1932 was Bela Lugosi’s banner year in the movies. Coming off the success of DRACULA, he was a hot property although already viewed only as a horror movie actor like his Hollywood peer, Boris Karloff. Karloff was able to overcome this designation and went on to have a storied career on stage and TV as well as the movies. Sadly for Lugosi, he did not. Most of the reasons for that happening were his own doing, but that’s another story. He made 5 movies in 1932. Three of these, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, WHITE ZOMBIE, and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS are now considered classic horror films. The other two, THE DEATH KISS (a murder mystery) and CHANDU ( a serial style action thriller) are highly regarded but have only become available for home viewing during the last decade.
CHANDU THE MAGICIAN, to give the movie its full title, was made by Fox Film who was the precursor to 20th Century Fox. Lugosi is not the star but the principal villain, Roxor, who easily overshadows the title character played by Fox contract player and former silent film star Edmund Lowe. Lowe was supposedly cast because of his eyes (which are his most impressive feature) but his hypnotic stare is copied directly from Lugosi’s DRACULA of the year before. The rest of the cast range from adequate to terrible, the one exception being British character actor Herbert Mundin as Chandu’s comic sidekick. He would play a tragic role in Fox’s Oscar winning CAVALCADE a year later. Irene Ware, as the romantic love interest Princess Nadji, would later work with Lugosi in 1935’s THE RAVEN.
The movie was based on a then extremely popular radio show that followed the adventures of the magician Chandu, an American who had mastered the exotic mysteries of the Far East and became an all powerful yogi who used his mystic abilities for good. This character was inspired by a yogi in the German silent THE INDIAN TOMB (1921). The storyline involves Chandu, having just acquired his mystical powers, is asked by his teachers to use them to stop a power hungry madman from taking over the world courtesy of a death ray developed by a scientist (D.W. Griffith regular Henry B. Walthal) that he has kidnapped. He must also save the scientist’s family who have foolishly tried to rescue him. He has more than a passing interest in their fate as he is related to them.
If that’s all there was, even Lugosi’s histrionics couldn’t have saved it. What makes it watchable today and even enjoyable are the fantastic sets (miniature and full size) of scenic designer and co-director William Cameron Menzies and the truly remarkable camerawork of a young James Wong Howe who would go on to win two Oscars 30 years later. CHANDU’s look and storyline would go on to influence later movies and serials from FLASH GORDON to the INDIANA JONES movies. The character would also influence the popular comic strip, MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN. There is one shot of a prowling camera through the twists and turns of an ancient Egyptian temple that just doesn’t seem possible with early 1930s technology. Especially when you consider that it’s a miniature.
CHANDU was released on DVD in 2012 as part of a collection called FOX HORROR CLASSICS – VOL. 2. It contains 3 titles all of which are interesting choices as only one, DR RENAULT’S SECRET (1942), would qualify as a traditional horror film but it’s a B movie that runs less than an hour. DRAGONWYCK (1946) is a Gothic romance with a young Vincent Price as a 19th century landowner who descends into madness and was a big budget A picture that was based on a popular novel. Most Fox Films made before their merger with 20th Century Pictures In 1935 were destroyed in a major storage vault fire in 1937 and have been difficult to come across but this print of CHANDU looks and sounds remarkably good without having undergone a major restoration.
The Capsule Critic 