The Mummy Strikes

A SUPERMAN Cartoon.

`He who disturbs the eternal peace of King Tush shall perish!' This ancient Egyptian curse comes true when THE MUMMY STRIKES, trapping Lois Lane & Clark Kent in a museum with Tush's reanimated giant guards...

This was another in the series of excellent cartoons initially created by Max Fleischer for Paramount Studio. They feature great animation and taut, fast-moving plots. Meant to be shown in movie theaters, they are miles ahead of their Saturday Morning counterparts. Bud Collyer is the voice of Superman; Joan Alexander does the honors for Lois Lane.

An archaeologist is dead and it is thought that it is because of the curse of King Tush (really!). Superman is enlisted because he is apparently able to fight creatures that are otherworldly. What happens are a series of events that show that there is more than meets the eye. Also, there is a clear and present danger to others who are interested in Egyptology. There is something that doesn't quite fly here and I can't put my finger on it. Lois, of course, is in danger. That's not it. I have a feeling that the studio was having a little trouble finding adversaries for Superman and this is what they came up with. Still, the animation is good and it is presented in bright colors that would have lit up the screen.

For once, Clark Kent is told of a story and tries to hide it from Lois Lane, who follows him anyway. What would a Superman cartoon be without having to rescue her?

An Egyptologist is found dead, believed to be murdered - his young assistant is arrested and convicted of his murder. Another archaeologist believes that his colleague was killed by the mummy's curse - the Curse of King Tush (pronounced like the ZZ Top song, but this isn't what they were looking for).

As Clark is shown around the museum (and Lois sneaking around in the shadows), Clark presses something on the mummy's coffin, ejecting a poisoned needle and opening the sarcophagus. A medallion on the mummy starts to glow and opens the sarcophagi of the giant guards.

They start destroying the museum, which, for reasons unknown has a large fire for lighting. Can Superman save the day or does the supernatural win out?

The main complaint about these older Superman cartoons is that they are too short to generate enough interest with regard to the otherwise interesting plots and attractive titles, especially since the history and build-up is too long with regard to the actual Superman elements that come later on.

This one is odd in that it really begs "King Tut" but we get "King Tush" instead. By the way, the "u" is short, not long, or it would be even more amusing.

Not much in the line of original action sequences. Animation is very good as usual, but it should have been about a minute or two longer and without the mummy/mother joke which they just couldn't resist, could they? (Sigh.)

4/10.

Mummy Strikes, The (1942)

** (out of 4)

A woman is convicted of murdering a scientist in Egypt but Clark is called over to go over some clues, which might point the finger at a mummy. Lois tags along and gets herself kidnapped, which means Superman must do some fighting. There aren't actually any mummies in this thing but that's not what makes it so boring. What kills this film is that it runs under eight-minutes and the action doesn't start until close to the six and a half minute mark. We get a lot of dialogue telling us what the doctor was doing in Egypt yet we get very little action and Superman doesn't even appear until the very end and it's only for a matter of seconds. The animation looks very good but the budget was apparently too tight for a good script.