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Snakes in Movies   Chandu the Magician (1932)   Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.       This movie was based on a very popular radio serial of the 1930s. It was co-directed by the amazing set designer William Cameron Menzies and the sets, the lighting and the cinematography are outstanding. The special effects are also great for 1932. Bela Lugosi outshines everybody else in the movie, so people think it's a horror movie, but it's really an action adventure. If you want to see a major influence on adventure movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, check this one out. Chandu is an American man who studied magic in India and developed "the power of Shiva." He is initiated into the sacred company of the Yogi and demonstrates his abilities with the Indian rope trick, walking through fire, and projecting his image. Chandu can create illusions, but his primary power lies in his ability to hypnotize people with his eyes. His teacher charges him to go into the word and "conquer the evils that threaten mankind." He starts by going to Egypt to help his sister find her missing husband, the scientist Robert Regent, who has developed a death ray. An evil madman named Roxor (Bela Lugosi) stole the ray and kidnapped Robert to make him explain how it works. He refuses to tell Roxor, so the madman kidnaps Robert's daughter Betty Lou and the beautiful Princess Nadji, Chador's love interest. Chandor rescues Nadji, then he, his drunken orderly Miggles, and Nadji sneak into Roxor's Egyptian temple hideout where three men with rifles appear and threaten to kill them. (Nadji will be sent to the harem of a creepy guy.). But Chandor hypnotizes the three men into believing that their rifles have turned into snakes. They panic and run away. Miggles is terrified by the snakes also until Chandor picks one up and it turns back into a rifle. I don't know where the movie was filmed, but since it was made by the Fox Film Corporation, it was probably made in Hollywood where the go-to snake is usually the gopher snake, but these snakes are not gopher snakes. I can't figure out what they are.