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| Wanda McKay, Joe Sawyer, and Dennis Moore |
RAIDERS OF GHOST CITY (13 chapter Universal serial/1944). Directed by Lewis D. Collins and Ray Taylor.
Near the end of the Civil War an organization of Confederate spies is actually the front for gold thieves operating out of Oro Grande, California. But even these desperadoes are being double-crossed by a couple of Prussian agents who need the gold so that they can buy Alaska! Trying to thwart their efforts is Captain Steve Clark (Dennis Moore) of the U.S. Secret Service, aided by Idaho Jones (Joe Sawyer), a Wells Fargo detective, and Cathy Haines (Wanda McKay), a Wells Fargo county agent.
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| Lionel Atwill and Virginia Christine |
Their main antagonists are Erich von Rugen (Lionel Atwill of
Captain America) and the deliciously ruthless Countess Elsa von Merck (Virginia Christine of
Three Brave Men), who doubles as a saloon singer named Trina Dessard. They report to a Count Manfried von Richten (Emmett Vogan of
Docks of New Orleans). Regis Toomey is Captain Clay Randolph, a legitimate rebel who doesn't realize what the others are up to and only wants the gold to aid the war effort.
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| Moore, Christine and Sawyer |
Westerns have never been my favorite serial genre, but I must say that
Raiders of Ghost City -- the title refers to a ghost town not far from Ora Grande --
has made a believer of me, for this is quite well-made, with an especially flavorful screenplay. In cliffhanger sequences a runaway stage coach falls into a river, and Steve is trapped in a cave with rapidly rising water. Chapter eight features a thrilling, expertly-edited chase scene with an entire gang in pursuit of Idaho. The first and tenth chapters have the best cliffhangers: an uncoupled car begins rolling backwards towards disaster during a frantic fist fight; and Idaho is nearly drawn and quartered by Modoc Indians in a very suspenseful sequence. The four main players are all excellent and the supporting players are well cast.
Verdict: Very exciting, well-made, and well-played Columbia serial. ***1/4.
2 comments:
Virginia Christine! Great actress; I remember her most as one of the servants to Spencer Tracy (and Marlene Dietrich) in Judgment at Nuremberg, but she has done so many things on TV and in film. She was working long before she became a great character actress, apparently...
-C
Oh yes, she had a very long career, and in her early years she was nothing like the matronly "Mrs. Olsen" of coffee fame.
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