VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 11:44:48 02/28/09 Sat
Author: Officer Torch
Subject: Chandu the Magician 1932 Mini-Review

This 70+ minute movie had pros and cons, but the pros certainly outweighed negatives. Edmund Lowe got top billing as Chandu, and Bela Lugosi was farther down the list as the villian Roxnor. (A couple years later, a serial was made...The Return of Chandu, and Lugosi had top billing.)

The movie is a kind of real oldie version of an Indiana Jones flick, in a way. You've got adventure, magic, mysticism, intrigue, spooky stuff too, plus some romance and comic relief. Let's have some pun...the eyes have it. Turns out Edmund Lowe becomes a yogi, sees images in water, crystal ball, and seems his powers are not only in his mind, but his eyes. His mission is to stop Roxnor (Lugosi)in his quest to become a ruler, from using the "death ray" he stole from Chandu's inventor relative.

Chandu goes thru various adventurous things involving mysticism, magic, some spooky (and marginally silly)stuff. Overall though, it's quite an exciting movie for its day, with fine scenes, decent special effects for the time, good photography, and you may see sets, costumes, devices, places, machinery, rooms, etc used in later movies, and serials. It has a stirring musical score also. William C. Menzies was a director in this, and 1936s "Things to Come" with Raymond Massey, also 1953s Invaders from Mars, and others, so if there's familiarity, Menzies may be why, and he was also into art design.

As for the cons, too much happened in too short a time. It just moved rapidly, and might have been more enjoyable if it were longer or if the romance and comic relief scenes were shortened. It was more like a cliffhanger, which it became in 1934.

Edmund Lowe is good...no, he's a great actor. But, and I can't figure it out, seems he's out of place in this movie. Perhaps he's better suited for suave type roles, rather than good guy, bad guy adventure stuff. Now Lugosi seemed to work hard at his role as a villian, and to me, should have received top billing. Oh, turns out with all the hoopla of the stolen "death ray"...we don't see it do all that much, then it's destroyed at the end.

I'll give this a thumbs up, but think that time permitting, might check that serial version I've somewhere around. Hey! maybe it'll have some Flash Gordon type music in it. The movie did not, or I didn't catch any. Hope this review was of interest. Best Regards from Officer Torch--the guy from across the light bridge.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Re: Chandu the Magician 1932 Mini-Review -- Tim, 01:21:42 03/01/09 Sun [1]

A nice review, Officer Torch, and I agree with your thumbs up rating of this seldom seen oldie. It's not a five star classic, but is an enjoyable effort from the early talkie era.

Edmund Lowe's suave manner made him the perfect candidate to play Inspector Dyke in Bombay Mail (1934) and the dual role in The Great Impersonation (1935), and perhaps he was an unconventional choice to portray Chandu the Magician. Most people probably associate Bela Lugosi with the role of Chandu, which he played in the subsequent Return of Chandu serial in 1934. Viewers may have found the Hungarian-born Lugosi more suited to play the part of an exotic magician, although the Frank Chandler (Chandu) character was an American-born man who learned the secrets ways of magic from Yogis in India.

I have seen the movie, but not the serial, other than some excerpts. I've also not heard any of the Chandu radio programs, which I believe is where the character originated.

Tim


[ Edit | View ]


[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.