I shared Michael Elliott's opinion of MANDINGO (1975) but I can't say that I do the same for his take on its sequel, DRUM (1976). While I concede that it's a (slightly) better film - it's not as dull as its predecessor, nor does it take itself so seriously - I feel that the exploitation elements are even more pronounced this time around. There is a lot more nudity in DRUM (its sexual perversions extending to both male and female homosexuality!), for instance, and the plot is even tawdrier: John Colicos is a campy gay French trader who wants to bed black stud Ken Norton - unbeknownst to him, the son of a white woman who just happens to be the madam of the most popular brothel in the area, and where all the various parties converge: including Warren Oates as the elder version of the character played by Perry King in MANDINGO, his puritanical(!) future wife Fiona Lewis and Colicos himself, whose unruly slave Yaphet Kotto is made to fight Norton but subsequently becomes his pal. Besides, there's Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith as Oates' horny teenage daughter who's after every colored male in the household! The version I watched (from the R2 DVD) featured a somewhat faded pan-and-scan print: again, being 100 minutes long, the film seems to have suffered some edits - even when taking into consideration the NTSC to PAL conversion factor - from the official length of 110 minutes; in fact, Mike's description of the climax - which I didn't find excessively violent - suggests that it may have been trimmed somewhat.
Review of Drum
