The Drums of Jeopardy (1931)

Sadly Over-hyped

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Even though Harold McGrath's novel "The Drums of Jeopardy" had been filmed in 1923 with Wallace Beery, Tiffany's all talking remake featured Warner Oland and was actually a reworking of Florence Ryerson's script "The Return of Fu Manchu" - a character that by 1931 Oland had made his own. It may have been only a Tiffany (probably the most prestigious of poverty row studios) but this must be one of Oland's best films and Mischa Auer, who for years had been playing eccentric bits, finally broke out with his characterization of a decandent syncophant.When scientist Dr. Boris Karlov (Oland) learns his daughter has attempted suicide but refuses to divulge her lover's name, he finds one clue - a necklace known as the "drums of jeopardy", that belongs to the aristocratic Petrov family. Doesn't take the viewer long to figure out which is the cad - the guilty, shifty looks of Prince Gregor (Wallace MacDonald) leave no doubt and with Karlov vowing to return the drums "one - by - one" (as only Oland can deliver that line) the game is now afoot!!1930, New York and Karlov has managed to intercept a letter to Martin Kent (Hale Hamilton) in which the desperate Petrov's ask for help before the crazed Karlov wipes out the entire family!! It's hard not to feel pity for Karlov - for coming to Petrov's house and confronting the family about the suicide of his daughter (Florence Lake, older sister of Arthur) he was sent to Siberia but with the Petrovs fleeing to America, he has more than had his revenge.This is just a rip snorter action packed film - before the boat docks, Nicholas (trusty Lloyd Hamilton) and Gregor are just one step ahead of Karlov, sometimes not even that!! Nicholas receives a blow to the head and finally collapses after convincing apartment owner Kitty (luminous June Collyer) that he is not a bad guy and getting her and her crotchety aunt (Clara Blandick) thoroughly involved in the doings of the mad doctor. For once the romance doesn't slow down the action - Collyer is not a damsel in distress but a vital part of the proceeding - it's the men who are collapsing around her!!A highlight of the film are the witty exchanges between criminologist Martin Kent and Karlov ("I'm disappointed in you Kent, I didn't think you would have walked into my trap so blindly", "Would it surprise you to find out I deliberately let your man lead me here etc...") Gregor, the real villain goes to Karlov's laboratory to point the finger at his unsuspecting brother in exchange for his life. The laboratory is a treasure trove of bubbling test tubes ("I am just going to test this mixture" ... and as the room is filled with blood curdling screams - "Ah yes, it's perfect"!!) - there is also a dungeon where Nick and Kitty are thrown. Nick has to kill Kitty with this huge butcher's knife ("as you killed my daughter, so you must kill the one you love" drawls Karlov who still believes Gregor's lies). Once back with his test tubes he chortles that he hopes they look for an escape, as they loosen the bricks water spurts from nowhere, quick enough to send them to a watery grave!!The production has a sumptuous look - lavish sets (the Petrov palace with a huge oval dining table, an art deco studio flat that has more of the look of a Park Avenue penthouse, an ocean liner and a State of the Arts laboratory)!!!!

Totally implausible/ridiculous but good fun. A pre-Charlie Chan Warner Oland, a Swede, is Russian this time. He's bent on revenge and hams it up all the way.Neither Oland or the other Russian characters utter a word of Russian. The fleeing royals reach New York and bump into an ingenue and her peppery aunt who, of course, shelter the strangers in their country house. Wouldn't you?The lights go out more than once. The phone is dead. A claw-like hand jumps out of the curtain to grab the girl. Stuff used a thousand times. The plot creaks and the print used for the DVD is battered, but you could do worse for an early talkie.Mischa Auer lurks around in a pre-screwball role.

Like MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET (1942), this is more thriller than horror but there is still enough atmosphere and thrills here to make it an entertaining ride (which, as with the above-mentioned film, clocks in at just over an hour and is therefore not allowed to overstay its welcome). The plot is that of a hoary melodrama – not unlike the Oriental Lon Chaney vehicle MR. WU (1927) – as an eminent personality (in this case, scientist Warner Oland: interestingly, his most famous role was the multiple genial appearances as popular Chinese sleuth Charlie Chan!) has his life virtually brought to a stand-still by the death, over her romantic attachment to a member of the aristocracy, of his young daughter. So, he swears vengeance and nearly accomplishes his mission, were it not for the intervention of an elderly but strong-willed lady (here, it is Clara Blandick, the landlady of the heroine who chooses to shelter one of Oland's 'targets') – though her annoying characterization reminded me of the middle-aged 'fraidy cat' maid in THE BAT WHISPERS (1930) and the romantically-inclined (albeit still very much way- past-her-prime) one in THE GHOUL (1933)!Incidentally, the title refers not to the musical instrument but to a diamond-studded necklace belonging to the upper-class family and which had been donated to Oland's daughter by her paramour. It eventually comes into play in the scientist's revenge scheme since he is gentlemanly (or is that sadistic?) enough to forewarn his next victim with a note accompanied by one of the jewels; by the way, Oland has an accomplice in a lanky and somber Mischa Auer, that is before he became everybody's favorite eccentric Russian! The few murder/action sequences deliver the goods – especially one in which Oland's shadow slowly bends over the kidnapped eldest nemesis to strangle him and then plants his body in a window so that, during a roof-top chase with the man's relatives and the Police, they take him for Oland and take several pot-shots at the poor soul! Then there is the finale where, as I said, it is Blandick who contrives to literally make the drop on Oland by pushing him through a trap-door down into the river running under his hiding-place/laboratory/operations center as he is about to blow everything sky-high via a potion he has concocted.Ultimately, this is a minor yet engaging outing that ought to be better-known (I only learned about it myself when I came across the film fairly recently)…if only because Oland's character here is named – brace yourself – Boris Karlov (the picture under review came out eight months prior to FRANKENSTEIN, released the same year and which, I am sure no-one needs reminding, immortalized its star who was soon to be billed simply as "Karloff, the Uncanny")!!

Since I don't know when this movie was made one can simply assume the name of the character that Warner "Charlie Chan" Oland plays was chosen simply by chance, but its true he does play Boris Karloff, er... Karlov.The plot of this movie has Oland getting revenge one of the Russian Royal families for the death of his daughter. It seems that his daughter was in the Royal Ballet and was the lover of one of the princes who sent her away causing her to attempt suicide. Oland finds a piece of the crown jewels, a necklace called the Drums of Jeopardy, in her possession. In her weakened state she runs to warn her lover only to die in his arms moments before her father arrives and attempts to wipe out the family. He's sent to the gulag vowing revenge. Years later, after the family has been displaced by the revolution, they head to America where Oland begins sending drums from the necklace to the family members before killing them.(Legend says, if some one gets one of the separated drums, they will die with in 24 hours)This is a great movie that is hampered by the fact that it now seems rather static.Its one of the movies from the early days of sound films, when there would be little music and long moments of silence that played fine then, but now seem to slow things down to a crawl. The first half of this film is dynamite and moves like the wind as we go from Russia to New York and out to the country in a breezy 30 or thirty five minutes. There's lots of action and complications. The trouble comes in the second half where the movie is locked in the country house and its surrounding area as the surviving members of the royal family wait for Oland's attack. Its not bad its just too slow compared to the first half.I give it 7 out of ten over all, the first half scoring 9 and the second a 5, purely because it seems so slow after the first half.