Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I was looking forward to seeing The Return of Chandu, having enjoyed the early Fox film, Chandu the Magician, also with Bela Lugosi. Chandu, an ex-radio hero, is sort of a born-again Swami who solves mysteries and fights evil conspiracies along the same lines as Mandrake the Magician. His primary weapons are hypnosis, mass hypnosis, and other tricks to fool the baddies. The Fox film was very entertaining, but in it Chandu (Western name, Frank Chandler) was played by Edmund Lowe, while Lugosi was a slimy Fu Manchu substitute, arch-villain Roxor.

The Return of Chandu promises to be more fun, as this time around Lugosi plays Chandu himself. Seeing him in a heroic role is unusual and an attractive idea for fans tired of the repetitive mad doctor parts. The heroic lead is probably why he took the part in this small-budget picture; just three years after Dracula, his career was stagnant.

This Critics' Choice DVD promised a lot. The attractive cover art calls it a digitally restored classic, and inside are two DVDs said to run 208 mintues. This means that the film is the full 12-chapter serial from 'Principal Pictures Corp.' and not the 65-minute cutdown feature version.

The bad news is not just bad, it's dreadful. This is the worst-quality DVD I've seen to date. Gray-market VHS tapes look and sound better. Serials on laser disc and DVD, especially of the Republic variety, are often great prints transferred with excellent quality. What we have here may be complete, but the indifferently- transferred image is from a badly-duped, damaged 16mm (or 8mm?) print. It's fuzzy, hard to hear, and crops all four sides of the picture so severely that important titles are almost completely off screen. When chapter 2's titles chattered in the gate like a 16 print with torn sprocket holes, and tape rolls rippled up and down the image, I realized I was watching some old film-chain transfer of the kind we used to see on Public Domain TV stations in the middle of the night. Perhaps from 3/4" tape. Maybe from VHS tape.

It's unwatchable. I got 3 chapters in. Chandu's fiancée is an Egyptian princess kidnapped by a terrible Eastern cult called Ubasti, and he eventually must go to the forbidden island of Lemuria to rescue her. The parts I saw looked pretty cheap, and couldn't compete with William Cameron Menzies design and direction of the Fox film, but an even average quality disc would have been enjoyable. Not this one, I'm sorry to say.

I don't think I'll be asking for any more Critics' Choice discs unless specifically told of an exceptional title.