The Drums Of Jeopardy (1931)

3 / 5 Jan '11
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: George B. Seitz
Written by: Harold McGrath, Florence Ryerson
Actors include: Warner Oland, Lloyd Hughes, June Collyer
Genre: Horror, Drama
Length: 75 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This is the sound remake of a film from 1923, I haven't seen the original but this is reasonably decent I suppose though it wasn't very exciting. The story is about a Man (worth noting that this character is called Boris Karlov in both versions of the film and the book which predates Boris Karloff's notoriety in the film Frankenstein) who discovers his daughter dying, he asks her who is responsible but she refuses to answer. Soon after he finds a necklace that has the "Drums Of Jeopardy" on them, it just happens to belong to the Petroff family. They have many members, and Karlov can't be sure whom, but he does know that the necklace charms are apparently cursed. When a drum is sent to someone, they turn up dead shortly after, so he begins sending off the drums one by one to family members to try and find and punish the guilty party. It's rather dry, and the deaths aren't very shocking, it's just a color by numbers revenge tale. I can't help but wonder if the original were more lively, this one does drag on even at a mere 75 minute run time. Oh well, I won't be watching this again but if you love early horror films then you might want to give this a try.

Availability:  On DVD

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1931)

4 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: Put yourself in her place! The dreaded night when her lover became a madman!
Directed by: Rouben Mamoulian
Written by: Samuel Hoffenstein, Percy Heath
Actors include: Fredric March, Miram Hopkins, Rose Hobart
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Length: 98 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This is one creative adaptation of the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde tale, I mean it's pretty true to the story and everything, it's just visually a different beast. Sometimes the film is shot from Jekyll's eye view, other shots are from different perspectives, and the way they managed to make the transformation occur is with different colored lights, and it's pretty neat. Even if their version of Mr. Hyde looks rather like a character from Planet of the Apes. This one is also different in that we spend a fair bit of time getting to know the kind and generous Dr. Jekyll before he even gets into his evil debautcherous territory. Jekyll has a fiancee and gee whiz are they happy together, they are going to have a wonderful life...except that Jekyll is obsessed with the duality of man. Of course as the story goes he invents a potion to allow his dark side to roam about. It's not all that dark though his "bad" behavior is far more entertaining then when we are just watching the love story portion. It's even more fun when he can no longer control his transformations. Certainly this is a charming and elegant version of this tale, though I do prefer the version Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920).

Availability:  On DVD