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The Drums of Jeopardy

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Y'know, a person's got to sit through a whole mess of bad, creaky, ponderous 1930s movies mysteries to uncover the good ones that come along every once in a while, and that's why I'm so pleased to tell you about DRUMS OF JEOPARDY (1931), a fast-moving thriller that entertains from the first reel to the last.

Warner Oland is Dr. Boris Karlov(!), who has just gotten word that his daughter has taken her own life because she was, ahem, "ruined" by a man of some prominence. Karlov discovers in her possessions a fabled necklace called "The Drums of Jeopardy", so called because the bauble contains four rubies, each held in a setting that appears to be an Indian beating a drum. Legend has it that the stones are a portent of death. The necklace belongs to the Petrov family, pretenders to the Russian throne. Karlov vows to murder each of the four Petrov men (two brothers, and uncle, and a grandfather) who may be the lout that, ahem, "ruined' his daughter. Got all that?

The two older men are soon victims of Karlov's machinations, and the two brothers (Lloyd Hughes and Wallace MacDonald) are hiding out in the country mansion of the beautiful June Collyer (and I mean REALLY beautiful; she's a stunner) and her grizzled old aunt (Clara Blandick, a/k/a "Auntie Em", in a funny supporting role). Hale Hamilton is the Secret Service agent trying to protect them (and doing a really poor job of it), Mischa Auer is Karlov's creepy henchman, and much more stuff than I could tell you here happens in the fast-paced 66 minutes. Director George Seitz had gotten his helming such silent serials as THE ROMANCE OF ELAINE and THE IRON CLAW, and his cliffhanger training comes in handy here, as the heroes and villains battle from a Manhattan wharf to the rooftops of New York to an old abandoned mill. Perils and death traps abound, and Oland is a very nasty, very memorable villain, one of those maniacal movie madmen that takes gleeful delight in how rotten they are. When he threatens to kill Miss Collyer, the brave, dashing Petrov brother (the other one's a lout) offers himself in her place: "You can do whatever you want with me!" he stoically avers. "I won't even cry out!" Oland sneers, "I WANT you to cry out." Early in the film, he pretends to be a medical doctor to attend to one of the wounded Petrov men. "Is he going to die?" a bystander asks. "That would not surprise me at all," Oland deadpans.

This is the kind of movie in which every night is pitch-dark and stormy, every flash of lightning reveals a face at the window, and nobody is to be trusted, even the cops. It is great fun and highly recommended. The Alpha DVD is pretty good, all things considered.

(Incidentally, "Boris Karlov" must've been more than a coincidence; both Seitz and Oland had worked with Boris Karloff in THE LIGHTNING RAIDER, a 1919 Pearl White serial. This was an in-joke that must've caused a lot of raised eyebrows once FRANKENSTEIN was released later in 1931.)

1931 gave us this little known forgotten horror thriller starring Warner Oland of Charlie Chan fame. He plays a mad doctor named...and get this...BORIS KARLOV!!! I kid you not!

Karlov seeks revenge on the Russian Royal family who he blames for the death of his daugher, a ballet dancer. He is sent away to prison but years later manages to get out during the Russian revolution. The royal family escapes to America where Karlov begins tracking them down and sending them a piece off a necklace called Drums of Jeopardy which means they will die in 24 hours.

The movie moves at a steady pace but it does suffer the problem that many early talkies do with a very limited soundtrack. Much like 1931's Dracula there are long interludes of dead silence which don't work as well in this movie as they did in Dracula.

Still this long-forgotten horror is well worth a look, especially if you are into discovering some lost gems as I am.

I've wanted to see this little B flick from Tiffany Pictures (a remake of an earlier silent version by the way) ever since I read about it in the Turner/Price book "Forgotten Horrors". It's pretty damn good! Read "Laughing Gravy"'s review here for plot synopsis and his assessment and I totally agree with him there. The only negative is it looks like it was sourced from low quality video, rather than a film print (and the orginal print is in pretty bad shape to begin with), typical for Alpha. It doesn't look any better than a VHS tape copy but until Roan or somebody does it better, this one is well worth the cheap price!

This 1931 horror-mystery genre film was one of the early talkies and it features Warner Oland of subsequent Charlie Chan fame. (The best of any of the numerous [30-some?] black-and-white Chan films also happens to star Oland in Charlie Chan: Castle in the Desert [VHS].)

Here's the story regarding "The Drums of Jeopardy": Dr. Boris Karlov [Oland] is a Bolshevik [Communist] just subsequent to the Russian Revolution (1917-18) and all loyalists of the former (and final) Tsar are more or less on the run.

One particular clan with Royal connections, the Petrovs, (this is definitely not a simple name-change for the immediate household of Tsar Nicholas II because by 1931 it was well-established that this entire family of six had been lined up and shot in 1918 by the Bolsheviks in the town of Ekaterinburg), bear an additional significant reason to escape their homeland: one of the Petrov sons, the hedonistic Gregor, has presented Karlov's lovely daughter with a cursed necklace, dubbed The Drums of Jeopardy, and she dies as a consequence of having received this odious gift! (The Drums of Jeopardy appellation emerges from the individual charms on the necklace chain, each of which represents an eastern native figure beating his jeweled belly-drum. Who dreamed up this doubtful scheme? I haven't a clue.)

In any event, the curse plays out as any person who receives the actual necklace or one of its several mini-charms is doomed to die -- Dr. Karlov makes it his business to see that the Petrovs, a band whom he now despises, (and likely hated to begin with since they were Tsarists), each receive their fair allocation of the loathsome choker.

The Petrovs furtively flee on a ship for America but the fanatical Dr. Karlov and his numerous malevolent minions are well-informed of their every movement. Woe to the Petrovs!

The film also stars Mischa Auer (And Then There Were None, Clara Blandick (The Wizard of Oz), and June Collyer (who played in the 1934 film, "The Ghost Walks," ergo: The Invisible Ghost & The Ghost Walks (2005 Digitally Remastered Ghostfest).)

"Drums" was produced by Phil Goldstone and directed by George B. Seitz. The clearly-implied allusion to the highly-familiar horror genre sobriquet of "Boris Karloff," (instead of "Karlov") might be explained in that Karloff (born, William Henry Pratt) rose to significant fame in Frankenstein (Universal Studios Classic Monster Collection) in 1931, the very same year in which "Drums" was produced.

I found that the political underpinning for "The Drums of Jeopardy" (Tsarists versus Bolsheviks) generated a compelling caveat within the overall story. And of course, all fans of the early-period horror flicks fancy a wildly-demented Mad Scientist -- Oland as Dr. Karlov entirely fulfills and exceeds our expectations within that rather dubious realm. It's also intriguing that the screenwriter(s) accounted for sympathetic moments with each of these adversarial groups, first with Karlov and later with the Petrovs.

Viewers should not anticipate hearing any Russian accents as all the players in this movie speak the Queen's English which initially seems sort of weird. But I accepted this obvious exploitation of poetic license since Tsar Nicholas II himself spoke perfect English (as well as good German and French!) so this vernacular nuance did not extend totally beyond the pale of plausibility.

The DVD of this great old film only recently emerged from Alpha Video (2004) and I'm gratified that they somehow dredged it up. The film print used for transfer to DVD was plainly not the most pristine copy in the world and the introductory credits get off to a rough start; however, as one begins to develop interest in the actual story these minor anomalies are soon forgotten. The sound quality is pretty good considering the period.

The film runs for sixty-six minutes which is about average for B-movies of the era. Highly recommended for fans of old B-movies, for Warner Oland devotees, and for bug-eyed Russophiles (like me.)