The Mummy's Tomb (1942) takes place thirty years after the previous film, though the characters (played by the same actors) appear to have aged quite a bit more than that. The action is moved to Mapleton, Massachusetts as Kharis's new handler brings him to America to take revenge on those who defiled Princess Ananka's tomb in the previous film.
The Mummy's Tomb has an even shorter running time at just a few seconds beyond on hour in length, over twelve minutes of which are taken up by a recap of what happened in The Mummy's Hand. This movie is even more no frills than the last, but has some nice atmosphere to it, with Kharis's shadow passing over people in their homes and cars, and spooking the animals as he passes by in the night. The tone of the movie is much different, too. Gone are the humor and action, as we watch Kharis, now played by Lon Chaney, Jr., dispatch the previously likable cast one by one. The new characters introduced here are a bland lot, and fortunately don't have to do to much except find the mummy and destroy him. It's by no means a great movie, but thus far, the films don't feel repetitive. I'm going to assume that Jack Pierce also provided the old age make-up, which was well done, even though everyone seemed to have aged about fifty years instead of thirty. This little discrepancy is but the beginning of a whole batch of continuity blunders that affect this series.
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