Merry Christmas- and an Extra with the Unwrapping Sat. Night with “The Mummy’s Hand”!

Wishing all our fans and friends a very merry Christmas from all of us here at the Svengoolie program- hoping you all are sharing in the peace and love this day represents. Many thanks to all of you, as always, for the precious gift of your support, which you have so generously given us throughout the year!

You may think all the gifts are unwrapped by the end of the day today? You are wrong, Eggnog Noggin- because Saturday night, the wrappings come off the "sort-of" sequel to the original "Mummy" movie- in 1940's tomb-desecrating delight- "The Mummy's Hand"!

We start out witnessing Andoheb, a follower of the high priest of the ancient sect of Karnak, learning the secrets of the mummy Kharis and the role of tanna leaves in keeping said mummy alive, as part of the continuing protection of the hidden tomb of Princess Ananka.

Meanwhile, a couple down -on-their-luck explorers, Steve and Babe, are ready to give up their quest for archaeological relics when they stumble onto a vase in a bazaar that appears to be a valuable relic- with hieroglyphics that may reveal the secret location of Ananka's tomb! Unfortunately, it would take money to try to find the tomb- but a random meeting between the boys and a performer- a magician named the Great Solvani- and his less- than-trusting daughter Marta- ends up  with an agreement to fund the expedition-with the Cairo museum's expert Dr. Petrie in tow- as well as  the magician and Marta coming along to make sure things are legitimate!

However, Andoheb has also gotten wind of the expedition happening , in spite of his veiled attempts to stop it. The tanna leaves come into play, as Andoheb revives Kharis to fend off the visitors- in hopes of wiping them out before they can discover Ananka's tomb- and to help him in his own schemes that involve Marta and immortality!

As I said, this is "kind of" a sequel to Karloff's 1932 "Mummy" - they even re-use footage from the original film- but the Mummy has undergone a name change- from  Imhotep to Kharis (which he keeps for the remainder of the sequels)- and is played this time around by Tom Tyler. George Zucco  begins his tenure in the sequels, and Dick Foran and  Wallace Ford begin their two-picture association with the character. Also on hand, Peggy Moran and Cecil Kellaway- we'll tell you about all these folks, and have plenty of past Sven fun for you- including Tombstone doing some double duty, and some highlights from a previous Flashback Weekend-that features our brief visit with John Carpenter- with a quick taste of some Shakespeare from the late Roddy Piper! Plus- if you sent a photo of yourself dressed as me for Halloween- we'll show a bunch of them. We couldn't fit all of them in, my apologies- but- wow- I am amazed at how many people were Sven for Halloween!

"The Mummy's Hand" begins waving on MeTV Saturday night at 10 pm eastern/pacific, 9 central, or, check your local listings for time and exact channel. In Chicago, viewers get a second glance at "Monster and the Girl" with our other Flashback fun featuring Robert Englund and the "Elm Street" alumni at 11 am  Saturday morning on our sister station, WCIU, the U!

Remember to check out "Kerwyn's Christmas Corner" on our site- showing many of the lovely cards and such sent to us (by the time we had to get the segment into production- our apologies if yours arrived later, and we didn't get to show it!) Also, a few of our classic holiday tunes.

Again, we extend our best wishes to you- and hope you are spending the holidays with those who mean the most to you!