Review of The Mummy's Ghost

Without being too nostalgic, my earliest memories of Universal Horror include the images of lovely Ramsay Ames rising out of her bed to follow the eerie shadow of Kharis out to her front yard, being carried off by the mummy and aging into a 3000 year old mummy herself, and sinking into a bog with her kidnapper as her boyfriend Robert Lowery and townspeople look on in shock. A vivid memory, and one in particular, because the lovely heroine did not reunite with her mortal leading man in the end, but rather joined the undead and opened the way for an interesting sequel later that year in 1944. Ramsay was 'discovered' by fellow Universal contractee Allan Jones at a Miami Beach nightclub and brought to Universal by same in early 1943. Ramsay, at that time, was the leader of an all-girl rumba orchestra, and did not fancy herself a leading lady, but took the opportunity at a movie contract in stride. Her first screen appearance was in the Olsen and Johnson comedy "Crazy House," where she played herself, shaking her maracas and singing "The Tropicana" as Tony and Sally DeMarco danced away. Her next appearance was in the first Inner Sanctum chiller "Calling Dr. Death", where, frankly, she was rather poorly directed by Reggie LeBorg, and while she shows signs of real nastiness as the adulterous wife of Lon Chaney, what appears to be outtakes of her laughing at Chaney in a key scene brings her whole performance down somewhat in that feature. In true Hollywood style, horror queen Acquanetta was being filmed for a scene in the newest Universal chiller, 'Mummy's Ghost', and as she 'fainted' for a scene, struck her head on a stone in the pathway she was being photographed in. Acquanetta, being seriously hurt (a concussion), Universal replaced her with Ramsay, and the rest is horror film history. Ramsay looked gorgeous in her satin nightgown, wandering the streets of Mapleton, Mass., and, being carried away in the climax. After a great role in the Universal 'B' 'Hat Check Honey' where she played bitchy movie queen Mona Mallory, Ramsay left Universal for Warners, but only scored bit parts in 'Mildred Pierce', and 'Green Dolphin Street.' A serial followed, and the Monogram quickie, 'Beauty and the Bandit,' but Ramsay was never featured again in a true golden age Hollywood Classic. A friend once described to me that Ramsay was the 'Girl that every mother wanted her son to marry.' Absolutely gorgeous, and with a touch of spice and mystery she is one of the true Hollywood beauties of the 1940's that created the image of the Hollywood Starlet.