Cliffhangers - Republic Pictures & Other Saturday Matinee Serials

Stoo

Well-known member
It's common knowledge that the Indiana Jones films pay homage to Saturday matinée serials. The fact that they served as the primary inspiration is always bandied about here at The Raven yet, oddly, there is no thread dedicated specifically to them.

Most Indy fans only mention the Republic serials and I can't help wonder if the reason is because they are simply repeating what they've read/heard without actually being familiar with these classics, themselves. While the Republic output was often superior to the rest, they weren't the only company to crank them out. Universal made the most (more than double the amount of Republic)! There were also Columbia, Mascot (which was later absorbed into Republic) and various others including the famous, Pathé.

The earliest cliffhangers date back to the 1910s and their "golden age" is undoubtedly the '30s & '40s but with the advent of home television, their production trickled to a halt in the mid-1950s. Some of the titles were often edited down and repackaged as movies for TV in the late '50s and 1960s while the originals were occasionally shown in chapter format at matinée theatres until, at least, the early '70s.

As for my own, personal experience, the only serial I can recall seeing at a cinema was in 1972 before a re-release of an old, "Lassie" movie. It was an episode of "The Iron Claw" and, being very young at the time, the villain gave me nightmares! While growing up, TV programmes such as "Matinee at the Bijou" and "Magic Shadows" would often show cliffhangers and then later, in the early '90s, I started to rent & buy them on VHS. The creation of the Silver Screen Channel in the 2000s was a blessing because the ones they show are usually quite obscure.

My top favourite is 1942's, "Perils of Nyoka" (a.k.a. "Nyoka and the Tigermen") with "Zorro Rides Again" and "Zorro's Fighting Legion" trailing closely behind in 2nd & 3rd place.

So, what I would like to know is...

Who else likes old cliffhangers?
Which serials have you seen?
Which titles (or genres) are your favourites?
Which ones are you interested in seeing?
If you don't care for them, why not?
 

Montana Smith

Active member
About time, too, Stoo! (y)

My Cliffhanger watching has been of the 1930s science fiction variety: Flash Gordon and Undersea Kingdom.

I find them strangely fascinating, yet simultaneously bad. I don't know how they were received critically in their day, but now they look remarkably corny.

Something I realized with Flash Gordon was that the audience was being fed the impression that what was on screen was actually more impressive than it was in reality. An example would be referring to Flash as "the blond giant", or "the giant beastmen" who looked more like regular guys in nappies.

And I also wonder whether there was something homoerotic going on in the costuming department. Both Flash Gordon and Undersea Kingdom featured men in the skimpiest of camp outfits, which makes the stories even harder to take seriously!

Undersea Kingdom also had cardboard robots, cardboard tanks and soldiers wearing swimming caps. They get to the point where they're so bad that you feel compelled to watch to see how much worse they can get.

I guess these two serials are bad examples, being as they are from the science fiction genre.
 
Commando Cody, please!
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Also, past the prime of movie serials and into tv...love multi-episode, Classic Doctor Who cliffhangers! especially from sci-fi tv's prime and the three best Docs...
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Stoo

Well-known member
Montana Smith said:
About time, too, Stoo! (y)
Yes, a thread dedicated solely to serials has been sorely lacking and should have been started years ago. (Though it comes as no surprise since so many of the crowd here seem more interested in superhero movies.:p)
Montana Smith said:
I guess these two serials are bad examples, being as they are from the science fiction genre.
That is why the science fiction serials don't interest me very much. The low budgets are a hindrance and the costume & set designs are often painful to look at.:sick: Most serials are, indeed, BAD but it's the action & stunts that are worth watching. Pulp on celluloid!(y)

Pre-internet '90s, I stumbled across a magazine advert from someone who was selling copies of old cliffhangers so I ordered the catalogue and was thrilled to find that they had the 1951 serial, "Mysterious Island", based on the Jules Verne novel! Of course, I ordered it and enjoyed the first few chapters until it broke from the original storyline with goofily dressed enemies FROM OUTER SPACE and a big, ray gun. Quite the disappointment.:(

While I've seen various chapters of the "Flash Gordon" serials, I've never seen a complete series and don't have a strong desire to do so. When it comes to serials, my preference is the jungle/adventure/spy genre.
featofstrength said:
Commando Cody, please!
Featofstrength, have you ever seen, "King of the Rocketmen"? The "film" precursor to Commando Cody (and "The Rocketeer").
 
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Montana Smith

Active member
Sharkey said:
Make a poll. Whats worse serials or comic books.

You could ask Photobucket about that. They deleted one of the Rugged Men magazines for violating their terms. I can't remember which one it was, and whether what it depicted was worse than any other issue.

Stoo said:
That is why the science fiction serials don't interest me very much. The low budgets are a hindrance and the costume & set designs are often painful to look at. Most serials are, indeed, BAD but it's the action & stunts that are worth watching. Pulp on celluloid!

So, for action and stunts Perils of Nyoka is your top choice? And that's the serial Warren Buckland claimed "directly influenced both Raiders and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." (Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster). Did you find any more evidence to support the claim he'd seen Nyoka?

Parts of Buckland's book can be read here:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...&resnum=2&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
A poll doing double duty as a list of the most popular serials might be handy, but:
Montana Smith said:
My Cliffhanger watching has been of the 1930s science fiction variety: Flash Gordon ...
...is the only one that comes to mind.

Unless you consider The Lone Ranger and Superman TV shows, (which were undoubtible inspired) serials.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
A poll doing double duty as a list of the most popular serials might be handy, but:
...is the only one that comes to mind.

I remembered Champion the Wonder Horse this morning. Does that count?

Rocket Surgeon said:
Unless you consider The Lone Ranger and Superman TV shows, (which were undoubtible inspired) serials.

The 1940s/50s Legend of the Lone Ranger serial was on TV not so long ago. Looked very cheesey.

There's a UK Ebay seller who's listed all the following complete serials (from which you can pick any 8 for £20 delivered):

Radar men from the moon
tarzan the tiger
son of geronimo
the indians are coming
zombiesa of the stratosphere
the lone defender
zombies of the stratosphere colourised version feature
battling with buffalo bill
canadian mounties vs atomic invaders
the galloping ghost
the great adventures of captain kid
king of the wild
jungle drums of africa
the lightning warrior
the lost planet
mystery trooper
gunfighters of the northwest
the phantom of the west
man with the steel whip
sign of the wolf
riding with buffalo bill
the vanishing legion
trader tom of the china seas
the devil horse
adventures of captain africa
heroes of the west
king of the carnival
the last frontier
Panther girl of the kongo
last of the mohicans
blazing the overland trail
the lost special
perils of the wilderness
the shadow of the eagle
lightning bryce 1919
fighting with kit carson
cliffhangers celebrity interviews
gordon of ghost city
mystery squadron
a woman in grey 1920
the phantom of the air
the mystery of the double cross 1917
tarzan the fearless feature version only
califorornia in 49 the lost serial 1924 feature version
the three muskerteers
hawk of the hills the lost serial 1927 feature version only
whispering shadow
wolf dog
burn em up barns
law of the wild
mystery mountain
perils of pauline 1914
perils of pauline 1934
the pirate treasure
the red ryder
the return of chandu
tailspin tommy
the vanishing shadow
young eagles
the adventure of rex and rinty
the call of the savage
fighting marines
the lost city
the miracle rider
the new adventures of tarzan
phantom empire
queen of the jungle
the roaring west
rustlers of red dog
tailspin tommy in the greta air mystery
ace drummond
the adventures of frank merriwell
the black coin
the clutching hand
custers last stand
darkest africa
flash gordon
the phantom rider.1936
the phantom rider 1946
robinson crusoe of clipper island
shadow of china town
undersea kingdom
the vigalanties are coming
blake of scotland yard
dick tracy
jungle jim
jungle menace
the mystery pilot
the painted stallion
radio patrol
secret agent x-9 1937
sos coastguard
tim tylers luck
wild wild west days
zorro rides again
dick tracy returns
fighting devil dogs
flaming frontier
flash gordons trip to mars
the greta adventures of wild bill hickock
hawk of the wilderness
red barry
the secret of treasure island
the spiders web
buck rogers
daredevils of the red circle
dick tracy.s g-men
flying g-men
the lone ranger rides again
mandrake the magician
the oragon trail
overland with kit carson the phantom creeps
scouts to the rescue
Zorros fighting legion
adventures of red ryder
deadwood dick
drums of fu manch
flash gordon conquers the universe
the green archer
the green hornet
the green hornet strikes again
junior g-men
king of the royal mounted
mysterios dr satan
the shadow
terry and the pirates
winners of the west
adventures of captain marvel
dick tracy vs crime inc
holt of the secret service
the iron claw
jungle girl
king of the texas rangers
riders of death valley
sea raiders
sky raiders
the spider returns
white eagle
captain midnight
don winslow of the navy
gangbusters
junior g-men of the air
king of the mounties
overland mail
perils of nyoka
perils of the royal mounted
the secret code
spy smasher
the valley of vanishing men
adventures of the flying cadets
adventures of smilin jack
don winslow of the coastgard
g-men vs the black dragon
the masked marvel
the phantom
secret service in darkest africe
the black arrow
captain america
the dest hawk
the great alasken mystery
haunted harbor
mystery of the riverboat
raiders of ghost city
the tiger woman
zorro.s black whip
federal operator 99
jungle queen
jungle raiders
manhunt on mystery island
the master key
the monster and the ape
the purple monster strikes
the royal mounted ride again
secret agent x-9 1945
who.s guilty
chick carter detective
the crimsom ghost
the crimson ghost coluorised version featur lengh film
duaghter of don q
hop harrigan
king of the forest rangers
lost city of the jungle
the mysterious mr m
the scarlet horseman
son of the gaurdsman
the black widow
brick bradford
jack armstrong
jesse james rides again
the sea hound
son of zorro
the vigalante
adventures of frank and jesse james
congo bill
dangers of the canadian mounted
g-men never forget
tex granger
adventures of sir galahad
bruce gentry daredveil of the sky.s
feral agent vs underworld
ghost of zorro
king of the rockemen
cody of the pony express
desperados of the west
the invisible monster
the james brothers of the missouri
pirates of the high seas
radar patrol vs spy king
captain video
don daredevil rides again
flying disc men from mars
goverment agents vs phantom legion
mysterious island
roar of the iron horse
Blackhawk
king of the congo 1929

---------------------------

If I was to choose 8, my current shortlist, based on Stewie's posts, would be this:

Queen of the Jungle
Jungle Girl
Perils of Nyoka
The Tiger Woman
Zorro's Fighting Legion
Zorro's Black Whip
Ghost of Zorro
Zorro Rides Again
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Montana Smith said:
So, for action and stunts Perils of Nyoka is your top choice? And that's the serial Warren Buckland claimed "directly influenced both Raiders and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." (Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster). Did you find any more evidence to support the claim he'd seen Nyoka?

Parts of Buckland's book can be read here:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...&resnum=2&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
The reason "Perils of Nyoka" is my top choice is because of its Indy-esque quality; searching for the lost tablets of Hippocrates in northern Africa. While the Zorro serials are probably tops for stunts, Nyoka does have plenty of action and some Indy-ish situations & traps.

I remember you posted about the Buckland book in the "Secret of the Incas" thread. Other than speculation, no, I haven't found any evidence to support the Nyoka influence claim. Starblazer magazine says its influence is "most likely" and, according to Cinefantastique magazine, both Lucas and Spielberg reportedly researched the book, "Valley of the Cliffhangers" by John Mathias which is dedicated to Republic serials. When Nyoka was re-released (as "Nyoka and the Tigermen") in 1952, George was an 8 year old and Steven was 6 so it's possible that they saw at least a part of it in theatres one Saturday afternoon.
Rocket Surgeon re: "Flash Gordon" said:
...is the only one that comes to mind.

Unless you consider The Lone Ranger and Superman TV shows, (which were undoubtible inspired) serials.
Funny that you mention the Lone Ranger TV show because Clayton Moore starred in a few serials, one of them being, "Perils of Nyoka". He was also in "Jungle Drums of Africa" which used an exact, same trap as "Perils". It's even the same set.
Montana Smith said:
If I was to choose 8, my current shortlist, based on Stewie's posts, would be this:

Queen of the Jungle
Jungle Girl
Perils of Nyoka
The Tiger Woman
Zorro's Fighting Legion
Zorro's Black Whip
Ghost of Zorro
Zorro Rides Again
Great choices, Smiffy (though I haven't seen "Zorro's Black Whip" nor "Ghost of Zorro"...yet)!;) "Jungle Girl" is AWESOME, very Indy-ish and highly recommended. It's actually the 1st Nyoka serial and a scene from "Temple of Doom" is exactly the same! "Tiger Woman" also has similar elements to "Doom".

If you do eventually place an order, it would be wise to drop "Queen of the Jungle" and get "Spy Smasher" instead, since it's often considered one of the best serials ever made and Spielberg has, more than once, mentioned it as an influence on "Raiders".
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Stoo said:
The reason "Perils of Nyoka" is my top choice is because of its Indy-esque quality; searching for the lost tablets of Hippocrates in northern Africa. While the Zorro serials are probably tops for stunts, Nyoka does have plenty of action and some Indy-ish situations & traps.

I remember you posted about the Buckland book in the "Secret of the Incas" thread. Other than speculation, no, I haven't found any evidence to support the Nyoka influence claim. Starblazer magazine says its influence is "most likely" and, according to Cinefantastique magazine, both Lucas and Spielberg reportedly researched the book, "Valley of the Cliffhangers" by John Mathias which is dedicated to Republic serials. When Nyoka was re-released (as "Nyoka and the Tigermen") in 1952, George was an 8 year old and Steven was 6 so it's possible that they saw at least a part of it in theatres one Saturday afternoon.

Great choices, Smiffy (though I haven't seen "Zorro's Black Whip" nor "Ghost of Zorro"...yet)!;) "Jungle Girl" is AWESOME, very Indy-ish and highly recommended. It's actually the 1st Nyoka serial and a scene from "Temple of Doom" is exactly the same! "Tiger Woman" also has similar elements to "Doom".

If you do eventually place an order, it would be wise to drop "Queen of the Jungle" and get "Spy Smasher" instead, since it's often considered one of the best serials ever made and Spielberg has, more than once, mentioned it as an influence on "Raiders".

I want to try out some of these pulps, to get that feeling of picking out the various bits that might have gone into the creation of Indy.

My list has been duly amended. Was Spy Smasher the serial that originally had the flying wing and zeppellin? And if Zorro's Black Whip and Ghost of Zorro are shots in the dark, are there two other firm recommendations to replace them with?
 

Montana Smith

Active member
This essay looks like a useful introduction to the subject:


http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue04/infocus/introduction.htm

The Serials: An Introduction

by Gary Johnson


In its purest form, the serial belongs to another era, to a time when kids flocked to neighborhood theaters (instead of shopping malls) to plunk down two bits as admission to the Saturday matinee. There they'd get popcorn and candy bars and become part of the Matinee Mavericks (or the Saturday Rustlers or the Popcorn Circus). And when the theater finally darkened and the show began, they'd see a half-dozen cartoons, a two-reeler, a B western, and previews of coming attractions. And then, as they jumped up and down in excitement, the serial would begin. As the characters appeared on the screen, the audience would cheer the hero and heroine and hiss the villain and his henchmen.

These were the days when masked villains such as the Scorpion, the Spider, the Dragon, and the Lightning strove for world domination with a vast array of diabolical devices (such as the radiatomic transmitter, the decimator, and the cyclotrode). Meanwhile, courageous heroes valiantly struggled for justice, loyalty, and the American way, deactivating infernal contraptions with nary a second to spare. Terrifying falls were broken by overhanging branches. Secret passageways were discovered in centuries-old jungle temples. These ingredients were all packaged together in 12 to 15 chapters (15 to 25 minutes each) with each chapter typically ending in a cliffhanger, a moment of prolonged suspense when the hero or heroine was placed in life-threatening danger only to have the words "To be continued . . ." appear on the screen.

At their best, these cliffhangers were of such destructive power that the audience was left stunned. How could the hero survive? To find out what happened, we only had to return next week to the same theater. And that was the main purpose of the serial--to keep the theater seats filled with paying customers.

To accomplish this aim, serials frequently stretched the truth (much like movie posters frequently promise much more than their movies deliver) and sometimes they plain lied, pushing the heroes into situations where nothing less than divine intervention could save them. Serials frequently banked on their audiences having less than perfect memories. (Remember, these weren't the days of VCRs with their handy rewind buttons.) If a hero were knocked unconscious and carried over a cliff in a runaway stagecoach, next week we would discover that he suddenly awoke just in time to dive to safety. If a hero was trapped in a cave filling with molten rock, the cave would suddenly develop a secret exit.

But the promise supplied by the cliffhanger endings was enough to keep us coming back for more, to see how Flash Gordon could escape the terrible death ray or to see how Spy Smasher could avoid being burnt to death in a fiery explosion or to see how Zorro could avoid being blown to bits in a warehouse. Even while we knew we were being manipulated, the serials always pointed toward a magical, inexplicable brand of resolution and we desperately wanted to see that resolution worked out before our own eyes.

The Beginnings

The history of serials starts in 1912 when McClure's Ladies World magazine devised a new strategy for building circulation: Each issue of the publication would feature a story about a continuing main character and a motion picture would show her exploits. The Edison Company produced the motion picture, entitled What Happened to Mary, and the results were startlingly successful. Soon afterwards other serials began to appear. (A separate serial tradition also developed in France and Germany, with Louis Feuillade giving us several magnificent chapter plays, including Judex, Fantomas, and Les Vampires. But for the purpose of this study we'll be looking solely at American serials.)

These early serials lacked true cliffhanger endings, as each episode told a resolved story while pointing toward further developments. By 1915, however, Pearl White, Ruth Roland, and Helen Holmes were on the scene, hanging from rooftops, diving onto moving trains, and leaping from speeding automobiles. In the most famous silent serial, The Perils of Pauline, Pearl White is pursed by villains who hope to stop her from gaining an inheritance. Their adventures take them all over the world. In The Exploits of Elaine, she faced the Clutching Hand, a madman bent on conquering the world.

Silent serials were initially dominated by heroines, but by the '20s, male stars such as Joe Bonomo, Francis Ford, William Desmond, and Walter Miller took the spotlight. Even Harry Houdini, Red Grange, and Jack Dempsey starred in serials, but by the end of the '20s the serial was virtually dead?a victim of oversaturation and the increasing sophistication of its audience. When the serials originated, they attracted a largely adult audience, but as the feature film slowly evolved, the serial failed to mature.

With the adult audience largely gone?and with the coming of sound to film?serial makers floundered. The serial seemed headed for extinction. Several independent companies produced serials in the early '30s but most productions were static and failed to grab a large audience.

Westerns reigned as the most popular genre of serials during this period. Westerns weren't affected by the transition to sound. In fact the sound of horse hooves, rifle fire, and Indian war cries only improved westerns. Buck Jones was one of the best western heroes. He starred in several serials, such as The Red Rider (1934), Roaring West (1935), and The Phantom Rider (1936). Jones gave his characters a quiet strength similar to William S. Hart. Other western serial heroes included Johnny Mack Brown, Tim McCoy, Harry Carey, Tom Mix, and Ken Maynard. After Johnny Mack Brown starred in a big budget feature, Billy the Kid (1930), that failed dramatically at the box office, he turned to serials. Some of his best efforts included Fighting With Kit Carson (1933), Rustlers of Red Dog (1935), Flaming Frontiers (1938), and The Oregon Trail (1939).

Likewise, John Wayne's first feature film, The Big Trail (1930), bombed at the box office, leaving Wayne to continue his career in B westerns and serials. None of Wayne's serials placed him in the West, but they weren't short on adventure. The Hurricane Express (1932) found him battling an arsonist bent on destroying a railroad company. Shadow of the Eagle (1932) placed him in a carnival. And The Three Musketeers (1933) found him in the Foreign Legion.

During this time period, aviation serials and jungle serials were also popular. Among the leading aviation serials, The Phantom of the Air (Universal, 1932) starred Tom Tyler and Mystery Squadron (1933) starred Bob Steele. In 1934, Universal delivered Tailspin Tommy, the first serial based on a comic strip. Soon afterwards, Universal delivered Ace Drummond (1936), based on a Sunday comic feature with stories attributed to Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, a famous WWI fighter pilot who shot down 26 German planes.

Tarzan appeared in two serials in the early '30s. The first, Tarzan the Fearless (1933), was Buster Crabbe's first serial. And in 1934, Edgar Rice Burroughs decided to bring his own version of Tarzan to the movie screen. Disappointed with Hollywood's version of Lord Greystoke in the barely articulate persona of Johnny Weissmuller, Burroughs formed his own movie company and sent it to the jungles of Guatemala to film The New Adventures of Tarzan, with Olympic medalist Herman Brix starring. Filmed under some of the worst conditions imaginable with several members of the film crew succumbing to malaria and other diseases, the serial contains a rousing opening chapter and then promptly peters out, with scratchy audio, murky images, and hopelessly repetitive chases through the underbrush and long-lost Mayan cities. Other jungle serials soon followed with wild animal trainer Clyde Beatty in The Lost Jungle (1934) and Darkest Africa (1936) and Frank "Bring 'Em Back Alive" Buck in The Jungle Menace (1937).

Rounding out this early period, Mascot provided one of the most influential serials, The Phantom Empire (1936). This serial contained a little bit of everything on the Mascot lot--singing cowboys with a radio show, a kid's club of junior cowboys (who wore buckets on their heads and capes on their backs), and a scientifically-advanced civilization over 20,000 feet below ground. And it starred Gene Autry in his first movie role. Released over a year before Flash Gordon, The Phantom Empire paved the way for the deluge of science-fiction serials that were soon to follow. Republic cranked out two variations on the same story, giving us The Phantom Empire in a jungle--Darkest Africa--and The Phantom Empire undersea--Undersea Kingdom. All these serials gave us technologically advanced civilizations that still used swords and dressed like outcasts from Ancient Rome. But the stage was set for the next development--a development that would forever change the history of serials.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Continued...

Flash Gordon Arrives

In 1935 the merger of several small studios, including Mascot Pictures, resulted in Republic Pictures. And with the merger the stage was set for a new era of serials, for Republic would soon become the generally-acknowledged king of the serials.

However, it wasn't Republic that initially reawakened the public's interest. It was Universal. Universal had acquired the rights to Alex Raymond's science fiction comic strip Flash Gordon, and in 1936 they brought it to the screen, starring Buster Crabbe as Flash, Jean Rogers as Dale Arden (Flash's girlfriend, the sexiest heroine in serial history), and Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless, the despotic ruler of the planet Mongo. Both Flash Gordon and its sequels, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, are filled with spark-spewing spaceships, swirling aerial dogfights, horrible fire-breathing monsters, and futuristic laboratories.

Universal spent approximately $350,000 on Flash Gordon, whereas The Phantom Empire cost about $100,000. Few other serials cost more than $150,000. In addition, Universal raided the laboratories of Dr. Frankenstein for an impressive array of electrical equipment. They lifted a giant idol from The Mummy and they borrowed Franz Waxman's music from The Bride of Frankenstein.

Universal was also working with a comic strip at the height of its popularity. Appearing in most Sunday comic pages across the country, Flash Gordon captured the imaginations of the American public. Artist Alex Raymond (who also drew Jungle Jim, Secret Agent X-9, and Rip Kirby) provided fantastic drawings that evoked an action-filled world of strange beasts, winged men, lustful passions, and futuristic cities. The serial actually followed the comic strip fairly closely, certainly more closely than any other serial followed its source.

Much of the success for Flash Gordon must be credited to Buster Crabbe and Jean Rogers. Crabbe treated the material seriously and delivered even the silliest lines of dialogue with a rare gusto. (He must say "Steady, Dale!" at least a dozen times.) Whereas many other actors might have treated the material as beneath them and tried to distance themselves from the characters they played, Buster Crabbe threw himself into the role with never an indication that the material might be nonsense. Jean Rogers, as Flash's girlfriend Dale Arden, became one of the most endearing heroines in the history of serials, even if she had an annoying habit of passing out from fright. She certainly looked absolutely fabulous in a tight two-piece outfit that exposed her bare midriff and emphasized her breasts. Rogers was a fragile creature who the villains delighted in terrorizing. In one scene, King Vultan (before he becomes Flash's ally) threatens her with a bear. She screams and presses back against a wall, her stomach sucked in so that her ribs stick out and her breasts practically pop through her brassiere. She breathes deeper and deeper, practically hyperventilating as King Vultan closes in on her, his eyes crazed.

We also get plenty of scenes where Flash is imperiled. In one scene, Ming the Merciless has him thrown into a pit to fight four fanged monkey men. They promptly rip off his shirt, exposing his well-oiled biceps. Scenes such as these reveal that Universal was hoping to attract more than simply popcorn-chomping children to the theaters. And on those terms, the studio was wildly successful.
Instead of playing matinees, Flash Gordon was booked into some of the finest theaters, and audiences of all ages flocked to the engagements. With the success of Flash Gordon, the studios quickly learned that comics were fertile material for the serials, for the readers were anxious to see their heroes on the screen. Soon the serials gave us The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Spy Smasher, Dick Tracy, The Phantom, Buck Rogers, Batman, Ace Drummond, and many others. Radio dramas also provided promising material, and soon The Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger, and The Shadow hit the screen in serial form.

With interest at its highest level since the days of Pearl White, serials entered their golden age--especially after upstart Republic Studios, the home of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, began serial production and introduced improved production methods, effective special effects, talented composers, and the best directing team, William Witney and John English, in the history of the serial.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Continued...

The Golden Age of the Serial

The ten-year period, beginning with Flash Gordon and ending with the conclusion of WWII, was the golden age of the serial. Republic Pictures in particular produced a high-quality product, with excellent special effects by Howard and Theodore Lydecker (including devastating avalanches, earth-shaking explosions, and cataclysmic lightning showers), stirring original scores by William Lava and Mort Glickman, and awe-inspiring stuntwork by Yakima Canutt, David Sharpe, and Tom Steele.

But most notable of all were the directing talents of William Witney and John English. Together they directed 17 consecutive serials, honing an approach that allowed Republic serials to far outdistance the competition. They adopted a no-nonsense approach that treated the serial material with respect and rarely gave any clues that we shouldn't consider the stories seriously. Other directors would allow an element of goofiness to gradually seep into the serial. For example, few people would point to a Witney/English serial as an example of camp, unlike the Flash Gordon serials.

In addition, Witney and English were skilled filmmakers and could use the camera effectively. (In most serials the camera placement was strictly utilitarian, seldom adding to the action.) When their budgets allowed them freedom, they were capable of delivering some impressive images. Zorro's Fighting Legion, for example, contains a startling sequence where Zorro (Reed Hadley) escapes a burning building by smashing through a window and right at the camera. The glass shatters in all directions as he crashes to earth unscathed and right in front of the viewers.

Witney and English first teamed on Zorro Rides Again (1937) with John Carroll in the title role and continued with The Lone Ranger (1938), possibly the most eagerly anticipated serial since Flash Gordon. Unlike so many serials that left us to guess at the identity of the villain behind the mask, The Lone Ranger left us to guess about the identify of the hero himself. The serial gave us five heroes of similar stature who all vied for the honor, leaving the audience to argue about the hero's identity. The wait took nearly 4 months, for only in the 15th chapter did the hero take off his mask.

Among the many serials handled by Witney and English, none is so surprising as Fighting Devil Dogs. With the second smallest budget in the history of Republic serials (a little over $100,000) and extensive use of stock footage from Dick Tracy and other serials, Fighting Devil Dogs emerged as one of the best serials ever made. With Lee Powell and Herman Brix as the heroes, Witney and English gave us a fast-paced story that moved from Southeast Asia to a South Pacific island to Southern California. We get military scenes with marines in the jungle, scenes in a submarine, scenes aboard a "flying wing," and scenes in the laboratory--in short, Fighting Devil Dogs gives us such a wide variety of scenes that the chapters never bog down under the weight of repetition (a frequent problem in serials). And to top it off, they gave us one of the great serial villains, the Lightning, a black-caped fiend with shiny black gloves and a sleek black helmet who used his electrical torpedoes to electrocute entire buildings. His torpedoes soared through the air, leaving a trail of sparks before detonating in a storm of lightning bolts.

Witney and English covered a wide variety of serials in their tenure, including westerns (The Adventures of Red Ryder), a tale of the Canadian mounties (King of the Royal Mounted), super hero adventures (The Adventures of Captain Marvel), jungle adventures (Jungle Girl), detective thrillers (with three Dick Tracy serials), and crime serials with sci-fi overtones (Mysterious Dr. Satan). And even after their partnership dissolved they continued making fine serials separately, with Witney directing two of the all-time best serials, Spy Smasher and The Perils of Nyoka.

Meanwhile Universal cranked out two sequels to Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (with Jean Rogers now a brunette, much to the disappointment of her admirers) and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (with Rogers replaced by Carol Hughes). In addition, Universal finally brought Buck Rogers to the big screen, with Buster Crabbe in the title role. Universal also gave us The Green Hornet, although most fans groaned when a standard late model sedan appeared instead of the radio show's souped up "Black Beauty."

Columbia faced a similar problem when they made Batman in 1943. Instead of creating the Batmobile, the filmmakers gave us a very ordinary looking sedan (and the Bat Plane, long a part of the comic book, was nowhere in sight). Most serial fans, deride Columbia serials, but before Sam Katzman took over serial production in the '40s, Columbia actually turned out a few decent efforts, such as The Spider's Web (1938), The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickock (1938), and The Shadow (1940). But Columbia never seemed comfortable with the serial format, frequently destroying the effect of cliffhangers by including several shots from the next week's episode--which clearly show the hero surviving. Without the illusion that the hero or heroine could be destroyed by the danger presented in the cliffhangers, their serials lacked a crucial part of the serial equation. How can we seriously consider the plight of the hero if we are given clear evidence that he'll be okay? This dunderheaded approach by Columbia betrayed their failure to understand the serial form.

While throughout much of the history of the sound serial the heroine was relegated to supporting roles, in the early '40s, Republic reprised the serial heroine, as Frances Gifford starred in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Jungle Girl (1941) and Kay Aldridge starred in The Perils of Nyoka (1942). These serials gave us women who could keep pace with the men and throw some wicked punches of their own. They would occasionally have to be rescued by their male co-stars (Tom Neal in Jungle Girl and Clayton Moore in Perils of Nyoka), but in most cases they were perfectly capable of defending themselves. Jungle Girl, for example, could swing on vines and make high dives into jungle pools. Gifford had the beauty and charm to win over even the boys who swore that all girls had cooties. Unfortunately, however, she was on loan to Republic for Jungle Girl, and she wasn't available the next year when Republic planned Perils of Nyoka. Kay Aldridge made a capable heroine, but she was no Frances Gifford. Aldridge would subsequently appear in two more serials: Daredevils of the West (1943) with Allan Lane and Haunted Harbor (1944)with Kane Richmond. However, Linda Sterling would become the queen of the serial, starring in six serials during her reign, including The Tiger Woman (1944) and Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945). She looked and acted like the model she was, as she brought a refined elegance to her roles even when the roles asked for more earthy qualities. Her Tiger Woman, for example, was raised in the jungle since she was a child, but she has the manners of Emily Post.

At this point in the mid-'40s, an element of camp invaded the serials with the scenarios becoming increasingly silly and lazy with each week. Serials such as The Purple Monster Strikes even recycled the exact same camera shots for key scenes week after week. With such little respect for the audience, the serial started a slow decline, accompanied by scores of stock footage and legions of dull heroes.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Continued...

The Decline of the Serial

The major serial producers--Republic, Columbia, and Universal--had no pretensions that they were creating art. They produced a product, with a definite audience in mind. And the perception of that audience was set in stone by the mid '30s--8 to 14 years old and largely male. As such the studios provided what they thought the audience wanted—namely fist fights, car chases, and gun battles—and eliminated anything that wouldn't contribute to the action—such as love interest or dramatic entanglements. (Flash Gordon, however, is a welcome exception. It overflows with sexual innuendo: Flash loves Dale, and Dale loves Flash, but Ming the Merciless lusts for Dale, and Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, lusts for Flash. Not to mention Prince Barin, who secretly loves Aura. Whew!)

By the late '40s, the serial had begun to repeat itself, using the same stock situations in serial after serial. Heroes would regularly get the drop on the villain's henchmen only for a brawl to suddenly break out at the slightest provocation (a flicker of the lights, for example). Serials directed by Spencer Gordon Bennett and Fred C. Brannon frequently degenerate into slugfests (as in Secret Service in Darkest Africa, which features an average of three fist fights per episode!). Heroes were frequently knocked out and placed in dire peril—a car speeding toward a cliff, a burning warehouse, a conveyor belt headed toward a buzz saw—and every time the solution to the cliffhanger would have the hero simply wake up and roll out of the way. Imagination rarely crept into cliffhanger resolutions as the '50s approached.

Part of the problem may also have been the nature of chapter endings. As serial makers strove to place heroes and heroines in mortal danger at the end of each episode, the serials emphasized the work of stunt men and de-emphasized stories and characters. The work of great stunt men such as Yakima Canutt, David Sharpe, and others shouldn't be underestimated; however, with the emphasis on death-defying stunts, serials became increasingly mechanical, predictable, and uninventive. Maybe if the serial had evolved along different lines--giving us chapter endings that pointed toward new story developments, instead of emphasizing the stunts--the serial could have survived. But instead, the serial was treated as simply an assembly line product with pieces that could be mixed and matched.

Also contributing to the problem, an anti-trust court ruling in the late '40s forced the studios to divest themselves of their theaters. Studios then considered the serials to be a luxury (along with shorts and B movies). All the attention went to feature films. As moviemaking costs soared, serial budgets were slashed, necessitating extensive use of stock footage. Heroes and heroines wore costumes that matched those used in earlier serials, allowing the same action scenes and cliffhangers to be recycled. For example, action scenes from Jungle Girl and The Phantom were reused over ten years later in Panther Girl of the Congo and The Adventures of Captain Africa, respectively. Heroes also suffered as casting choices were made to match stuntmen on the studio payroll, leading to a legion of hopelessly dull heroes.

With the growth of television, the serial was living on borrowed time. TV shows such as Sky King, Hopalong Cassidy, The Gene Autry Show, and The Lone Ranger soon appeared. Serial star Ralph Byrd even reprised his portrayal of Dick Tracy for television. Why go to a theater when you can see similar stuff for free at home? Complicating matters further, psychologists and parents began to worry (some would say they became hysterical) about the violence in serials and comics. They pressured studios and publishers to reduce the mayhem.

Universal saw the end was near and canceled serial production in 1947. Republic and Columbia struggled into the '50s, producing fewer and fewer serials each year. For awhile it looked like a rejuvenation of interest in science-fiction might save the serial. King of the Rocketmen (1949) gave us a jet-suited do gooder who soared the air to restore justice. His suit displayed three knobs. One said "on" and "off." Another said "up" and "down." And the last said "fast" and "slow." Republic reused the flying footage twice, in Radar Men from the Moon (1952) and Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952). However, notwithstanding the flying sequences, these serials are a remarkably mundane and ordinary lot, with dull, interchangeable heroes. Comic book artist Dave Stevens rekindled some interest in the rocketmen serials with his reprisal of the rocketmen storyline in The Rocketeer, a popular comic book of the '80s, but his enticing Bettie Page look-alike sketches of the story's heroine were responsible for much of the hubbub. For the same reason, the rocketmen serials continue to appear on television, while some of the best Witney/English serials haven't played television in decades.

With an audience that grew increasing disinterested in serial exploits, Republic finally curtailed serial production in 1955 with King of the Carnival, which reused extensive footage from Daredevils of the Red Circle. Columbia would limp along with three final Spencer Gordon Bennett serials before giving up in 1956 with Blazing the Overland Trail.

While the serial is now long gone, part of its heritage lives on in the television series. Instead of forcing us to spend an entire week waiting to find out how the hero will escape the villain's latest terror, we now must wait only until the commercial break is over. Some shows, such as The Time Tunnel and Lost in Space, actually used cliffhanger endings—but only as small overlaps into the next week's episode. Soap operas come the closest to using real cliffhangers. For example, the evening soap opera Dallas left millions of viewers to argue throughout the summer about who shot J.R.

Thanks to video we can now see the cliffhangers again, but we can never really experience them—to spend a week of agony waiting to find out how the hero escaped the peril, to run past movie posters and lobby cards, to settle down in the fifth row, popcorn clutched in one hand and a soda in the other (with candy bars stuffed in coat pockets), and to then see the screen burst to life—those days are long gone.

However, the legacy of the serial lives on in feature films, such as Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Raiders even manages to begin with a sequence that remarkably resembles a slide over from a previous cliffhanger: Indiana Jones flees through a cave tunnel as a giant boulder rolls after him. Later, his fight aboard a truck recalls the work of the great stuntman Yakima Canutt. (Compare this scene with the stagecoach scene in chapter eight of Zorro's Fighting Legion). And Darth Vader of Star Wars is a direct throwback to the masked villains of the serial's golden era. (Compare him with the Lightning in Fighting Devil Dogs.)

The serial is now dead. Its history is in some ways a disappointing one, for the serial failed to progress past its own narrow limitations. Even the best serials—such as Flash Gordon, Spy Smasher, Zorro's Fighting Legion, Dick Tracy, Daredevils of the Red Circle, The Lone Ranger, Mysterious Dr. Satan, The Adventures of Captain Marvel, and The Perils of Nyoka—are frequently beset by wooden performances, confusing plots, and all too familiar cliffhangers. But when the serials worked, the results provided a rare brand of movie magic, the kind of wizardry that inspired many young moviegoers, including George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, to become movie directors. The serial will continue to live in their movies, finding a whole new generation of fans for decades to come.

The Perils of Nyoka:

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Spy Smasher:

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The Fighting Devil Dogs:

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The Mysterious Dr. Satan:

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Montana Smith

Active member
Okay, here's a new shortlist of six (for £15 delivered):

Jungle Girl
Perils of Nyoka
Spy Smasher
The Tiger Woman
Zorro's Fighting Legion
Zorro Rides Again


And some reviews by 'Dr. Hermes':



ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (1937)

The opening titles say, "For a century, friendly hands have been clasped across the border in token of enduring peace..." Are you guys sure about that? Wasn't it in 1848 that the US took a huge chunk of Mexico by war to form Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, etc? Well, I guess "For eighty-eight years..." doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

ZORRO RIDES AGAIN is set in that weird twilight zone West often seen in B movies of the time. Outlaws and gunslingers ride horses everywhere, wear vests and Stetsons and carry Colts at their hips as if it's still 1891, but they also deal with planes, radios and modern locomotives. For all I know, the Southwest in 1937 was exactly such an odd mixture of old and new, but it seems doubtful.

The evil mastermind this time is a crooked financier named Marsden (Noah Beery, loving every minute of being evil), and his goal is to gain control of the California-Yucatan Railroad. This would mean the loss of many badly needed jobs for Mexicans, and he's opposed by the railroad owners Joyce and Philip Andrews. Naturally, Marsden doesn't care to get his own hands dirty, so he works through a gang of outlaws led by a beefy thug called El Lobo (the Wolf vs the Fox, kinda cute). This is our old friend Richard Alexander, who we last saw as Prince Barin giving Flash Gordon a hand.

El Lobo's gang is looting and pillaging, blowing things up and shooting people down, sabotaging the railroad every way they can. They're genuinely mean, too. El Lobo personally kills an old man and a kid in cold blood. Manuel Vega (hey! it's Shazam himself, Nigel de Brulier with that wonderful stage voice) in desperation sends for his nephew, the majority stockholder in the railroad. Luckily for everyone, this is dashing young James Vega - the great-grandson of Don Diego de Vega, the ORIGINAL Zorro himself.

The new Zorro makes the most dramatic entrance anyone could want, appearing in a window with pistol drawn and whip in hand just as El Lobo's men are about to snuff the good guys. When James Vega turns up the next day, we soon find he has set himself up in his ancestor's old cavern hideout, which is entered by going down a passage behind a life-size painting of the first Zorro. With loyal Renaldo (Duncan Renaldo, later to be the Cisco Kid himself) as his partner and sidekick, James Vega gets into that dramatic black outfit and starts his long campaign to save the railroad and smash Marsden.

James Vega is a bit more wily than your typical serial hero (well, El Zorro does mean "the Fox" after all). He visits Marsden and agrees to sign over his share of the railroad but the cunning caballero has used disappearing ink! This leaves him with a blank piece of paper bearing the company letterhead and Marsden's authentic signature, which he then uses to order needed supplies for the railroad and charge them to his enemy. Neat maneuver there, kid. While in Marsden's office, Vega also gets a glimpse of the radio set-up the villain uses to communicate with the henchman, and our hero's next step is to purchase his own short-wave so he can listen in on the crook's conversations.

As the title character, John Carroll does a really decent job. When he's Zorro, he puts on a heavy Spanish accent (kind of an obvious trick, but it would lead a lot of people astray). While appearing as James Vega, Carroll lays on the traditional languid, useless playboy characterization that the original Zorro used to mislead everyone. I'm not sure why Vega decides to put on this act, since he doesn't have any family in the area to protect (the Andrews brother and sister pair are already under attack), but maybe he just enjoys it for its own mischievous sake. It always seemed to me that pretending to be cowardly or lazy (and getting everyone to look down on you with contempt) would be a fairly unpleasant experience. But maybe the thrills when he puts on the black mask compensate for it.

And don't get me started about the dismal songs Vega drones as he tortures his guitar. I suppose a brief musical interlude serves the same purpose as comic relief - it gives the story a quick resting place before starting up again - but I would just as soon skip it. When Vega first appears, he rides off into the night belting out a dirge about Zorro living again, riding along, singing a song with a grip on his whip.... bleh.

As Zorro, Vega carries two revolvers. Can anyone explain why it's a good idea to wear your guns with the butts facing out so that you have to twist your wrist to draw? Isn't that awkward? Maybe the holster style was designed so you would reach across your body with your right hand and draw the left-side gun but that seems like an extra inconvenience, too. And although our boy gets plenty of use of his whip, to me Zorro is missing some mystique without his sword. The 1824 hero had single-shot pistols, so there was a logical reason for plenty of swordplay and swashbuckling (see Reed Hadley in 1939's ZORRO's FIGHTING LEGION for a hero who was armed for any situation with guns, whip and sword). But by 1937, none of the Fox's opponent's would be packing foils, so it would appear a bit unsporting for or hero to just run his enemies through when a fistfight was called for (it would be kind of funny in a sick way, though).

Because the serial was set in contemporary times, we get a surprising sequence where Zorro and Renaldo hit the big city. They start skulking around an office building after hours (trying to retrieve valuable papers from Marsden), running on rooftops and being chased by henchmen in suits. Zorro looks very cool and at home in a modern urban setting, much like his spiritual descendants, the Green Hornet or the Spider. I'm glad this part was included, it's a nice change of pace for our hero.

The serial writers showed a bit more ingenuity in resolving their chapter endings. By the postwar years, we would be getting a monotonous series of cars going off cliffs and shacks blowing up, but this early in the game, Republic was still fresh and creative. My favorite cliffhanger ending has Zorro trapped with his foot wedged between the tightly closed railroad tracks as a big old locomotive rushes right at him. Well, it's not a five chapter serial, so you know the hero escapes but the way he manages it got a grin from me.

The action sequences are also way above average, with a lot of Zorro jumping from his horse onto a train or truck, or tackling a n outlaw when they're both on galloping horses. And, of course, there's a good deal of Zorro getting out of sticky spots by snagging his whip around something and swinging out of the way at the last possible second. (Yakima Canutt was actually in the black mask and suit for this rough stuff.)

Dir: William Witney and John English

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ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION (1939)

One of the best serials I've seen in a long time. Zorro is one of those essential heroes who turn up every few years in one incarnation or another, and this Republic chapterplay gives us a classic interpretation of the masked champion.

It's 1824, and the new Republic of Mexico is threatened by a fink calling himself Don del Doro. Wearing awesome gold armor (which looks suspiciously like papier-mache painted gold, much lighter and more comfortable), this fiend is posing as a native god, arming the Yaqui Indians with rifles for an uprising, plotting to be Emperor and in general being a pain in the trasero.

So, down from the little town of Los Angeles, here rides Don Diego de Vega (Reed Hadley). He brings with him not only the snappy black outfit, hat and mask of El Zorro but also a brace of pistols, a sword AND a whip (this guy doesn't fool around!) No cape, though. He soon has a vigilante posse under his command; although his 'fighting legion' wear masks and short little capes, none of them is allowed a get-up as quite as cool as the black and silver outfit Zorro sports.

The serial has a lot of great action (with stunts by none other than Yakima Canutt himself) and imaginative stunts (some of which Steven Spielberg swiped for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK,most notably the 'being dragged under a moving vehicle and climbing back up on it' gag). The solutions to the episode endings are also more creative than they later became; I especially admire the way Zorro deals with the deathtrap cell where the walls close in. On the other hand, the sword fights are nothing special, just a lot of clashing blades back and forth. In a Zorro adventure, we should reasonably expect one epic duel toward the finale but the limited shooting schedule of a serial probably prohibited the sort of spectacular fencing we saw between Basil Rathbone and Tyrone Power in THE MARK OF ZORRO.

Reed Hadley is fine in the title role. At first, he seems a bit slender for an action hero, but he was agile and quick enough to be believable; and he was obviously having fun camping it up as the delicate Don Diego. He also has a great speaking voice, something that seems to be lacking in films today - where are there distinctive resonant voices like Basil Rathbone, John Carradine or Boris Karloff (well, James Earl Jones is an exception).

Dir: William Whitney and John English, who had two years earlier given us the fine ZORRO RIDES AGAIN.
 
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Montana Smith

Active member
More from 'Dr. Hermes':

SPY SMASHER (1942)

Yes! This is one of the best action serials ever made, with no missteps or sagging in the middle chapters. The storyline is coherent and driving, the characters are reasonably believable and the action is terrific. Most notably, though, is that the lighting and sets are very professional-looking, unlike a lot of serials. If you started watching a chapter cold, you would think this was a pretty good 'B' picture and a lot better than some of the Charlie Chan or Falcon movies of that time. SPY SMASHER would be a good choice to screen for a fan of adventure movies who hasn't seen any serials.

The music is an enormous plus. Like the Lone Ranger and Green Hornet, Spy Smasher benefits from the powerful, recognizable use of classical music played full out. Beethoven's Fifth was used during World War II as part of an interlocking set of victory symbols. The four opening notes (dot dot dot daaah) resembled the Morse code for 'V' (dot dot dot dash), which stood for Victory. In 1942, any of these symbols drew a strong response from audiences. Spy Smasher has the V and the Morse for 'v' unobtrusively on his belt, but the most impressive use is in the credits as two spotlights swing back and forth to form a huge V and the music plays...there must have been a lot of cheering eleven-year-olds when this first came on the screen.

Spy Smasher is, well, a spy smasher-- daring young Virginia playboy Alan Armstrong, who has been fighting with the French underground as a costumed hero. The serial version wears the same costume as the character who appeared in his own comic and in WHIZ COMICS (Republic was pretty good at getting the outfits correct, with the dismal exception of Captain America) and it's not gaudy enough to be implausible. The cape, thin and short as it is, does get in the way constantly, and if highly skilled stunt men like Dave Sharpe found it inconvenient, then you know it's awkward. How Batman deals with that floor length blanket he wears is harder to buy than most suspension of disbelief will cover.

Starring as both Alan and his twin brother Jack (Jack? Jack Armstrong?! Are the writers trying to pull our legs a bit here?) is Kane Richmond, who is very good in the dual role. Watching it again, it's satisfying to see how he portrays the two brothers as not quite identical...Alan is more stern and dominating than the more diffident Jack. Richmond seems to be treating Jack almost as Alan's secret identity, but it's more subtle than that. To be honest, a lot of serial players were able to read their lines and avoid staring at the camera at best, and Richmond is so natural and likeable that it's refreshing. Marguerite Chapman is also unusually good; she has a lot more intelligence and character in her face than some of the leading ladies. And as much as I enjoyed Tristram Coffin (great name!) as the hero of KING OF THE ROCKETMEN, he's best suited to play the main henchman, as he does here.

This serial also has one of the most impressive chapter endings on film. We're used to seeing cars blow up or whiz over cliffs, or the hero seemingly crushed under a falling boulder or drowned in a sealed room. But this time we clearly see Spy Smasher gunned down at point blank range, reel back off the roof of a building and hit the street. Let's see how he gets out of THAT one! (Spoiler answer below*)

SPY SMASHER also had the weird looking "Bat Plane" (nothing Bruce Wayne ever owned), and like the Flying Wing and spark-spitting rocketships of these serials, it's a delight to watch. The models which the Lydeckers constructed must have been almost as big as the real articles would have been and the results are startlingly convincing.

As for the fight scenes, as you watch them, it sinks in that these are real flesh and blood men doing these stunts. No wires matted out by computers, no CGI figures, just actual stunt men. Watching these serials again, I'm amazed at how long the takes are in the fights. Jet Li or Jackie Chan seem more impressive, but their fights are tightly edited short little clips where each blow is filmed seperately and edited together. Dave Sharpe, Tom Steele, Dale Van Sickel-- these guys do whole fights with the accuracy of a Gene Kelly choreography (and that's enough mixed references for one review).
________
*It was his brother Jack in the costume who in fact did get killed, not Alan.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
And more...

PERILS OF NYOKA

From 1942, this is still another great Republic classic. (I suppose I could have started these reviews with tired, lifeless serials like PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO, but why not have fun first?) It has a terrific cast with a half dozen of my all-time favorite actors, a credible storyline, some really impressive sets and imaginative 'Perils', and finally, an epic-sounding main theme by Mort Glickman. This would go in the top dozen serials on my list.

PERILS OF NYOKA deals with the struggle for possession of another hot potato that everyone covets-- in this case, the Golden Tablets of Hippocrates, on which the ancient physician recorded his great medical secrets (including a cure for cancer). Not only are gold tablets valuable for their knowledge and the metal itself, they were hidden with a treasure. So it's not surprising to find the sinister Vultura and her gang of renegade Arbabs trying to seize the darn things. Vultura is played by the exotic Lorna Gray, who is a bit ripe looking for my taste but her sneering performance and long long legs have must have gotten many young boys in the audience a bit hot and bothered. (There's something about a Bad Girl...)

Vultura's main henchman is Cassib, played by the same Charles Middleton who made life interesting for Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy. Middleton has that sour, unhappy expression that makes his villainy as believable as the sort of old man who chases kids off his lawn. As if that's not enough, there's also the treacherous Torrini who poses as an ally of Nyoka. Tristram Coffin as Torrini gives an okay performance, just showing enough shiftiness to make his loyalty obviously doubtful to the kids in the audience. As good as Coffin was as a villain, I always wished he had done more heroic roles like his Jeff King in KING OF THE ROCKETMEN.

And as if THAT wasn't enough trouble for Nyoka to deal with, Vultura has a pet ape named Satan, who had never heard Diane Fossey's findings that gorillas are peaceful, gentle vegetarians. Satan was played by Emil Van Horn in a rather weak portrayal that doesn't seem to give much effort into moving like a real gorilla. And although you have to give 1940s film makers some slack with their robot and apes costumes, the way Satan's chest skin looks like shiny black rubber detracts from its credibility. This is where you have to crank your
suspension of disbelief up a few notches.

Whew! What a crew. Luckily, not only can Nyoka handle herself perfectly well, she has a partner in Dr Larry Grayson who is (for a physician) an astonishingly tough two-fisted sword-fighting gunslinger. My doctor's not like that. Clayton Moore is always convincing as hero or thug, and he seems agile and energetic enough to have been a stunt man himself. (At first, it seems a bit odd to hear that wonderful, familiar Lone Ranger voice coming from this character.) Moore goes through the serial in the classic Doc Savage outfit of riding boots, jodphurs and heavy white shirt, although this does not end up torn into tatters with the right cuff still attached.

Finally, Nyoka herself is completely likeable as a cliffhanger heroine. ("That Nyoka gal's got plenty of moxie.." one character explains.) Daughter of the missing Professor Gordon, she is well educated (one of the few who can translate the Tablets) but also completely at home in the saddle or jumping on a gorilla's back with a knife in her hand. I love Kay Aldridge's performance as Nyoka. She's serious when in danger, taking the 'perils' straight-faced but at the same time, she's obviously having a lot of fun when things are going well. It's very believable, not a grim warrior-woman sort of portrayal. Aldridge herself is appealing and gorgeous in her 1940s pin-up girl way-- her clunky culottes are not flattering at all (although admittedly practical for the situation) and she seems to be notably gifted under that big-game hunter blouse. Nyoka also seems to have two different accents going on, for some reason.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Finally, since 'Dr. Hermes' doesn't have a review of The Tiger Woman:

JUNGLE GIRL (1941)

Seriously, I am so hypnotized by Frances Gifford in her snug little leopardskin-trimmed outfit and mini-skirt that I frequently miss what's going on in some chapters and have to go watch it again. This is by no means a hardship, but it certainly takes forever to watch a fifteen chapter serial this way.

Aside from the lovely Miss Gifford as Nyoka, JUNGLE GIRL is a delight. It doesn't really have a complicated plot or surprising twists, just the usual game of two sides playing hot potato in reverse over some valuable object... in this case, a bundle of diamonds. Since it's set in the jungle, there aren't any of the cars going off cliffs that Republic relied so heavily on, and no lengthy horseback chases, either. Instead we get some chapter endings with a bit more novelty. In fact, most of the chapters seem to have a secondary cliffhanger within them, resolved before the real predicament turns up. Nyoka certainly seems to find herself tied up and wriggling a lot more than the usual serial character, or maybe it's just more enjoyable to watch and more so noticeable. She gets soaking wet at least five or six times too, which is also fine with me.

Ahem. [Shakes head.] About the serial. JUNGLE GIRL has the same title as an Edgar Rice Burroughs book but nothing else in common. The Burroughs name on the credits of a jungle adventure film carried a certain amount of weight in those days even if his stories had nothing to do with the finished product... just as you might notice the Roger Corman flick THE HAUNTED CASTLE proclaimed it was based on something or other by Poe, when it actually was an H.P. Lovecraft story. Such is marketing.

Nyoka Meredith (Gifford) is a healthy young gal living deep in Africa somewhere with her saintly physician father. (True, most of the natives don't look particularly African to me, but maybe they were refugees from one of the many lost cities full of various ethnic groups which Tarzan had disrupted.) Unknown to Nyoka, her dad had fled into the dark continent because he was ashamed of the vicious crime sprees of his twin brother Bradley. Dr John Meredith is doing good work, healing and teaching hygiene and so forth, so naturally he has made a bitter enemy in the envious witch doctor Shamba (Frank Lackteen), who is aching to do away with both of them. Shamba had a nice racket going with his voodoo until this newfangled white MD muscled in.
The doc has also been entrusted with a little silver sceptre which gives him authority over the Lion Men cult who hang out in the Caves of Nacros. These warriors gather around an impressive leonine idol (with flames in its gaping jaws) and guard their treasure of diamonds, waiting for their chance to use those wicked barbed spears.

For some reason, perhaps because she has a lot of free time what with no job and no boyfriends, Nyoka has become an astonishing acrobat. Every chance she gets, the Jungle Girl is hurling herself high above the ground from vine to vine, often doing a charming but unnecessary full somersault between vines. At one point, she even swings UP from the ground on a vine, a neat trick that physics teachers might have trouble explaining.

These vine-swinging scenes are absolutely terrific. I thought they were much more impressive, shown in closer detail than the ones in Weismuller's Tarzan movies. Doing the stunts were Helen Thurston (who also stood in for Kay Aldridge in PERILS OF NYOKA) and Dave Sharpe in drag (thanks, Dave, for putting up with some inevitable teasing to give us your share of those scenes). Nyoka can also summon and ride an elephant on occasion, and she does kill a crocodile underwater with a knife. You have to wonder just how eventful her life was before these outsiders turned up if croc stabbing doesn't seem to faze her.

Soon enough, big trouble arrives in in the Masamba territory. Looking for the diamonds is gangster Slick Latimer (played by Gerald Mohr, who has a wonderfully evil smirk) and his thugs.

Teaming up with Latimer is the crooked twin of Nyoka's father (wouldn't you know it? You can't get away from your undesirable relatives) and soon Latimer has murdered the Doctor Bwana and the evil twin is promptly impersonating him. (Guess that stuff about a psychic link between identical twins doesn't always work, Meredith seems unmoved by having his twin killed right at his feet.) Add this bunch of desperadoes to the scheming witch doctor and the usual assortment of aggressive gorillas and crocodiles and quicksand traps, and Nyoka certainly doesn't seem to have a bright future.

To balance things out, Latimer has brought along two pilots and guides who turn out to be decent guys who side with Nyoka. Jack Stanton is a really buff dude with genuine muscles, and his partner Curly (Eddie Acuff) is a goofball but still loyal and helpful in a fight. Now, even though Jack is the nominal hero and helps Nyoka at the risk of his own life (without even hinting maybe there's a way she could reward him, wink nudge), Tom Neal has a certain shady aura about him. I seriously kept expecting him to sell out to Latimer at some point or turn on everyone and run off with the diamonds himself. Sorry if I misjudged you, Tom.

Although Jack Stanton does carry more than his share of the fistfights and gun battles and death-trap escapes, Nyoka is by no means a helpless little debutante always waiting to be rescued. She saves the heroes by quick thinking as often as they save her by gunfire. In fact, she rescues Jack from drowning the moment she first meets him, diving off a cliff and pulling him out of the lake where he was going under with a bolo around his neck. Our girl gets captured a lot but she also pitches in and whales on the bad guys throughout.

She does seem to have a glass jaw, though. Nyoka can swing fifty feet on a vine and kick over two beefy thugs, but she's invariably dazed for a second whenever she suffers any sort of impact. The girl gets knocked out more in this serial than a pro boxer in an entire career, but she invariably shakes her head and gets back up in a few seconds. By the final chapter, I expected her to be saying, "Don't any of you hear that ringing noise?" (She can be rough, too. When a gangster is crawling for a dropped revolver, she stomps down on his hand with enthusiasm rather than just kicking the gun away. She's running out of patience by this time.)

Aside from her ability to cause testosterone surges in male viewers, Frances Gifford clearly has more than the rudimentary acting skills needed for an action serial. She in fact did go on to appear in some big mainstream films before the car accident that sadly sent her life to the dark side. Wishing an actress had not gone on to big-budget Paramount and MGM movies (like THE GLASS KEY and OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES -bleh) is kind of like wishing a pulp writer had stuck with WEIRD TALES when they wanted to move up to COLLIERS and THE SATURDAY EVENING POST - neither artist would appreciate the thought - but I really would have liked to see Frances Gifford do one or two more serials for Republic in her short career. Imagine her in ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP....

JUNGLE GIRL keeps moving briskly, with plenty of the leaping and tumbling stylized brawls Republic is famous for; they may not be realistic, but they provide great visuals. I am amazed at the way the stuntmen just dive across a room and out a window or up over a table with a skill that makes it all seem effortless. Today, it would be done with wirework and computer effects and not be half as convincing.

There are two cast members I didn't care for. Tommy Cook in an Afro wig as Kimbu gets on my nerves and frankly, I don't like Emil Van Horn's gorilla portrayals, neither the suit nor his half-hearted eforts at ape body language. (Give me Steve Calvert or Ray "Crash" Corrigan every time!) My biggest misgiving is that I would prefer Nyoka had been given the decisive role in the final confrontation where the villain gets his reward. It was her father who was killed after all, and it would have been more fitting if she had been the one to go running after that airplane just as it took off. So the finale is not as satisfying as I would have liked, but aside from those minor quibbles, JUNGLE GIRL is a real treat. My list of top ten favorite serials now stands at around eighteen.

About those less than authentic-looking "African natives".... Beats me. Maybe the studio had enough white extras on the payroll that giving them golli*** wigs and a little body make-up was cheaper than hiring new guys? The effect is bizarre, sometimes I feel like I'm watching a story taking place in the South Pacific or somewhere. My own explanation is that these serials took place near the various lost cities which Tarzan kept finding. They were populated by descendants of Crusaders, Phoenecians, Romans, Israelites and who-knows-who-else. Maybe the areas around Cathne and Nimmr and Opar had a lot of intermarriages and general mingling.

Dir: William Witney and John English

http://community-2.webtv.net/CaptainHermes/CLIFFHANGERS/index.html


I think these five (six with The Tiger Woman) are going to be the best choice to get a feel of what was behind the idea of Indiana Jones.
 

AndyLGR

Active member
Great thread.

I used to love watching the zorro, flash gordon, buck rogers and king of the rocketmen serials. They seemed to be staples of my tv viewing when I was younger, I guess they were in the lates 70's / early 80's when I was watchigng these on BBC2. Throw in Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan and these were all my b&w favourites.

It all seems very hazy now trying to remember them, but you also jogged my memory that Undersea Kingdom was another I watched.

In fact I've been looking at IMDB at some of the serials mentioned and I've ordered a few sets from that guy on ebay, Iron Claw, Secrets of Treasure Island, Perils of Nyoko, King of the Rocketmen, Spy Smasher and Haunted Harbor.

You should be commission for his ebay sales Montana as some of my choices have been inspried by you.
 
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Montana Smith

Active member
AndyLGR said:
In fact I've been looking at IMDB at some of the serials mentioned and I've ordered a few sets from that guy on ebay, Iron Claw, Secrets of Treasure Island, Perils of Nyoko, King of the Rocketmen, Spy Smasher and Haunted Harbor.

You should be commission for his ebay sales Montana as some of my choices have been inspried by you.

I can't vouch for that seller, but his feedback does look excellent. I think I'll go ahead and order my six.

This thread could become the pulp cliffhanger version of a book club - watch them and share your views!

:hat:
 
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