Bela Lugosi stars as a mesmerist named Chandu who is trying to save a princess (Maria Alba) from being kidnapped by an Egyptian cult who intend on sacrificing her. Since it was re-edited from a serial, that means Chandu saves her about every twenty minutes or so before she is promptly recaptured by the bad guys.
Sure, The Return of Chandu is a bit repetitive in nature, but it gives you a nice opportunity to see Bela Lugosi doing everything you’d want to see Bela Lugosi do. He sports a ring that turns him invisible. (It’s kind of like his belt in The Phantom Creeps). He hypnotizes people just like he did in Dracula. (He even has a little spotlight over his eyes.) The villains also use poisoned flowers to immobilize any woman who sniffs them, just like in The Corpse Vanishes. Not only that, but you get to see Bela Lugosi playing a rare hero role, which is always nice.
The Return of Chandu was also riding high on the tails of The Mummy (and America’s fascination with Egypt, which was popular during the time). There are even subplots about stolen mummies and reincarnation (which was also all the rage at the time). The fact that many of the elements are familiar to Lugosi fans kind of makes this like a comfort movie as it often plays like a greatest hits collection of his other movies.
This feature was edited from the first four chapters of the serial, The Return of Chandu. Because it wasn’t taken from an entire twelve-chapter serial, it flows together much more naturally than a lot of these things typically do. The brisk sixty-minute running time also helps to keep the storyline moving, even if admittedly, there ain’t a whole lot of story to go around.
It was an early serial, so the last-minute escapes aren’t as daring or elaborate as some of the stuff you’d see in the ‘40s and ‘50s. In one cliffhanger, Bela simply moves out of the way of a flying poisoned dart. While it’s certainly creaky in places and more than a tad repetitive, The Return of Chandu should fit the bill for most indiscriminate Bela fans.
AKA: The Return of Chandu the Magician. AKA: Chandu’s Return.
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