Some movies stretch to find content to occupy the screen for 90 minutes. Then there are films such as 1932’s Chandu the Magician which cram so much into 71 minutes that you feel like you have just watched every installment of a serial of the time, but in one sitting.
In fact, almost every aspect of the film, from story to production design, feels like a serial. Alas, if there’s a downside to all this it is that it feels like a couple of reels may have been missing.
I intentionally turned off my brain while watching this so I could enjoy watching as a yogi with mystical powers (Edmund Lowe) battle an evil mastermind played by Bela Lugosi. In course of this, there’s death rays, and white slavery and mummies that come to life. It is easy assume it was an inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The film opens just as Lowe has finished his yogi training somewhere in “Asia”. His final exam involves hypnotizing everybody around him, levitating a rope into the air like a rising cobra, astral projecting his body and walking on flaming hot coals—and I do mean flaming. There is a surprising amount of fire in this film, and in situations that appear to be potentially hazardous to the cast.
Anywho, having graduated, Lowe must come to rescue of his wacky inventor of a brother (Henry B. Walthall). Walthall has invented a death ray, for whatever reason such people in such films are always creating them. Naturally, Lugosi wants it, so he can incinerate cities around the world and make the public fall on their knees and worship him. Once again, it is best to not ask why these characters want to do such things.
To ensure Walthall’s cooperation, Lugosi has abducted his family of matriarch Virginia Hammond and children June Lane and Michael Stuart. A white slavery element is courtesy of Lugosi auctioning off Lane, and act which finally forces Walthall’s hand. Lane on the auction block is the surest proof we’re watching a pre-code picture, as the comely young woman wears a thin nightgown, under which she is braless.
Also in the cast is Irene Ware as a princess whose earlier romance with Lowe is rekindled through their reunion here. Comic relief is courtesy of Herbert Mundin, whom Lowe prevents from drinking by making him see a chiding mini-me version of himself anytime he has a drop.
But anybody who watches this to see any of the actors is doing so for Lugosi. He’s younger here than in anything else I’ve seen him. He looks even younger than he did in Dracula, which preceded this. The man is surprisingly fit and even lean. Clad mostly in a black turtleneck and matching slacks, he reminded me a bit of Cesar the somnambulist from the original Caligari.
The effects in this are quite ingenious. One example is guns turning into snakes and vice-versa, through some well-executed crossfades. There’s also a great deal of miniature work, which I always appreciate. One particularly memorable sequence takes us on an extensive and circuitous tour of the temple where Lugosi has set up shop. We will see from a first-person perspective this journey through the corridors accomplished entirely through miniature.
Even the opening credit sequence is impressive. The title cards are rendered in a fantastic font, and the text appears and then disappears with the slow wave of a hand across the screen.
There is much to enjoy in Chandu the Magician, though you will need to leave your brain at the door. That the door is at the front of an ancient temple rendered in miniature makes the experience all the better.
Dir: William Cameron Menzies
Starring Edmund Lowe, Irene Ware, Bela Lugosi
Watched on Kino Lorber blu-ray