (1944) radically reinvented the Mummy and redefined it as the bandaged monster popularly remembered to this day, eclipsing the fragile human sorcerer offered by Boris Karloff in his rendition of the Mummy in 1932.