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It's a social gathering in her honour at Dorothy Regent's (Clara
Kimball Young) place, but still Princess Nadji (Maria Alba) fears for her
life, as the cult of Ubasti & their highpriest Vindhyan (Lucien
Prival), are behind her & want to sacrifice her to give new life to
their goddess. But fortunately, Nadji has Chandu the Magician at her side,
who soon enough foils a plan to poison her, & when Nadji soon
afterwards is abducted, he can free her using his magic powers. But
unfortunately, the saved Nadji is in a deep trance not even Chandu can
wake her up from ... but to keep her out of the cult's reach, he takes her
on a yacht trip, along with Dorothy Regent & her kids Bob (Deane
Benton) & Betty (Phyllis Ludwig) - bad idea actually, as Vindhyan has
already sneaked aboard the yacht, & soon enough has kidnapped Nadji
again.
However, Chandu & Bob can track Vindhyan down, & n a secret
temple engage him in a fight that ends in Vindhyan's death. Nadji
meanwhile has awakened from her trance & now seems to be saved from
the cult of Ubasti for good ...
... or so everyone thinks, as another highpriest of Ubasti, Vitras
(Jack Clark) is already on her trail, & soon has her abducted to
Lemuria, a mysterious island in the Pacific, inhabited by cannibalistic
savages 6 the cultists of Ubasti alike.
Chando, Dorothy Regent & her kids Bob & Betty try to follow
Nadji to Lemuria, but first their ship is wrecked, then they are attacked
by Lemuria's savages, & soon enough, Dorothy, Bob & Betty become
prisoners of the cultists, only Chandu escapes but soon finds himself in a
labyrinth with all his magic powers gone. However, he finds help in Tyba
(Josef Swickard), a White Yogi & former ruler of Lemuria, who like
Chandu wants to fight the cult. Tyba gets him not only out of the
labyrinth, but also helps him withstand many a danger, free Dorothy, Bob
& Betty, & finally save the Princess, even if she was forced to
denounce Chandu & will in to be sacrificed earlier on.
In the end, Chandu can break the power of the cult by switching the
body of their dead goddess for Nadji, & with his magic power restored,
he destroys the cult of Ubasti & Lemuria goes up in a volcanic
eruption.
Chandu, Nadji, Dorothy, Bob & Betty are saved however, & Chandu
& Nadji even might marry soon ...
in 1932, Fox
Film made the popular radio drama about the adventures of magician
Chandu into the film Chandu the Magician, starring Edmund Lowe in
the title role & Bela Lugosi as the villain. However, when the film
didn't prove to be the expected success, options for more Chandu-adventures
were handed down to the smaller production outfit Principal
& its head Sol Lesser, who produced this serial in 1934, dropping
Edmund Lowe from the cast but keeping Bela Lugosi, but this time around
giving him the role of the good guy - which Lugosi does quite well, by the
way, mainly because he is so convincing when doing magic.
The serial as a whole is a bit uneven, it does great considering
colourful sets (especially the temple of Ubasti, dominated by a giant cat
idol, is impressive), & does feature some imaginative torture scenes
(even if some, like a swinging pendulum [Edgar Allan Poe's Pit and the
Pendulum] are borrowed from elsewhere), but in action & pacing, the
serial leaves much to be desired, & in general a hero who resorts to
magic to solve most of his problems can at times be quite annoying (&
boring as well), as it takes the suspense out of the story.
The first four episodes of the serial (which end with the death of high
priest Vindhyan) were condensed into a feature film (also titled The
Return of Chandu) - which works quite well as they tell a
self-contained story. Later episodes 5 to 12 were condensed into a feature
(Chandu on Magic Island) as well, which works not quite as well,
since the material was trimmed to about half the length.
Film afficionados by the way might recognize the great wall on Lemuria
from King Kong.
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