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Egyptologist Professor Morland (Boris Karloff) is dying, but before he
goes, he insists to be buried with a certain jewel bandaged to his hand,
to which his servant Laing (Ernest Thesiger) is to see, because he
believes the jewel will give him eternal life ... Once he's dead, all
sorts of characters turn up at Morland's mansion, including financial
advisor Broughton (Cedric Hardwicke), pastor Hartley (Ralph Richardson)
and Arabian Aga Ben Dragore (Harold Huth), all of them being after the
jewel, plus Morland's only living relatives Ralph (Anthony Bushell) and
Betty (Dorothy Hyson), who have no idea about their uncle's wealth - and
who are set to eventually become a couple -, and Betty's best friend Kaney
(Kathleen Harrison) - who serves as comic release in this film. Soon
enough, the jewel is stolen from Morland's tomb - by his own servant
Laing, as it would turn out -, which makes dead Morland angry enough to
rise from the dead, kill those who he thinks responsible for the theft and
return the jewel to where it belongs, a living statue of Anubis. With the
mission accomplished, Morland dies again, only for the statue to
turn out to be a clever trick by the pastor to get his hands on the jewel
- but ultimately his greed leads to his own demise, and of the whole cast
of principal characters, only Ralph, Betty and Kaney, who all got involved
in the affair rather accidently and innocently, survive to see another day
...
Rather weak British horror thriller borrowing quite
deliberately from the recent year's successful shocker The
Mummy while giving its nominal lead Boris Karloff disappointingly
little to do. Add to that a stagey direction, some way too stilted
performances by many of the principal players and a script that could have
needed quite some streamlining, and you are left with ... very little, in
fact.
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