Die Sklavenhölle der Mandingos

'Drum' is the kinda sorta sequel to 'Mandingo', a movie that tried to walk a fine line between being a "serious" drama and a silly but fun exploitation movie. The director this time around is Steve Carver who made the trash classics 'Big Bad Mama' and 'The Arena', and he doesn't even attempt to disguise the Drive-In feel of this one. Ken Norton once again stars but plays a different character than in 'Mandingo'. Warren Oates plays Hammond Maxwell who Perry King played in the first movie. The idea that they are the same man is totally ridiculous and unbelievable, but once you can get over that hurdle you are in for a good time. Oates is outrageously amusing but without resorting to the hamminess that James Mason brought to 'Mandingo'. He is simply a joy to watch, as an uncouth but charming slave owner, and is the number one reason to hunt down this movie. Oates terrific performance more than makes up for Norton's dull turn. Also very good is Yaphet Kotto ('Blue Collar') as Drum's friend turned enemy Blaise, also one of Oates' slaves. Kotto is excellent (as usual) and it's a pity he wasn't the star instead of Norton. Fiona King ('The Fury') plays Oates' wife to be and is entertaining, as is Rainbeaux Smith ('Caged Heat') as Oates slutty daughter (a similar role to Susan George's in 'Mandingo' but much more enjoyable). Also noteworthy is John Colicos ('The Postman Always Rings Twice') as a very evil and camp slave owner who vows to kill Drum who spurns his salacious advances. The impressive cast also includes blaxploitation legend Pam Grier ('Black Mama, White Mama') who sadly doesn't have all that much screen time, and Oates 'Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia' co-star Isela Vega, who doesn't have much more. 'Drum' is pure exploitative trash and proud of it. If you take it in that spirit and not as a serious study of racism in 19th century America you'll enjoy it immensely. Especially when watching Warren Oates in one of his most enjoyable and underrated performances. This movie is essential viewing for all Oates fans.

For those who don't know: MANDINGO and DRUM are both adaptations of books from the Falconhurst plantation series of novels by Kyle Onstott and, later, Lance Horner. There were several books in the series; thus far I've run across about five or six of them!

DISCLAIMER: let me state right now that I am black and can totally understand how people are easily offended by these films. The thing is these films feature such sheer, unadulterated exploitation and overripe acting/dialogue that hardcore bad movie addicts will have a hard time NOT finding these films majorly entertaining! I flat-out admit that both MANDINGO and DRUM are among my favorite guilty pleasures, and I view them both as what would happen if John Waters could have gotten away with making a really sleazy soap opera set on a plantation. Some of the dialogue is so ridiculous that it's nearly impossible for me to take these films seriously at all, although the rape and torture does bring one back to the wretchedness of the situation.

Anyway, I don't know where those of you who claim that DRUM is not a sequel to MANDINGO got that idea. Warren Oates is playing the same character that Perry King did in the first film, only this story takes place about fifteen years later. He even makes veilled references to what happened at the end of MANDINGO, specifically the fates of Ken Norton and Susan George. In other words, PAY ATTENTION! And if you think this is exploitativve, go back and watch the uncut version of ROOTS again. Sure it's more "legit" than MANDINGO and DRUM, but it is every bit the exploitative soap opera that they are. For the real flavor and excellence of ROOTS, read the book.

I managed to run across DRUM'S prequel MANDINGO at a popular video store. It was in the ROMANCE category if you can believe that. It looked to be interesting so I rented it. I was surprised that it wasn't a romance movie. Rather, it was a slave drama, a rauchy but entertaining one. I went to IMBd to see reviews of what other people thought and they pretty much matched mine. I then saw references to DRUM. I actually found a copy online!! I have it and I have watched almost 10 times. Someone wondered the audience they were after for DRUM. It was 1976, the era of new permissiveness (so I have studied...I'm a 33 year-old white female). I always heard about the Blaxploitation films and have seen them (Shaft, the Pam Grier movies, Superfly, etc.). My older sister's black friends flocked to them when I was a kid and sometimes she went along. I remember her coming home and only talking about the naked scenes and tortures, but never the plot. In fact, when I used to hear them all talk about the movie together, that's ALL they talked about. The movie was showing for a long time at the DOLLAR cinemas in the 80s. She and her friends went again and talked about it the same way. So the audience the filmmakers were after the audience (black AND white)that secretly desires to see naked torture and bondage in movies, under the pretense of seeing "what slavery was really like." Maybe some of it was that way, but they CLEARLY won over blacks who seemed to mostly already know what slavery really was like, but just wanted to see their favorite black stars naked. They got away with naked bondage in DRUM and MANDINGO because slavery is a "historical" fact. As for white females like me, sure, I wanted to see the scenes of the naked black male slaves and fantasize being the character of the white daughter. That's what the filmmakers wanted. NO black person in the bunch of my sister's friends seemed to be offended. They LAUGHED about the dialogue and the situations, taking the film as more of a satire. So don't look for ANY deep meaning or take it seriously. It's just raunchy, campy fun and the only way the producers could get away with getting this on the screen...using a real situation and putting their twist on it. Certainly not a film for history majors!

I got a copy of it from one of those "avant garde" type video shops that pride themselves in having the hard to find stuff.

You can see this movie without having seen the pre-quel,"Mandingo" and not lose much understanding, since they make almost no references to what happened in the first movie. In fact, the plantation owner's white daughter was not in the first movie, so it really doesn't follow at all (she was in the novel "Mandingo"). Those who thought Mandingo was trashy will really be howling when they see this one....Warren Oates and the woman playing his daughter play for laughs in the middle part of the movie...(that actress went on to make X-rated movies and then dropped out of acting altogether by the mid 80s). John Colicos plays an evil homosexual....I like the overdone white trash talk though (" OH PAW! You ain't gonna marry that uppity bitch!) Great camp. Ken Norton acts like a mannequin most of the movie.....(" He might kill Blaize...or even worse, castrate him" - said with a totally expressionless face). And the dinner conversation is hilarious. ("Son I gonna give you Regine. How long you figger it take you to knock her up?). (" Miss Augusta, you jes got to get used to the fack that Falconhurst is all about n****r fornicatin'. If'n my n****rs stop fornicatin', we stops eatin'.)

Regine: You likes big titties, don't you Mistah Maxwell?

Hammond: Oh you knows I likes big titties.

Regine: Well Miss Augusta, she got BIIG titties.

And I repeat - this is supposed to be a serious movie.

The movie is in that "so bad it's good" category. Check it out, if you have a hankerin' for that genre.

Drum, in my opinion, was much more enjoyable than Mandingo. It's more an action film than a drama. Ken Norton gets to say more dialogue, even though he's still no actor. The big plus for Drum is that it's not as long as Mandingo. The cast delivers very bizarre performances, including John Colicos as Drum's evil gay ex-boss, and Warren Oates does well as Hammond Maxwell, although he doesn't have the same wickedness that Perry King portrayed him with in the first film.

The final showdown, with the battle between black slaves and rich white people, plus the burning mansion, goes to show that there were some slaves in those days who were mad as hell and weren't gonna take it anymore!

Rating: ***