Chandu The Magician (Fox Film Corporation, 1932)

Based on the popular radio show, Chandu the Magician pits Edmund Lowe in the title role against Bela Lugsoi as the evil Roxor, a megalomaniac intent on world domination. Despite high production values, the film performed poorly at the box office, causing Fox to shelve plans for a sequel. Lugosi was cast as the heroic Chandu in the 1934 serial The Return of Chandu. He also appeared with Edmund Lowe in The Silent Command (1923), Women of All Nations (1931), Gift of Gab (1934) and Best Man Wins (1935).

One Sheet Poster

Production Company: Fox

Directors: Marchal Varnel and William Cameron Menzies

Assistant Director: Walter Mayo

Screenplay: Philip Klein and Barry Conners

Based on the Chandu The Magician radio programme created by Harry A. Earnshaw, Vera M. Oldham and R.R. Morgan

Script & Additional Dialogue: Guy Bolton, Bradley King, Harry Segall

Cinematography: James Wong Howe

Assistant Camera: Jack Epstein, Paul Lockwood

Camera Operator : Irving Rosenberg

Art Direction: Max Parker

Still Photographer: Anthony Ugrin

Recording Engineer: Joseph E. Aiken

Editor: Harold D. Schuster

Wardrobe: Earl Luick

Musical Director: Louis De Francesco

Running Time 72 minutes

Copyright number: LP3238, September 3, 1932

Cast:

Edmund Lowe: Chandu/Frank Chandler

Irene Ware: Princess Nadji

Bela Lugosi: Roxar

Herbert Mundin: Albert Miggles

Henry B. Walthall: Robert Regent

Weldon Heyburn: Abdullah

Virgnia Hammond: Dorothy Regent

Michael Stuart as Nestor Aber: Bobby Regent

June Lang as June Vlasek: Betty Lou Regent

Nigel Du Brulier: Yogi teacher

Charles Stevens: Ali

John George: 3rd man bidding on Betty Lou Regent

Dick Sutherland: Henchman

The Film Daily, May 17, 1932

The Film Daily, August 29, 1932

The Film Daily, September 17, 1932

The Pitsburgh Press, September 30, 1932

The Magican, Lawrence Journal-World, October 1, 1932

The New York Times, October 1, 1932

A Radio Marvel.

A.D.S.

This is hocus-pocus week at the Roxy, where most of the photographic tricks known to Hollywood have been assembled to startle and confound the enemies of Chandu. Under the persuasive eyes of the quondam magician of the radio, good English rifles crumple and turn into snapping vipers, ropes up-end themselves in the air, souls rise out of bodies and bodies absent themselves out of their clothes. For Chandu—Edmund Lowe in Oriental dress—is an adept in the mystic arts of the Yogi, and not all the powers of darkness, abetted by tear gas, poison, trapdoors, collapsible dungeon floors and the great mad Roxor himself, can prevail against those eyes.

On the radio the nightly recital of Chandu’s adventures contrived, in the well-remembered manner of Pauline and Elmo the Mighty, to open with an escape from an impossible dilemma and to close with a plunge into a more impossible one. Not unexpectedly, this screen version has the same clutter of climaxes from which the great Chandu emerges every five minutes with the same facility. The result is whooping entertainment for the children and a series of naïvely juvenile escapades for the grown-ups. Roxor, a baleful character whose behavior may be described with the simple information that Bela Lugosi plays the part, is a madman who wants to possess himself of a death ray and destroy the world. The ray is the invention of a certain Robert Regent, traveling in Egypt with his family. Chandu, an adventurer turned Yogi, shows up in time to prevent the annihilation of the entire family and to battle Roxor all over Egypt in the process of saving the world from extinction. Although Chandu, like a good Yogi, is indifferent to all earthly things, his indifference does not keep him from loving and ultimately wedding the Princess Nadji, another imperiled damsel. In one episode Chandu is manacled, bundled into a weighted coffin and dropped to the bottom of the Nile, whence he rises safely after a sufficiently harrowing struggle. Herbert Mundin, as the drunken and gullible orderly of the mystic, provides some badly needed humor. Mr. Lugosi’s familiar tactics of terrorization seem overstated. Irene Ware, a newcomer, makes a charming juvenile as the Princess. A feature of the stage show is an effective arrangement of Kol Nidre, rendered by William Robyn and a large chorus. “Box o’ Tricks” and “Dance Away the Night” are the other stage pageants. CHANDU THE MAGICIAN, from the radio serial by Harry A. Earnshaw, Vera M. Oldham and R. R. Morgan; directed by Marcel Varnel and William C. Menzies; produced by the Fox Film Corporation. At the Roxy. Chandu . . . . . Edmund Lowe Princess Nadji . . . . . Irene Ware Roxor . . . . . Bela Lugosi Albert Miggles . . . . . Herbert Mundin Robert Regent . . . . . Henry B. Walthall Abdullah . . . . . Weldon Heyburn Dorothy . . . . . Virginia Hammond Betty Lou . . . . . June Vlasek Bobby . . . . . Nestor Aber

Picture Play, October 1932

The Reading Eagle, October 2, 1932

The Reading Eagle, October 3, 1932

The Reading Eagle, October 4, 1932

The Reading Eagle, October 5, 1932

The Desert News, October 6, 1932

The Desert News, October 7, 1932

The Desert News, October 8, 1932

Berkeley Daily Gazette, October 11, 1932

The Desert News, October 11, 1932

San Jose Evening News, October 19, 1933

The Tuscaloosa News, October 20, 1932

Photoplay Magazine, November, 1932

Brief Reviews Of The Current Pictures

CHANDU, THE MAGICIAN – Fox. – Edmund Lowe as Chandu, modern worker of magic, in an exciting picture. Bela Lugosi helps provide thrills. For the whole family.

Unknown Newspaper