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.

Like MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET (1942), this is more thriller than horror but there is still enough atmosphere and thrills here to make it an entertaining ride (which, as with the above-mentioned film, clocks in at just over an hour and is therefore not allowed to overstay its welcome). The plot is that of a hoary melodrama – not unlike the Oriental Lon Chaney vehicle MR. WU (1927) – as an eminent personality (in this case, scientist Warner Oland: interestingly, his most famous role was the multiple genial appearances as popular Chinese sleuth Charlie Chan!) has his life virtually brought to a stand-still by the death, over her romantic attachment to a member of the aristocracy, of his young daughter. So, he swears vengeance and nearly accomplishes his mission, were it not for the intervention of an elderly but strong-willed lady (here, it is Clara Blandick, the landlady of the heroine who chooses to shelter one of Oland's 'targets') – though her annoying characterization reminded me of the middle-aged 'fraidy cat' maid in THE BAT WHISPERS (1930) and the romantically-inclined (albeit still very much way- past-her-prime) one in THE GHOUL (1933)!Incidentally, the title refers not to the musical instrument but to a diamond-studded necklace belonging to the upper-class family and which had been donated to Oland's daughter by her paramour. It eventually comes into play in the scientist's revenge scheme since he is gentlemanly (or is that sadistic?) enough to forewarn his next victim with a note accompanied by one of the jewels; by the way, Oland has an accomplice in a lanky and somber Mischa Auer, that is before he became everybody's favorite eccentric Russian! The few murder/action sequences deliver the goods – especially one in which Oland's shadow slowly bends over the kidnapped eldest nemesis to strangle him and then plants his body in a window so that, during a roof-top chase with the man's relatives and the Police, they take him for Oland and take several pot-shots at the poor soul! Then there is the finale where, as I said, it is Blandick who contrives to literally make the drop on Oland by pushing him through a trap-door down into the river running under his hiding-place/laboratory/operations center as he is about to blow everything sky-high via a potion he has concocted.Ultimately, this is a minor yet engaging outing that ought to be better-known (I only learned about it myself when I came across the film fairly recently)…if only because Oland's character here is named – brace yourself – Boris Karlov (the picture under review came out eight months prior to FRANKENSTEIN, released the same year and which, I am sure no-one needs reminding, immortalized its star who was soon to be billed simply as "Karloff, the Uncanny")!!

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.

Warner Oland stars as Dr Boris Karloff, a man out to avenge his daughter's suicide by killing off a Russian noble family that he holds responsible for her death. Warner Oland soon after this movie became famous in his portrayal of Charlie Chan in a series of movies about a famous Chinese detective and the mysteries he solves. Clara Blandick, the future Auntie Em in the Wizard of Oz plays a great character in a supporting role and is excellent in bringing comic relief to this little known drama from 1931. I saw this movie on a DVD by Alpha video. The film does have some scratches and the sound has some problems during the opening credits. It's a short movie at 66 minutes but seems to be right for the pace of the movie. The Drums of Jeopardy is a decent movie. I would call it a murder drama. It's definitely dated though. You can sure tell you're in the 30s both by the dialogue, and situations. You really have to be a fan of older movies to get the most out of this film.