Villain(s)  Undead mummy, high priest

Actor(s):  Lon Chaney Jr., Peter Coe, Virginia Christine, Dennis Moore

Brief Description  The Mummy's Curse is a 1944 American horror film directed by Leslie Goodwins and produced by Universal Pictures. It serves as the fifth and final installment in Universal's original Mummy franchise and marks the final time Lon Chaney Jr. portrayed the tragic Egyptian mummy, Kharis. The film relocates the narrative from Mapleton, Massachusetts (where the previous film, The Mummy's Ghost, concluded) to the Louisiana bayou with no narrative explanation. The plot takes place 25 years after the events of the prior film. Because previous sequels jumped forward several decades, the fictional timeline technically places this film in the late 1990s, despite characters using 1940s vehicles, clothes, and technology.

Plot:
The story opens at a swamp-draining and engineering project in the Louisiana bayou managed by Major Pat Walsh. Work has ground to a halt because superstitious local Cajun laborers refuse to dig, fearing the legendary curse of two mummies rumored to be buried deep in the mud. Two archeologists, Dr. James Halsey and Dr. Ilzor Zandaab, arrive at the campsite. While Halsey is a legitimate scientist looking to recover historical artifacts for a museum, Zandaab is secretly an Egyptian High Priest of the Arkam sect. Zandaab hires a corrupt, disgruntled local worker named Ragheb to serve as his muscle.

That evening, Zandaab and Ragheb sneak into the drained marshlands. Zandaab brews a potion using sacred tana leaves to reanimate the dormant mummy, Kharis. Once awake, the lumbering, heavily bandaged monster is commanded to find his lost love, Princess Ananka. When a camp supervisor stumbles upon their ritual, Ragheb stabs him to death, a murder that the community immediately blames on the resurrected mummy. Meanwhile, the swamp excavation accidentally unearths the resting place of Princess Ananka, who has been preserved in the mud. As the hot sun dries the caked dirt away, her body transforms, and she awakens in a dazed, amnesic state. Terrified, she wanders into the bayou and is taken in by the engineers, who try to care for the mysterious woman.

As the film progresses, Ananka's memory slowly returns, and she realizes the horrific danger she is in. Kharis stalks the camp at night, murdering anyone who stands between him and the princess. Zandaab and Ragheb construct a hidden base inside an abandoned monastery, where they intend to hide the mummies. In the climax, Ragheb is overcome by lust for Betty Ward, the niece of Major Walsh. He kidnaps Betty and traps her in the monastery, choosing to betray his priest handler. When Zandaab objects, Ragheb turns on his master and kills him. Kharis witnesses this betrayal of the holy priesthood and flies into a vengeful rage. The mummy attacks Ragheb, trapping them both inside a collapsing room within the monastery. The stone ceiling cave-in crushes Ragheb and permanently buries Kharis under heavy debris. Dr. Halsey and the authorities arrive to rescue Betty, finding Princess Ananka's body reverted to a completely lifeless, skeletal mummy.