1944’s The Mummy’s Curse picks up where 1944’s The Mummy’s Ghost finished, but it starts with bad sign number one. The story seems like it should take place in the same locale as Ghost and 1942’s The Mummy’s Tomb, but oddly we’ve left the US northeast and headed to Bayou country in Louisiana.

Why does this occur? I have no idea - I guess they thought it’d look cool.

Curse also takes place 25 years after the conclusion of Ghost. Somebody needs to figure out the timeline of all these films, but this is rendered difficult because none of the movies clearly states a year.

Tomb occurred 30 years following Hand, which took place in some undetermined time, but I can’t recall if Ghost went far into the future past Tomb. (Hey, all of these suckers blend together after a while!)

I think Ghost stayed fairly contemporary with Tomb, and some feel Tomb took place in the early Forties because the lead goes into the Army. Since he was drafted as an officer, that makes sense, so I feel Tomb and Ghost existed in then-contemporary times, while Hand was from the 1910s.

In any case, Curse presents events that are supposed to be at least 55 years after Hand, so it’s amazing how much all of these societies look like 1940s America! I guess they figured no one would realize that Curse was supposed to take place in the late Sixties, for there are no adaptations or nods to the then-future. If they couldn’t figure out what part of the country to place the story, I can’t expect them to worry about details like that either, I suppose.

Whatever the situation may be, Curse gives us more of what we saw in the first three films. Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) again tries to hook up with Ananka (Virginia Christine), as the college babe of Ghost has become a full-fledged mummy herself in the interim.

Both scare a lot of folks and wreak moderate havoc. Excitement ensues.

At least in theory it does, but the results look an awful lot like the film’s predecessors. One problem with Curse is that it suffers from an overabundance of flashbacks.

That issue plagued Tomb as well, which used far too much of its brief running time to show us what happened in the first flick. Curse isn’t as over the top in this regard, but it definitely gives us too much backstory.

That’s a problem largely because none of it matters. These films can’t keep any facts straight, so why bother with continuity and history?

Frankly, I’m surprised I can recall anything about the last three flicks, as they all seem like the same piece. Returns continued to diminish throughout the series, as I got more and more tired with the rehashed antics of the mummy. Granted, these films weren’t meant to be watched back-to-back-to-back-to-back in one pathetic marathon, but I can’t imagine that The Mummy’s Curse would be interesting under the best of circumstances.

By the way, the prior DVD’s case tried to obscure the film’s geographic inconsistencies. It stated “the trouble begins when mummy Kharis is recovered and transported to Cajun country for study by a bunch of prodding archaeologists”.

However, that’s totally wrong, as the movie takes place nowhere other than Louisiana. While the archaeologists do seek the mummies, they don’t transport anybody anywhere and it’s all in the Bayou.

Actually, the movie tries to make us believe all the prior events happened in the South as well. It’s very odd.

The Mummy’s Curse appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not up to the same high standards of its peers, Curse still looked good.

Sharpness mainly came across well, with images that largely appeared accurate and well-defined. The most obvious instances of softness stemmed from the use of footage taken from earlier films, as those tended to seem iffy. A few other slightly ill-defined elements materialized, but most of the movie showed nice accuracy.

Curse lacks moiré effects or jagged edges, and edge haloes also remained absent. The presence of light grain implied that the image didn’t suffer from notable digital noise reduction, and print flaws stayed minor. I noticed a handful of small specks, a factor that made Curse dirtier than its siblings, but it still seemed very clean for an older film.

Blacks looked taut and dense, while low-light shots demonstrated appropriate smoothness and clarity. Contrast also appeared well-developed, as the black and white photography showed the expected silvery sheen. Between the soft shots and the print flaws, I thought this became a “B”, but it remained a fine presentation for a nearly 75-year-old film.

I also thought the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack seemed dated but more than adequate. Compared to its cinematic peers, speech felt a little edgier than usual, but that was a minor complaint, as the lines remained intelligible and offered reasonable clarity.

Neither music nor effects boasted much range or dimensionality, but both appeared clean and accurate enough, without distortion or problems. The track lacked hiss or background noise. While not the best of the Mummy mixes, this one felt fine for its vintage.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the original DVD from 2001? Audio seemed smoother and less noisy, while visuals came across as cleaner and tighter. I’ve yet to find a Universal monster Blu-ray that didn’t deliver an obvious improvement over its DVD counterpart, and Curse doesn’t deviate from that pattern.

Like the other Mummy sequels, Curse includes the film’s trailer but it lacks other extras.

The final film in a run of four sequels, The Mummy’s Curse ends things on a limp note. Redundant and shoddy, the movie offers a forgettable adventure. The Blu-ray brings generally good picture and audio but it lacks supplements. Curse should be left for Mummy fanatics.

As of fall 2018, The Mummy’s Curse can’t be purchased on its own. It can be found as part of a six-film “Mummy Complete Legacy Collection”. In addition to Ghost, we find The Mummy, The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Hand, The Mummy’s Ghost, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.

In addition, Curse comes in the “Universal Monsters Complete 30-Film Collection”. It actually packages the Mummy set mentioned above with similar compilations for six other Universal Monsters.