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| Fu Mangrood! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 13 2010, 05:46 PM (22,172 Views) | |
| riddlerider | May 27 2012, 10:37 AM Post #226 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I'm a latecomer to this thread -- just don't make it to the Balcony much any more -- but I'm always glad to see serial fans waxing enthusiastic about DRUMS OF FU MANCHU, which I too believe to be Republic's best serial. As many of you know, that opinion was also shared by Bill Witney, and I'm told that its producer, Hiram S. "Bunny" Brown, felt the same way. Re Brandon's suitability as Fu: I'm of the opinion that his was the best screen interpretation of the character. Neither Warner Oland nor Boris Karloff, great as they are, were good fits for Fu. The worst Fu has to be a toss-up between H. Agar Lyons, who played him in the mid-Twenties British-made series of two-reelers, and Glen Gordon, star at Republic's god-awful 1956 Fu Manchu TV show. I'd rate Christopher Lee just below Brandon, although only the first two of his five Fu films are really worth seeing. AndyFish: VCI's DRUMS was mastered from a private collector's 16mm "reversal" print -- one copied from another positive print by a photographic process not using a negative. The transfer is as good as one could hope to get from such a print (since reversals increase contrast), but it doesn't do justice to William Nobles' fine cinematography. If any of Cliffhanger Fest's 2010 attendees buy Grood's version, I'll be curious to hear how his compares to the long feature version I brought to that year's CF. Mine was mastered from a 35mm print (missing some footage) struck from the camera negative; ideally, you need to see something copied from that material to appreciate how much time and effort went into the lighting of the serial's interior sequences. Edited by riddlerider, May 27 2012, 10:39 AM.
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| Barcroft | May 27 2012, 12:37 PM Post #227 |
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Charter Member
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I did see Riddle Rider's print at Cliffhanger Fest 1 and can attest to how absolutely beautiful his print is. There were portions of the film missing and he used VCI's print to fill in the missing gaps and when it happens you can see the quality drop very noticeably. So if Groods print is as good as Riddle Rider's then you're going to be in for a real treat. Barcroft |
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| Pa Stark | May 27 2012, 05:41 PM Post #228 |
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Charter Member
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It is good to see you post again Riddle Rider, don't be a stranger to your old stomping grounds. The one downside to Brandon was the makeup for his eyebrows, I hate how they arch almost straight up, looks phony. What is unique is how many cliffhangers not only had Fu at center of attention, but how many extreme closeups there are of him. The studio obviously knew how strong Brandon was to have done this. Best example of this is cliffhanger to chapter five, that ends with him walking into room looking around, then nods his head in satisfaction, and that is the end of the chapter. With the mood, lighting, and music it turns out to be an outstanding cliffhanger. Our local tent of Sons of the Desert had Henry up for a weekend, and I showed chapter four, with Allan Parker put under a pendulum, and Henry did his Fu Manchu voice, "Are you ready for your circumcision, Mr. Parker?" |
| Honest and Lovable Pa Stark | |
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| AndyFish | May 27 2012, 05:56 PM Post #229 |
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Movie Watcha Foist Class
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I do have to admit that Fu's voice had me chuckle the first few times I heard it-- it's not Mike Tyson bad by any means, but I was expecting something more along the lines of Dr Zodiac or The Scorpion (Yes, I know Gerald Mohr voiced 'em), but I got over it after the first two chapters. I've always thought Captain Marvel was Republic's best-- and I'm no Republic junkie, I find most of them just excuses to have fight scenes that bust up a whole room-- although that's not always a bad thing. Fu definitely is looking like it could top Cap for me which would put it just behind FLASH GORDON as the all time best serial for my tastes -- I'm definitely with you on that one Pa. Even Mrs Fish, who often finds serials not to her liking is really digging this one, and she noticed the cinematography right away. As for the Mangrood version-- I'm just saying VCI's copy is pretty decent-- if the SS version is 35mm mastered I'd likely jump on it anyway. Really great serial. |
| www.andytfish.com | |
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| Frank Hale | May 27 2012, 06:20 PM Post #230 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I’ve heard a lot about the great lighting in Fu; I’ve only seen the VCI print, which was decidedly dark IMO. My memory is that Fu had a terrific first chapter (one of the all time terrific cliff-hangers), but seemed to sag considerably after that. A major problem was that he continually dealt his worst from the back seat of a late 30’s touring car. Didn’t seem appropriate somehow. Hope Eric’s copy is better, but I won’t be buying. So best wishes and good luck to you enthusiasts. |
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| Creepygirl | May 29 2012, 07:01 PM Post #231 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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My copy of Drums of Fu Manchu showed up in my mailbox today. I've only had time to watch Chapter 1 but it does look and sound great. Highly recommended. |
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| mort bakaprevski | May 30 2012, 07:27 AM Post #232 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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On another site, we got to blathering about the voice Brandon used for Fu in this production. I remarked that his natural voice seemed to be a firm, theatrical, low tenor (or high bari) & I wondered why he had used this higher, wimpy sounding voice for Fu. Another person opined the following, "Some proponents of political correctness have zeroed in on what they believe were decisions to deliberately affect gay mannerisms in inflection and action in an effort to portray Asians as perverse and unmanly as far as Western concepts of masculinity were concerned at the time." I countered that since Brandon WAS gay that seemed like a strange choice for him to make. Anyone here have an opinion on the subject? |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| JazzGuyy | May 30 2012, 07:52 AM Post #233 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Yeah, but at the time the serial was made, few people would have known that. Being gay was kept secret in those days. |
| TANSTAAFL! | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | May 30 2012, 07:57 AM Post #234 |
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Mouth Breather
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The guys who played Charlie Chan spoke in a high-pitched voice too. I think it was just a stereotype and nothing at all to do with gayness or the lack thereof. We keep seeing these unsubstantiated statements about how repressive American culture used to be, but then again there are movies like the Eddie Cantor vehicle Whopee with innumerable gay innuendos, and that was 1928. Political correctness. Bah, humbug. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| JazzGuyy | May 30 2012, 08:09 AM Post #235 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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There were always innuendos, Paul, but movie folks certainly never publicly declared their sexual preferences until very recently. |
| TANSTAAFL! | |
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| mort bakaprevski | May 30 2012, 08:21 AM Post #236 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Good point, Jazzy. William Haines was ousted from MGM 'cause he was open about his situation. A lotta people believe the reason George Cukor's career was more successful than James Whale's was because George was more circumspect than James was (I personally think Whale just lost interest when he no longer had the strong financial & artistic backing of Junior Laemmle). Here are some more comments from the poster I mentioned which I think are germane: "I agree it sounds like a gay stereotype today, but back in the forties I don't know if it would have been taken that way. Since the radio show and later TV series affected a similar portrayal, I do suspect it was a way of conjuring up a decadent exotic character." That seems to go along with Panzer's comments (I think)! |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | May 30 2012, 01:17 PM Post #237 |
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Mouth Breather
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While we're on the subject Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore made careers of playing gay characters, didn't they? And there's plenty of outrageousness in Mitchell Leisen's movies. I think it's reasonable to say a lot of that stuff went over many people's heads. Plus nobody was trying to stir up the populace against gay people back then. One step forward, two steps back. William Haines was a little different because the characters he played were more or less straight, so if it got out that he was gay there would have been trouble from the Hearst papers and the women's clubs and so forth. I wonder too if Hearst wasn't directly involved in the, ahem, change of careers. In any case Haines made a ton of money decorating houses and sound might have totaled his movie career anyway. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| Laughing Gravy | Jun 6 2012, 12:09 PM Post #238 |
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Hmmm... Anybody wanna talk about this Fu Manchu thing? |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| mort bakaprevski | Jun 25 2012, 01:24 PM Post #239 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Creepygirl, your last post was almost a month ago. How 'bout an update??? |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| Creepygirl | Jun 30 2012, 08:06 PM Post #240 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I have finished The Drums of Fu Manchu and found the complete serial to be a fine restoration. The picture is very sharp and the contrast is top notch. The sound is great too. The drums actually boom. There is one 30 second scene towards the end of Chapter 15 that had to be added from another transfer source but it looks and sounds good too. If hadn't known to look for it going in I probably would have missed it. The serial is one of Republic's best and this restoration may help it back on to many top 10 lists. The picture detail lost on previous DVD releases is sharp and clear here on this Serial Squadron release. Highly recommeded. |
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