Stoo said:
Lonely is right, Smiffy.
Where are all the people who like to say: "just like in the old serials"? If had a dollar for everytime someone wrote that, I'd be able to afford my own, private jet! Here at the Raven, the serials get 'name-dropped' quite frequently but are often accompanied by tell-tale signs of ignorance and ZERO familiarity.
A few examples
(members' names withheld by courtesy):
- "lighthearted slapstick humor" during action scenes is "in tune with cliffhanger serials"
- serials depicted "walls shooting arrows"
- a bare-boned fist fight is "in the great tradition of Republic serials"
- drama was a genre of "the actual 30s cliffhanger serials"
- serials had "fedora clad adventurers encountering the ark"! (The most outrageous misconception of them all.
)
Recently, one Ravenhead told another to: "Go back and research serials of the 40s and 50s." That person needs to do their own research because, compared to previous decades, there weren't very many made in the '50s...and they were terrible!
This reminds me of a quote: "The book that everyone claims to have read but none of them have actually read it."
(Was it Mark Twain referring to Leo Tolstoy's, "War and Peace", or was it someone else referring to James Joyce's, "Ulysses"? I don't remember. Anyone know this?)
With all this type of talk, why is there essentially only 4 people participating in this topic?
Some folks really should acquaint themselves with the classic serials before (wrongly) referring to them.
It's no wonder that those who like to mention the cliffhangers in casual conversation are absent from this thread.
Well, if there is anyone out there considering dipping a toe into serials I would recommend they don't start with
Darkest Africa (1936).
I struggled to the end of this, Republic's first serial, which sold itself as starring Clyde Beatty, the "World's Greatest Animal Trainer" along with Manuel King, the "World's Youngest Animal Trainer".
Beatty was a showman who had an act consisting of going into a cage with lions and tigers, and also of pitting lions against tigers. However, he wasn't much of an actor. And neither were the rest of the cast. Manuel King plays Baru, a podgy junior Tarzan, with his gorilla friend, Bonga, played yet again by Ray Corrigan.
The whole effort is pretty embarrassing, apart from the scenes with the big cats, and especially those with the lion battling the tiger (which are simultaneously fascinating and disturbing).
The miniature model of the lost city of Joba was very well done, and Republic knew it since they gave us the same shots of it over and over again. As with the repeated shots of the Bat-Men of the city flying, or rather gliding, as they were models. Even major scenes, such as Baru fighting off a pride of lions, are repeated in full, yet presented as separate events. At least with the Tarzan movies the big repeated scenes were presented a few years apart, rather than every few weeks (or sometimes even weekly) in
Darkest Africa.
One of the directors was B. Reeves Eason, who was also responsible for
The Phantom, which may explain the lack of spark, along with the fact that Republic was just setting out in the serial genre.
Yakima Canutt was allegedly the stunt co-ordinator, but apart from the animal work, which Clyde Beatty was presumably responsible for, nothing really stood out.
Elaine Shepard, seen here with Clyde Beatty, in her debut on film, provided some welcome eye-candy.
The last episode has a minor Indy-ism. Two bad guys stop to gather green diamonds from the mine at Joba as a volcano is erupting. As with Mac in KOTCS, their greed prevents them from escaping...