Bela Lugosi, Action Hero

Who’s ready for adventure?

Bela Lugosi, is, of course, best known for playing Dracula, as well as starring in various other creature features, but Dracula was both his blessing and his curse, and Lugosi spent the rest of his life trying his hardest to get away from it. One of his more successful attempts seemed to be in the Chandu trilogy, which was based on a successful radio series called Chandu the Magician. Lugosi took the title role over from Edmund Lowe, who played Chandu in the first movie, and ran with it. Well, as much as he could, anyway.

The first Chandu movie came out in 1932, and the second, The Return of Chandu, which we’re talking about today, came out in 1934. It was kind of a switch, as Lugosi played the villain, Roxor, in the first Chandu outing. It’s also not terribly groundbreaking, even within the Chandu universe, but we’ll get to that.

The movie opens at the airport in Los Angeles, where some mysterious but probably unsavoury types are waiting for Chandu (Bela Lugosi) to get back from overseas. At the Chandler house in Beverly Hills, Chandu’s sister Dorothy (Clara Kimball Young), his niece, Betty (Phyllis Ludwig) and his nephew, Bob (Dean Benton) are hosting a party for Princess Nadji (Maria Alba) of Egypt while they wait for Chandu, or Uncle Frank, as he’s called.

Suspicious personages are at the party as well, which seems to be humming. They’re pretty easy to spot, though. One of them has a Van Dyke beard and a sinister look. The guests don’t seem to notice, though, as they’re more concerned with cutting rugs and partaking of the Chandlers’ festive eats.

The thing about Chandu is that he has some pretty formidable magic powers. He waves his hand over his ring and can instantly go from the airport in LA to his family’s mansion in Beverly Hills. He can also hypnotize people and make them do his bidding, even to divulging information they wouldn’t otherwise.

Chandu puts those powers to good use in the next ten minutes, when, after teleporting home, he wheedles one of the household staff into telling him what’s up: The fellow with the Van Dyke beard is Vindyhan (Lucien Prival), high priest of the Ubasti cult. They want Nadji’s soul to revive their dead princess.

Naturally, Nadji must be protected, so the Chandlers put her up at their mansion. Naturally, when Nadji goes up to her room to take a nap, which has an empty sarcaphogus in it, also natch, the baddies spirit her away to their yacht to take her to their hideout.

Nadji manages to escape, only to get recaptured along with Dorothy. They’re taken to the Ubasti temple, where they watch in horror as Vindyhan and his fellow priests slink around in cat hoodies that make them look more like earwigs than cats. Oh, and Ubasti gives out with thunderous pronouncements like a feline Great and Powerful Oz.

Of course, Chandu and Bob have to rescue the ladies, but Chandu has some aces up his tailored sleeve. Everything winds up very quickly.

That’s it. That’s the plot of the movie. Seriously. It was supposed to be one installment in twelve, but that obviously didn’t happen. They’re not terrible movies, but they’re not great, either, The radio show had been rather popular, so it’s hard to say why the movie series ended so soon.

This is not the first Chandu movie I’ve reviewed, as a couple of years ago I watched 1935’s Chandu On the Magic Island for Taking Up More Room (Read the review here). And yeah, these movies are pretty danged predictable.

• Chandu is returning from someplace? Check.
• Nadji is in danger? Check.
• Nadji gets kidnapped? Check.
• Nadji gets kidnapped in a sarcophagus? Check.
• Cat cultists in weird hoodies? Check.
• Cat cultists want to sacrifice Nadji to Ubasti, their cat goddess? Check.
• Chandu saves the day? Check.

Oh yeah, it’s ridiculously easy for the eyes to glaze over when watching a Chandu movie, and its sameness to other movie serials of the day was exactly the objection when these movies were released.

Motion Picture Herald said, “There is plenty of suspense, and melodramatics and action, for the youngsters, at any rate. The weekend is the time to play it.”

Photoplay agreed: “It’s good entertainment for the kids. And if adults leave their credulity at home and go to hiss the turbanned villain, they’ll have fun, too.”

Motion Picture Daily took a similar tact, although they also had kind words for Chandu’s leading man, but even they pegged it as a kids’ film: “Although Bela Lugosi lacks some of the romantic appeal that Edmund Lowe put into the original screen role of Chandu, the Magician, he is, nevertheless, convincing and real in the part…There are plenty of thrills and action in this film, enough to entertain any audience. Children, especially, should appreciate it.”

Even today poor Chandu can’t catch a break, although in this case the pan seems inadvertant. From the search results on Media History Digital Library.

Poor Bela. To his credit, he kept working at his craft and never gave up, even if Dracula did follow him to his grave and beyond.

For more of the Adventure-A-Thon, please see Gill at Realweegiewidget Reviews and Barry at Cinematic Catharsis. Thanks for hosting this, y’all–this was fun! My post for Hometowns To Hollywood‘s Once Upon A Time Blogathon is coming out on Wednesday. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…

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The Return of Chandu is available on DVD from Amazon. It can also be streamed for free on Tubi.

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