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Rohmer's description (used in every book at least once) is that the Devil Doctor's voice is "alternately gutteral and sibilant." It shouldn't sound like pidgin English or a sterotypical Asian voice as imagined by Yellowface actors. Im fairly certain Glen Gordon was attempting to follow Henry Brandon's model for the fifties TV series. It's possible that Brandon was himself influenced by Harold Huber from the SHADOW OF FU MANCHU radio series that debuted several months prior to DRUMS' start of production.

It may be that some of the overtones of Karloff's interpretation (even his natural lisp) influenced the decision of later actors to camp up the role. Some proponents of political correctness have zeroed in on what they believe were decisions to deliberately affect gay mannerisms in inflection and action in an effort to portray Asians as perverse and unmanly as far as Western concepts of masculinity were concerned at the time. The validity of that argument is difficult to disprove. Villains of the era, perhaps best exemplified by Charles Middleton's Ming the Merciless, were deliberately perverse and intended to stand in sharp contrast to the virtuous red-blooded heroes as part of the simplistic good vs. evil structure stories such as these had. Rohmer's fiction was more complex, but very little of what has been portrayed on film, TV, or radio can be considered faithful to the source. Audiences at the time were conditioned to enjoy villains they loved to hate with very few having a sense of the camp value employed before the 1960s. For the record, I suppose Karloff and, in his first interpretation at least, Chris Lee are my own two favorite actors to tackle the role.

I agree it sounds like a gay stereotype today, but back in the forties I don't know if it would have been taken that way. Since the radio show and later TV series affected a similar portrayal, I do suspect it was a way of conjuring up a decadent exotic character. By the same token, hard as it is to imagine today, blatantly gay actors like Paul Lynde were viewed by much of middle America with complete ignorance of their sexuality in the sixties and seventies. In a way, I suppose it is similar to how the "mama's boy" comedic role that developed out of vaudeville and is best remembered now from Joe Besser and Dom DeLuise and, some would argue, Jerry Lewis (in is his days with Dean Martin) now appears offensive (or at the very least, incredibly irritating), but was accepted as a recognizable shtick for decades. Times change and audience perceptions change with them. All of which makes the current gay panic that gripped America by the eighties all the more odd because it was something that was out there among them forever, they just didn't quite know what they were seeing I suppose or were only satisfied when it was something with a comic leer and silly walk to laugh at.

True, but you wouldn't say Nero or Moreau seem ineffective because Laughton's sexuality informs the portrayal. I believe Will's point was that Brandon seems to be turning in something closer to a limp-wristed caricature and would have been better served being himself. I agree, but I think it was how one portrayed decadent foreign villains who were not physically menacing at the time. Today it all seems a bit silly (or offensive to some), but at the time it was part of the tradition. Kids that grew up on serials and radio shows probably weren't thinking anything about Charles Middleton or Henry Brandon other than that they struck them as evil in a fun way. It does make for an interesting topic for discussion since what is now perceived as gay was once accepted as just theatrical or hammy. Of course, that's the lie of stereotypes.

I'll prefer to remember that as Ken Hanke publicly stating he would like to grope Felix Silla. Partly because I don't have a clue who Felix Knight is/was and partly because I like the thought of you having an unhealthy interest in Cousin Itt.

I tried watching BABES IN TOYLAND as a kid and found it unbearable at a time when I loved Laurel & Hardy and sought out their work. I looked Mr. Knight up on imdb earlier just to make sure he wasn't underage. Sadly, he was somewhere around 25 at the time so there went another opportunity down the drain. In any event, Felix Silla is much more entertaining so I'll choose to remember the story with him as the object of your affection. I'm thinking someone needs to add Cousin Itt or Twiki to the Elitist Bastard photoshopped images of you, preferably sitting on your lap, or perhaps standing on it.