This Chandu feature, edited from the serial, is mostly worth seeing for Bela Lugosi in the title role, which gives him a chance to play the good guy for a change. The movie as a whole is watchable, and it has a fair amount of action and suspense, but most of the rest of it is hardly on a par with Lugosi's performance.
The 1930s Chandu features can be just a little confusing to sort out. In the original movie, "Chandu the Magician", Lugosi played Chandu's evil antagonist, but in the following serial - listed here in the database as "The Return of Chandu" (1934/I) - Lugosi was given the role of the heroic magician himself. The serial was also edited into two feature length movies, with the first part released as "The Return of Chandu" (1934/II) and this second part as "Chandu on the Magic Island".
So this feature picks up towards the middle of the story, although the important points are easy enough to grasp right away. Chandu is contending with a group of cat worshipers who have decided to capture and sacrifice the Egyptian princess Nadji, in the belief that this will bring back their own long-dead goddess. They also menace Chandu's sister, nephew, and niece as a means of discouraging him.
Because it was edited from a serial format, the story has a number of stops and starts from the chapter breaks. There are frequent predicaments, with most being of a similar nature. As a full-length movie, it gets just a bit repetitive after a while for that reason. Lugosi is always able to carry his scenes, though, and he had the screen presence and the mannerisms to pull off even the most banal lines of dialogue.
The production values are uneven, with some special effects that work fairly well but other action sequences with too many seams showing. As the princess, Maria Alba is very nice to look at, but otherwise the supporting cast does not contribute all that much. Yet many of these old serials have a certain appeal, regardless of quality, to fans of old movies, and this feature gives you a chance to see the whole story at once.
The 1930s Chandu features can be just a little confusing to sort out. In the original movie, "Chandu the Magician", Lugosi played Chandu's evil antagonist, but in the following serial - listed here in the database as "The Return of Chandu" (1934/I) - Lugosi was given the role of the heroic magician himself. The serial was also edited into two feature length movies, with the first part released as "The Return of Chandu" (1934/II) and this second part as "Chandu on the Magic Island".
So this feature picks up towards the middle of the story, although the important points are easy enough to grasp right away. Chandu is contending with a group of cat worshipers who have decided to capture and sacrifice the Egyptian princess Nadji, in the belief that this will bring back their own long-dead goddess. They also menace Chandu's sister, nephew, and niece as a means of discouraging him.
Because it was edited from a serial format, the story has a number of stops and starts from the chapter breaks. There are frequent predicaments, with most being of a similar nature. As a full-length movie, it gets just a bit repetitive after a while for that reason. Lugosi is always able to carry his scenes, though, and he had the screen presence and the mannerisms to pull off even the most banal lines of dialogue.
The production values are uneven, with some special effects that work fairly well but other action sequences with too many seams showing. As the princess, Maria Alba is very nice to look at, but otherwise the supporting cast does not contribute all that much. Yet many of these old serials have a certain appeal, regardless of quality, to fans of old movies, and this feature gives you a chance to see the whole story at once.