THE RETURN OF CHANDU

star: Bela Lugosi, Maria Alba

OK, in 1932, there was this Saturday Matinee movie serial called “Chandu, The Magician” and it starred old-timey actor Edmund Lowe as Frank Chandler, a preppy looking middle-aged dude who dresses in yachting duds but has also mastered “mind control” from a teacher in Tibet and, in his spare time, as a sort of hobby, becomes “Chandu” and fights black magic practitioners, led by the evil Bela Lugosi.

“Chandu” was a popular serial, so the producers decided to make a second one in 1934 (“The Return of Chandu”), but this time, banking on the fact that children’s memories are pretty short (or that they just plain didn’t care), they decided to star Bela Lugosi and make him “the good guy,” by giving him the role of “Chandu.”

Plus, when the producers re-released the film again, probably for TV showings, they merely took the first 6 serial episodes and made one “Chandu” movie out of it and then took the last 6 episodes and made a second film out of it! I saw the second set and they totally deliver.

Are you confused yet? Talk about discombobulated! It doesn’t get anymore incoherent than Return of Chandu, yet the somewhat disconcerting reality is that, instead of being a gratuitous, misbegotten follow-up, Return of Chandu is actually good, and Lugosi is extremely effective as the reluctant hero, who looks like he’d “rather be sailing!”

Lugosi spiritedly goes through the paces as the wealthy L.A. yachtsman who has also mastered mesmerism and mind control from a Tibetan guru and the movie is an awful lot of fun! The serials are not repetitive and tend to move very quickly, while the sets (especially of a mean looking giant , scowling cat) are frightening even 75 years after the film’s premier. The film’s heavy, with his sagging, over-sized turban, is every bit as nasty and verbose as the script requires and every episode is worth watching.

There is a good reason why Lugosi is far more popular among collectors and movie buffs than Karloff even though his cinematic output was far more low-budget and obscure. He brought a European style of staginess to horror movies which has never existed before or since.

Check out “The Return of Chandu” (either the first chapters or the second set of chapters). As Lugosi says, “you will obey me!”