MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1951)

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND 15 chapter Columbia serial (1951). Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet. 

This may not be the worst cliffhanger serial ever made but it certainly comes close. Captain Cyrus Harding (Richard Crane) and comrades escape from a Southern prison during the Civil War by balloon and wind up on an isolated island inhabited by strange volcano people, a raving wild man on a rampage, Captain Nemo and -- a space babe in silver lame from the planet Mercury! This last bit has absolutely nothing to do with Jules Verne, of course. Rulu from Mercury (Karen Randle) has come to Earth (with henchmen who wear a kind of spider-mask) because they need a certain substance that can only be found on our planet. There's one decent cliffhanger involving a burning cabin; otherwise this is meandering and dull, dull, dull. Sappy music score, too. In the first episode there's an old man who is kind to the Yankee prisoners. When Harding and the others take off in the balloon, Harding encourages the old man's dog, Top, to jump into the car with them -- gee, what a way to repay the old man's kindness! 

Verdict: Don't follow Top and jump in this balloon. *.