Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

writtenbymkm-583-902097 It is absolutely useless for me to review this movie, because this site has made all viewer reviews useless. We can no longer find reviews from viewers who loved the movie, or felt neutral about the movie, or hated the movie. From now on all the reviews are listed simply one after the other without any reason whatsoever. For movies with tons of reviews, you are forced to scroll down endlessly in order to find anything. Up yours, IMDb.

MartinHafer This movie is very curious when it comes to the name of the villain. Warner Oland stars as 'Boris Karlov'--and I am sure the real life Boris Karloff (famous for his horror films) took notice. Why they changed his name from Gregor in the 1923 version to Boris is curious. While the real Karloff was quite prolific in films by the time the 1931 remake debuted, he was not yet a star--and his iconic role in "Frankenstein" was still six months in the future. Perhaps it's just an odd coincidence.Now I mentioned that the film starred Warner Oland. If you aren't familiar with him, he popularized the character Charlie Chan and played him in a ton of films during the 1930s. He was a very prolific actor and starred in a lot of films other than the Chan series--though today he's known mostly as 'that Swedish guy who played Charlie Chan'. You might also notice Mischa Auer in a supporting role--a role totally unlike his usual comic ones.The film begins with Karlov's daughter on the brink of death. Boris blames her condition on a noble Russian family and he devotes his entire life to wiping them out--on-by-one. The drums, by the way, refer to a necklace. Karlov takes it apart and sends a piece of it to the victims before exacting his revenge.So is the film any good? Well, it's not "Gone Withe the Wind"! However, compared to other B suspense films, it's pretty good--with decent production values, a fast-paced script and plenty of suspense. But the film has its deficits as well--in particular, some really bad acting in some of the minor roles (it's like they are reading from cue cards) and a few of these scenes should have been re-shot (but for economy's sake, B movies did this as seldom as possible). But some of the acting was quite good--I liked Clara Blandick as the grouchy aunt and Oland seemed to have a lot of fun dispatching his victims! For example, I loved the wonderful poison gas scene at the 52 minute mark. Overall, you should not expect high art--just a decent and entertaining murder mystery/suspense picture-especially if you like this genre.By the way, this film is available through Alpha Video. And while I have mentioned this in many of my reviews, viewers should note that Alpha's DVDs have no restoration of any sort done to them. Like most of the rest I have seen, this one is in rough shape--though not so bad that you shouldn't watch. Unfortunately, many of Alpha's films just aren't available anywhere else, so if you are a fan of these sorts of films you have to just take what you can get.

Bill Barstad The movie starts very melodramatically, with a young woman in bed, tended by her mother, apparently dying. The reason for her deterioration is never stated, though it has to do with her relationship with some man. The acting here is poor. Her father (get this, his name is Boris Karlov, played by Warner Oland, acting like an evil Charlie Chan) enters, and demands the name of the man responsible, but his daughter refuses. A necklace, The Drums of Jeopardy, falls from under the bed covers, which he recognizes as belonging to the Petrovs, and vows revenge.The movie and acting get better in the second act as the Petrovs come to America, fleeing the Bolshevik revolution. Karlov, working for the Bolsheviks, is in America already, and waiting for them. The Petrov sons escape Karlov twice, and flee to a country mansion on a dark and stormy night. Karlov and his goons are right behind.This is an very 1930s movie with plot elements, and plot holes, typical of the period. The escaping Petrovs meet and are aided by a rich New York family. Karlov has a bullet-proof vest that defies Newton's third law of motion.Clara Blandick, playing the matron of the New York family, shines while providing some humor.

madcinephile I like the movie, for what it is. I would like to see the earlier version, and compare. I've always thought of Warner Oland as kind of a ham. But it's impossible to judge by 1931 standards in 2007, so what do I know? The Karlov question had me curious. This is what Wikipedia had to say (yeah, I know-- it's Wikipedia, so who knows if it's true?): "In 1922 the book was made into a Broadway play and the following year a motion picture. A second film version appeared in 1931. It is said that a young Boris Karloff, who previously had a few uncredited film roles, chose his stage name for his first screen credit in 1920 from a Russian mad scientist character named "Boris Karlov" in this novel. The name 'Boris Karlov' was used from MacGrath's book for the 1922 Broadway play, but by 1923 with actor Boris Karloff using the similar sounding variation, the film version renamed the character, played by Wallace Beery, 'Gregor Karlov'. In the 1931 film version, however, with Warner Oland playing the character, the mad scientist's name is restored to 'Boris Karlov', less than a year before Frankenstein would make Boris Karloff a household word for generations. Ironically, Boris Karloff would play many mad scientists on screen, but never 'Boris Karlov'."As a side note for those interested in original sources, the Harold MacGrath novel "Drums of Jeopardy" is available as a free e-text download at Project Gutenberg.