Directed by Steve Carver, based on the Kyle Onstott novel the cinematography was by Lucien Ballard and the music was by Charlie Smalls. The film was released by United Artists and is a sequel to the film Mandingo (which I've never seen either), released in 1975. The film stars Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Pam Grier, Ken Norton, Yaphet Kotto. Drum (Norton) has been born to a white prostitute (Vega), who raises him with her black lesbian lover. Drum grows up as whorehouse servant but is forced to bare-knuckle-box another slave Blaise (Kotto) for the entertainment of a white effeminate/gay slaveholder, a Frenchman named Bernard DeMarigny (Colicos). DeMarigny wants to sleep with Drum, but his advances are rejected and during the ensuing scuffle Drum's "mammy" is shot. Drum and his friend Blaise are eventually sold to plantation owner Hammond Maxwell (Oates) and are both taken to his plantation to work. Regine (Grier) is purchased by Maxwell as well and is taken to the plantation for his own personal desires as a bed wench. He also purchases a white **** Augusta Chauvel (Lewis) to be his housekeeper,/fiancéMaxwells plantation is a stud farm he doesn't grow cotton he breeds slaves. The film is a hoot. Maxwell's got an out of control daughter Sophie (Smith) with raging hormones who like to run around the "farm" making the male slaves let her unbutton their breeches and "play" with their snakes. Sophie also tries to force Blaise to sleep with her, and after being rejected, tells her father that Blaise has raped her. Blaise is put in chains and Maxwell decides that he must be nutted for the alleged rape. Blaise is chained up in the barn and while helpless Sophie comes in lifts her hoop skirts and flashes Blaise, but Maxwell see's her do it, so he not quite as inclined to really believe Sophie.Meanwhile, a dinner party has been arranged to celebrate the engagement of Maxwell and Chauvel. Casual round the dining table dinner conversations includes the best way to castrate a slave.Drum frees his friend Blaise from his chains and it all ends up turning into a slave revolt led by Blaise, with the slaves burning down the out buildings. During the storming of the main house fighting Drum grabs hold of DeMarigny's Johnson & balls and rips them off by the roots, that method wasn't mentioned in the dinner conversation.Maxwell and Chauvel are all saved by Drum. In appreciation for saving his family and also knowing that if Drum stays the prevailing sentiment of the white slaveholders would demand that he kill him, Maxwell sets Drum free and tells him to run into the night.A much better written and choreographed ending than somewhat similar Django Unchained, it's a better film. 9/10 The whole cast is excellent, entertaining and well made, check it out currently on Youtube while you can.

I found Drum a much more entertaining movie than Mandingo. It's got tasty nudity, saucy women, and an oversexed spoilt teen girl, where yes we see her.... It is unintentionally funny, where a lot of it, we owe to robotic Ken Norton, where again, casting people, producers, have made the mistake of putting him in the lead. He's a poor performer, surrounded by good ones, no one better than Oates, where I also liked the ruthless homosexual slaver, while Grier was really good, as was Oates's wife. Yes Drum, has sleaze slipping in, as it comes across as a cheap movie, and brief telling tale of the heartlessness of the cold hearted slavers, which on the video cover, it actually says as for selling purposes, it makes no attempt to show what the slavery trade was really like. The slavers are not any less heartless, than the ones depicted in other films. Tarantino really cut the apple to the truth with Django Unchained. Later on in the film we really meet a nasty slaver. And yes, we have two bucks, Norton and Kotto fighting, who become friends until the wicked teen daughter tries to put the hots on Kotto, where soon, yes, another castration is in the waiting. I'll be honest, Drum, is not a good film, but it is bloody entertaining to hell, with a climax I must say, I appreciated, but more so at the fact, that Oates let Drum go. I must say, Oates adds amusement as much as Norton, only the latter can't act. He's better suited in a ring, than in front of camera. Don't let there be a third lead for such a limited Norton, if only to add amusement. But on the other hand....

Nobody should take this review seriously because all I know of Drum is the cast and the plot.Any movie that had Ken Norton in the lead invites this sort of criticism.Supposedly this movie is the sequel to Mandingo. Didn't Ken Norton die at the end of Mandingo? Doesn't that kind of prohibit him from being in the sequel apart from flash backs and such?Okay.Warren Oates plays the part Perry Kind had in Mandingo. At least one reviewer insists that this is okay because the story takes place 15 years later.Well, if one character returns as his unrelated but identical twin, what the heck.I understand that this movie is by turns realistic, sick, funny, has too much nudity, has not enough nudity . . . Folks, back up. This movie has Ken Norton in the lead. Does anything else need to be said? Anyone who takes it seriously deserves what they get.

This was the so-called sequel to "Mandingo" and its not really a sequel but another excuse for exploitation which can be fun to watch. Ken Norton is "Drum" and he can't act to save his life but his physique is so impressive and also the fact that he was a famous boxer that had beaten Muhammad Ali gives the viewer some curiosity to watch him. Warren Oates plays Hammond Maxwell and Perry King played him in the first film and its impossible for him to play it but thats only if you use logic. Oates does add some respectable acting to the film and he chews up the scenery with gusto. Oates says lines like, "My bucks got to have intercourse, the saps a risen'". Pam Grier is Regina and she's Oates bed wench. Grier has a topless scene but has very little else to do in this film. Her part is very underwritten. Yaphet Kotto is Blaise and he gives probably the best performance. I'm not sure if Kotto did this film for the money but if he didn't, he should have known better. He does his best to portray an angry slave who talks of freedom in his heart. "B" movie icon Rainbeaux Smith plays Oates daughter Sophie and she has the hots for the bucks and if they don't cooperate then she screams rape. Smith is enjoyably bratty in this role and its the type of role she spent most of her career playing. She always brought that something extra to a role. Film is shameless in its subject matter. It has gays, lesbianism, naked prostitutes, spankings, fights, slave upheaval, and of course all the actress's get undressed. "Drum" was produced by Dino De Laurentiis and its another cheesy production from him. What can you expect from a man who dared to remake "King Kong"? If you loved this on an exploitation level, I couldn't argue with you. Its hilariously bad.