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Egypt: While innocently working working on a death ray, Robert Regent
(Henry B.Walthall) is abducted by mad world conquerer Roxor (Bela Lugosi),
who wants to use the death ray for his own evil purposes (are there any
non-evil purposes to use a death ray for ?). Thank god though Regent's
wife Dorothy (Virginia Hammond) has a brother called Frank Chandler
(Edmund Lowe), who is otherwise known as Chandu the Magician, and is (as
the name suggests) a magician.
Soon enough, Chandu tries to track down Roxor with the help of Princess
Naji (Irene Ware), an Egyptian noblewoman who's madly in love with Chandu,
and his sidekick Miggles (Herbert Mundin), who is known to drink a bit.
But while they still try to track Roxor and Regent down, Roxor tries to
make Regent finish the death ray for him, and when Regent refuses, he
kidnaps first his daughter (June Vlasek), later his wife and son (Nestor
Aber) too. But Regent won't lose hope as long as Chandu is around, so
ultimately Roxor has to temporarily blind Chandu - whose magic power
apparently emmanates from his eyes - then blindfold him, tie him up, lock
him in a sarkophagus and throw him into the Nile ... and when he has done
that and threatened Regent's family's lives, Regent finally gives in and
finishes the death ray ... but Chandu, magician that he is, of course
managed to free himself under water, and ultimately Roxor proves to be no
match for him, and it is his own death ray that finally makes his hide-out
crumble and buries him and his henchmen under the debris. Only Chandu and
company (naturally) manage to escape.
Chandu the Magician is high on camp value - it's got lavish
ancient Egyptian sets, a death ray, all sorts of magic and Bela Lugosi as
a supervillain -, yet it fails to totally work, mostly because the film
lacks decent pacing: There is an overlong exposition showing Chandu demonstrating
his skills, there are numerous scenes of Chandu and Naji confessing their
love for each other, extended pointless dialogue within the Regent family,
and of course unfunny comedy by sidekick Miggles, that slows the
proceedings down ever so often. All that said, Chandu the Magician
isn't all bad, it still features some well-made action as well as some
exhilarating scenes ... it just could have been so much better.
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