Production
Drums of Fu Manchu was budgeted at $164,052 although the final negative cost was $166,312 (a $2,260, or 1.4%, overspend). It was the most expensive Republic serial of 1940, although this year was the first in which Republic's overall spending on serial production was less than in the previous year. Republic spent $597,528 producing serials in 1940 compared to $648,064 in 1939 (1939's total would not be beaten until the $782,204 of 1944). The studio produced four serials in each year, with the same mix of two 12-chapter serials and two 15-chapter serials.
The serial was filmed between 22 December 1939 and 7 February 1940, the longest filming period of any Republic serial. The serial's production number was 995.
Directors Witney and English, working with photographer William Nobles, stressed the elements of mystery in the plot over the usual action. Strong use of shadows was made with "the eeriest lighting possible falling upon Fu Manchu."
Read more about this topic: Drums Of Fu Manchu
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“... if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not do without that life.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)
“By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)