Chandu the Magician *** (1932, Edmund Lowe, Irene Ware, Bela Lugosi) – Classic Movie Review 9135

Directors Marcel Varnel and William Cameron Menzies’s 1932 radio broadcast sci-fi mystery fantasy thriller Chandu the Magician features a battle royal between Chandu the Magician (Edmund Lowe) and Roxor (Bela Lugosi), a world-dominating madman with a turban and a death-ray gun, invented by Robert Regent (Henry B Walthall).

The movie perhaps lacks quite the full sense of fun and style it needs. But the idea is great and an understated Lowe and an impressively overacting Lugosi provide more than just a mere soupçon of kitsch entertainment, they provide lots. Lugosi was such good value that he was promoted to the role of Chandu in the sequels.

Philip Klein and Barry Conners’s screenplay is based on the radio series by Harry A Earnshaw, Vera M Oldham and R R Morgan. It is shot in black and white by the movie magician James Wong Howe.

Also in the cast are Irene Ware as Princess Nadji, Herbert Mundin as Albert Miggles, Weldon Heyburn as Abdulah, Virginia Hammond as Dorothy Regent, June Lang [June Vlasek] as Betty Lou Regent, Michael Stuart [Nestor Aber] as Bobby Regent, Nigel De Brulier, James Dime, John George, Constantine Romanoff, Charles Stevens, and Dick Sutherland.

Chandu inspired DC’s Sandor the Mystic and Marvel Comics’s Doctor Strange.

The gimmicky opening credits are waved on and off the screen by a magician’s hand.

Most of the score is stock music and it was reused by Fox Films in Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935).

Nigel De Brulier’s Yogi Teacher is the model for the sorcerer in Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Fantasia.

Fox Film Corporation studios paid $40,000 for the rights to Chandu. Lugosi received $2500.

Chandu the Magician is directed by Marcel Varnel and William Cameron Menzies, runs 72 minutes, is made by Fox Film Corporation, is released by Fox Film Corporation (1932) (US) and Fox Film Company (1932) (UK), is written by Philip Klein and Barry Conners ,based on the radio series by Harry A Earnshaw, Vera M Oldham and R R Morgan, is shot in black and white by James Wong Howe, is produced by William Fox, is scored by Louis De Francesco (musical director) and is designed by Max Parker.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9135

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