Anyone have any comment on this serial? I'm halfway through the VCI DVD. So far, it's really excellent.
0 Kudo
DRUMS OF FU MANCHU
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 thehorrorboy |
DRUMS OF FU MANCHU |
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(08/28/07 4:11 PM) |
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gene phillips |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/29/07 9:53 AM) |
It's one of my 3 favorite serials, thanks to the intelligence of the script, the cool action sequences and Henry Brandon's definitive performance.
Have you got to the chapter as yet where you find out what makes the sound of the "drums of Fu Manchu?" I thought that was a wild piece of fantasy that wasn't like anything else I'd ever seen in serials. |
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ALAN KING |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/29/07 10:08 AM) |
Yes i would recommend drums highly
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TomWeaver999 |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/29/07 10:50 AM) |
I wish the available prints were better (my same plaint for some of the Dick Tracys, CAPTAIN AMERICA, etc.) -- why do things like THE PHANTOM RIDER and KING OF THE CARNIVAL have to look pristine when the prints of so many of the top Republic serials look like they were run off in Blackie Seymour's bathtub? Still, it's easy to tell that DRUMS is a big cut-above script-, production-, everything-wise, and Henry Brandon one of Republic's best villains (alongside Eduardo Ciannelli's Doctor Satan -- same year).
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Laughing Gravy |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/29/07 11:53 AM) |
"why do things like THE PHANTOM RIDER and KING OF THE CARNIVAL have to look pristine when the prints of so many of the top Republic serials look like they were run off in Blackie Seymour's bathtub?"
I think you know the answer to that, but for those of you out there in Monsterkidland who don't, it's 'cause Republic signed contracts that gave them the rights to licensed characters for only a limited period, and then the films were to be destroyed or returned to the owners. Hence Republic has nothing in the vaults for DRUMS OF FU MANCHU, THE LONE RANGER, THE LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN, KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED, THE ROYAL MOUNTED RIDES AGAIN, JUNGLE GIRL, CAPTAIN AMERICA, or the four DICK TRACY serials. By the mid-1940s, they'd quit licensing characters and just made up their own (THE TIGER WOMAN, PERILS OF NYOKA) and soon even the venerable Zorro had morphed into Don Daredevil or El Latigo. www.inthebalcony.com
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TomWeaver999 |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/29/07 2:00 PM) |
My spies tell me that nitrate negs for DRUMS OF FU MANCHU are at UCLA. Republic-Paramount have no rights to it now (vis a vis original contract with Sax Rohmer), the serial has gone P.D., and no one is going to spend 50 grand to preserve a 15-chapter public domain, politically incorrect serial .... unless Hugh Hefner, who paid to preserve the politically incorrect and similiarly legal-nightmare Paramount Fu Manchus, comes forward.
Hef??? A little more Yellow Peril, PLEASE?? |
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TomWeaver999 |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/29/07 2:04 PM) |
My spy is now telling me that UCLA has been forced to throw away bits and pieces of DRUMS over the years as nitrate deterioration has set in. Maybe the world HAS seen the last of (DRUMS OF) Fu Manchu -- the last GOOD print, anyway!
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captainmarvel1957 |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/29/07 2:49 PM) |
I purchased the dvd of Drums that is available from VCI. I watched it and I don't recall being aggravated by the quality of the print. If there were problems I don't believe they were distracting. I may be wrong, but I generally remember stuff like that. Terry and the Pirates, for example, is a horrible print and I couldn't even get through the first chapter.
I wonder how Eddie Brandt's copy of this title would look? I was able to find things on their shelves when I was living in LA that were thought to only be available through the UCLA film archives. |
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Bob Furmanek |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/30/07 10:46 AM) |
My spies have reported that Mr. Hefner was not too pleased when his funded Sherlock Holmes restorations were very profitably released on DVD. Apparently, nobody profiting from this endeavor was good enough to share the wealth with Mr. H.
That's one aspect of film restoration which is very frustrating. Copyright holders do not spend the money to preserve and restore their elements. Various third parties raise money to do the work, and then the copyright holder profits by showing them on cable and/or releasing them on DVD. This is currently happening with the privately funded Vitaphone shorts restorations. While it's great that this prime material is finally being seen and is widely available, I don't think it's right that private individuals have to restore materials that should be preserved by the companies that actually own them. The AMC film preservation festivals are a prime example. |
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TomWeaver999 |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/30/07 12:28 PM) |
<< I don't think it's right that private individuals have to restore materials that should be preserved by the companies that actually own them. <<
I say this every time (and I'm sure I make no new friends by doing so) ... but if I, in 2007, was made CEO of a company that owned the rights to seven movies made in 1931-32 with Rex Lease and Marion Schilling, and they needed $177,478 worth of restoration ..... ummmmmm ..... Sorry, Rex and Marion! |
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Bob Furmanek |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/30/07 12:58 PM) |
Ah yes, but if your company could potentially profit from the next wave of Rex Lease Mania, don't you think you would owe it to future generations to insure that this important material be preserved in the best possible quality?
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captainmarvel1957 |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/30/07 1:15 PM) |
Yeah, Tom! That last bout of Rex Lease Mania was a real cash cow for Rex rights holders. You couldn't turn around without seeing Rex Lease. Remember kids going to school in Rex Lease t-shirts with Rex Lease backpacks and lunch boxes? And that's not to mention the Rex Lease action figure!
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TomWeaver999 |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/30/07 1:30 PM) |
Well, then yes ..... but for the 90-something percent of old movies that DON'T have a lot of profit potential (or ANY profit potential) any more ..... sorry, no $177,000 restorations on MY watch. I'd rather keep my job than restore Marion Schilling movies for 12 people. Maybe I "just don't get it," but I don't think that any modern studio should expected to expensively maintain valueless old inventory, in order to make people who've made old movies a religion happy.
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Don Daredevil |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/30/07 3:06 PM) |
Ya gotta admit guys ... Mr. Weaver does make a good point.
Film preservation is expensive, and recouping costs and profits are practically nonexistant. Think about it ... companies/businesses don't want to invest with a promise of zero return. At the very minimum they expect to at least break even. |
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Bob Furmanek |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/30/07 3:19 PM) |
That's if you're only in it to make a buck. But then again - it IS a business, isn't it.
Tom: You wouldn't keep writing your books and articles if there wasn't any money in it - would you? |
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TomWeaver999 |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/30/07 3:35 PM) |
A LOT of the writing I do (the "labor of love," really obscure stuff) is a break-even situation or perhaps even lose a little money. But it's *my* money. If I ran a movie studio, I wouldn't be spending its money, the stockholders' money, etc., to restore unheard-of oldies that would probably then go BACK in the vault (because there's little or no market) and start rotting all over again, and needing to be uselessly "rescued" AGAIN down the line.
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Bob Furmanek |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/30/07 3:44 PM) |
But isn't that the same studio mentality of the late 40's which dictated: "Destroy all our silent elements. They'll never be needed again." Or the same one of the 60's and 70's when many 3-D materials were split up and discarded?
Thank goodness there were private collectors with the forsight to save prints of titles which would now be lost if it were left up to the studios. |
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captainmarvel1957 |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/31/07 12:40 AM) |
You can tell from my post above that I agree with Tom's fiscally responsible handling of film archives. We can't expect a commercial venture to go on a losing crusade. But, the sad thing is that a lot of the studios' back catalogue will never see the light of day again. Some will probably disappear forever. You know that somewhere in that vast body of information there are hidden gems that we would love. And the amount of films that are preserved by the AFI, the Library of Congress and university archives aren't making a dent in the volume of titles that are rotting away. You would think that with digital technology the very least that could be done is a linked digital transfer. Not a restoration, just a simple transfer. Alas. So long, Rex!
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 Chesterbelloc |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/31/07 9:49 AM) |
I agree that, in the current climate, most studios won't pay a lot of money to restore forgotten old films. However, it would be nice if they would release the films as they exist in their unrestored state, or let some little outfit release them. At least get them out there for people to see, even if they aren't pristine.
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BijouBob8mm |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/31/07 1:17 PM) |
Quote: And I'd say it's one of the three best attempts at putting Fu Manchu onscreen, along with MASK OF FU MANCHU and FACE OF FU MANCHU. Quote: Would love to see a set of those officially released. |
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thehorrorboy |
Re: DRUMS OF FU MANCHU | ||
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(08/31/07 4:07 PM) |
Does Universal have the Paramount Fu Manchus, or have their rights expired?
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