Top Trailers: DRUM
Mandingo became a big box office hit in 1975. Even as the critics rejected it, audiences flocked to see a well-made and powerfully acted film that explored the racially charged history of the Old South in ways previously unimaginable. A sequel was a virtual lock after such a unique success: the producers knew there was a built-in audience and there was a vast array of literary follow-ups ready to be adapted. Drum was the result and sadly it's a chaotic, lurid mess that replaces the subversive qualities of Mandingo with pure shock effects. In short, it's exactly the kind of trashy, irresponsible potboiler that the film version of Mandingo was accused of being.
That said, Drumhad one hell of a trailer, a tight spot that ran under two minutes andexploited the content and production values of its parent film to great effect.It begins with some narrated title screens to set things up. It testifies tothe massive success of the Mandingofilm, including a claim that ten million people saw it, and then promises a newfilm continuing the story that will go even further. It makes pointed use ofthe words "decadence" and "depravity" along with thefittingly lurid choice of verb "penetrate" to describe how it will goabout its work. These titles are capped with a killer tagline: "Mandingo lit the fuse... Drum is theexplosion!"
The footage begins with a killer quartet of images thatpunch the viewer right in both eyes: we see a few hundred chained slaves beingprepared for sale, a lusty mistress taking the title slave (Ken Norton) to bed,some no-holds-barred brawling and a slaver's mansion exploding with fire. Thenext snippet of narration promises the viewer a story that will cater to thelustful urges and their thirst for brutality with equal vigor as we see amontage of images where slaves are either treated as objects of lust or whippedand hung up in chains.
As that section comes to end, the narrator also promises"revenge!" This leads us to a powerful segment where the narrator isreplaced by an angry monologue from a slave portrayed by Yaphet Kotto (he givesthe film's best performance). As he decries the way the master reduces slavesto obedient dogs and destroys their families, we see a group of slaves bustinginto a master's bedroom to attack him. A counterpoint is provided by a segmentwith slavemaster Hammond Maxwell (now portrayed by Warren Oates), who grimlydeclares he knows nothing of culture.
This leads into a quick rundown of the cast, which alsoincludes such notables as Pam Grier, John Colicos, Isela Vega and Paula Kellyalongside returning Mandingo alumniBrenda Sykes and Ken Norton. The final twenty five seconds or so is devoted toslave revolt footage: slaves stampede the mansion with torches, mistresses ofthe house get manhandled and a repetition of the tagline - "Drum is the explosion!" - is accented by a big fireballof an explosion at the mansion's entrance.
The resulting trailer effectively exploits the carnage and lust of Drum but manages to do so in a more focused, targeted manner than the film itself. There's none of the subversive cleverness of the Mandingo trailer here but it gets the job done in the best exploitation film trailer style.
To read Schlockmania's film review of Drum, click here.
To read Schlockmania's film review of Mandingo, click here.
To read Schlockmania's "Top Trailers" entry on Mandingo click here.
And to read Schlockmania's review of Paul Talbot's excellent history of the Mandingo series, Mondo Mandingo, click here.