Thu 18 Dec 2014
Movie Review: THE DRUMS OF JEOPARDY (1931).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[6] Comments
THE DRUMS OF JEOPARDY. Tiffany Productions, 1931. Warner Oland, June Collyer, Lloyd Hughes, Clara Blandick, Hale Hamilton, Wallace MacDonald, George Fawcett, Florence Lake, Mischa Auer. Based on the novel by Harold MacGrath. Director: George B. Seitz.
One of the oddest things about this film, a small gem in its own way, is the name of the villain played by Warner Oland: Dr. Boris Karlov. From what I gather from Wikipedia, and what the heck, I might as well quote:
The reason Dr. Karlov is the villain is because of his totally irrational and demented hatred of the men of the Petroff family, one of whom seduced his daughter, leading directly to her death by suicide. Not knowing which one, father and three sons, he vows vengeance on all of them, even to the extent of following them from Russia to the US in his determined quest for revenge.
The drums, by the way, come into play in a strange fashion. In the dead girl’s hand was found a necklace with charms in the shape of drums, with legend having it that if anyone is given one of the drums, that person will die within 24 hours.
It is a good premise for a story, and the cast goes all out with it, especially Warner Oland in an early pre-Charlie Chan role, and June Collyer as art student Kitty Conover and Clara Blandick as her aunt Abbie, whose Manhattan apartment two of the Petroff brothers have sought a safe haven in.
Fleeing further, but not out of the reach of the crazed Dr. Karlov, the fugitives head for a secluded cottage and nearby boathouse filled with spooky rooms and staircases, dank cellars and dangerous trap doors. And of course, as I recall, it was dark and stormy night.
Perhaps I should not tell you this, but the villain of piece certainly gets what’s coming to him, and more. The acting is somewhat of a drag at times, as was common in talking movies produced as early as this one, but the action is always fast and furious.
One could only wish for a better print than the one from Alpha Video that I watched, in terms of both picture and sound quality, but who’s going to spend money in restoring an old forgotten movie such as this one, no matter how fun it is to watch?
December 18th, 2014 at 7:01 pm
The book is available as a free e-book at Project Gutenberg for anyone who wants a peek at it. The film is fairly faithful.
So we have Warner Oland who played Fu Manchu playing Boris Karlov who played Fu Manchu …
I think I’m having a Vinnie Barbarino moment.
December 18th, 2014 at 9:11 pm
Excerpting from MacGrath’s wikipedia page:
“According to the New York Times, his next book, The Puppet Crown, was the No.7 bestselling book in the United States for all of 1901. From that point on, MacGrath wrote novels for the mass market about love, adventure, mystery, spies, and the like at an average rate of more than one a year. He would have three more of his books that were among the top ten bestselling books of the year.”
“In 1912, Harold MacGrath became one of the first nationally-known authors to write directly for the movies when he was hired by the American Film Company to do the screenplay for a short film in the Western genre titled The Vengeance That Failed. MacGrath had eighteen of his forty novels and three of his short stories made into films plus he wrote the story for another four motion pictures.”
“It is said that during this same time, a young Boris Karloff, who previously had a few uncredited film roles, chose his stage name for his first screen credit in 1920 from the MacGrath novel The Drums of Jeopardy, which had also been published by The Saturday Evening Post in January of that year and which featured a Russian mad scientist character named Boris Karlov.”
If this link works, it will lead to the Gutenberg ebook edition of DRUMS OF JEOPARDY
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1913.
December 18th, 2014 at 9:19 pm
I’ve just read the first couple of chapters of the book. I shan’t go any further. I think the style of writing was old-fashioned even in 1920. I shall be content with my memories of the movie, which Jon and I watched together over a month ago. I’ve had the review backed up ever since, until now.
December 19th, 2014 at 11:08 am
Steve, your remarks about Boris Karloff perhaps choosing his stage name from the book/play reminded me that some years ao I came across a mystery novel published circa 1943/44 in which one of the major characters was named Kirk Douglas. I wondered if you know who chose his stage name from that same novel.
December 19th, 2014 at 3:47 pm
Of course we all know where Fleming got James Bond and 007, but there is an Agatha Christie short with a Jimmie Bond.
The naming of names is always interesting, at one point Holmes was Sheridan Orford. Travis McGee was supposed to be Dallas McGee, but after the Kennedy assassination JDM moved him to the airbase in Fort Worth, Travis.
Fu Manchu isn’t even an actual Chinese name (it would mean his first name was Manchu), but by any other name I doubt he would have had the same impact.
And as for actors — well, how far would Leonard Slye and Arlington Spangler Brugh have gotten, not to mention Marion Morrison?
April 19th, 2020 at 5:28 pm
This strange amalgam of almost every horror movie cliche–trap doors, arms coming out from curtains to grab victims, a candle burning at both ends, an evil mad scientist ever read with a needle, a knife or poison–well, it’s just a shame some benevolent film fan can’t effect a major restoration–the Alpha Print is OK for sound, but the picture needs clarity and what a perfect gem of its kind this would be–especially for all the fans of The Wizard of Oz (Clara Blandick’s lovable shrew in this film).