RAIDERS OF GHOST CITY

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. 

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.

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. 

THE ADVENTURES OF SMILIN' JACK

Jay Novello, Tom Brown, Marjorie Lord, Rose Hobart

 THE ADVENTURES OF SMILIN' JACK (13 chapter Columbia serial/ 1943). Directed by Lewis D. Collins and Ray Taylor. 

Columbia turned the popular aviation comic strip The Adventures of Smilin' Jack into a serial in 1943. In this exciting and action-packed cliffhanger,  Jack Martin (Tom Brown) is working in China just before the U.S. entry into WW2.  Mah Ling (Cyril Delevanti of The Night of the Iguana), the governor of Handan, a province of China in the Himalayas, knows the secret route of a passage into India which would be helpful to the allies. The Japanese group, the Black Samurais, a division of Axis Espionage, is anxious to get this secret as well. The Samurais are under the uneasy control of a German agent, Fraulein Von Teufel (Rose Hobart of Conflict), who is better-known to the allies as "Trudi Miller," a war correspondent. We learn early on in the serial that Trudi is a ruthless double agent, but neither Jack, his friend, Tommy (Edgar Barrier), nor his sister, Janet (Marjorie Lord), are aware of this. It seems that in every other episode the evil Fraulein is reminding Kageyama (Turhan Bey) that she is in charge of the Samurais despite the fact that she is German. Philip Ahn is Wu Tan, the loving aide to the elderly Mah Ling; Keye Luke is Captain Wing; and Sidney Toler is cast as the Chinese general, Kai Ling. The ever-versatile Jay Novello is a cast stand-out as the Japanese saboteur Kushimi, and David Hoffman [The Creeper] also scores as the weasel-like Blenker.  With his pudgy face and kind of geeky voice, Tom Brown is hardly perfect casting as the sleek, handsome Smilin' Jack, but his performance is okay, while Lord and Barrier are adept enough in somewhat pointless secondary roles. Rose Hobart, on the other hand, while lacking the viciousness and sensuality of Carol Forman of Black Widow, is quietly effective and quite venomous as the steel-hearted Fraulein, and pretty much walks off with the serial (even if she is saddled with a highly unflattering headpiece). At one point the Fraulein suspends Jack in a net in the water below a trap door, even as the tide comes in and sharp floating spikes rise up higher and higher toward his back. Tom also plunges out of a plane to find that his parachute won't open, and is locked into a leaky box that is thrown into the river. In two of the best cliffhangers, a clipper ship holding our hero and friends crashes into the ocean, letting in gallons of rushing water; and a Japanese sub with Jack and the others aboard is rammed by a huge ship that is also controlled by Jap agents. An amusing aspect of the serial is that Mah Ling seems to take forever to make up his mind to give up the secret of the Mandan route and comes up with one obstacle after another to prevent him from divulging it. With the participation of such actors as Hobart, Luke, Toler, Bey and others, Similin' Jack has a better and better-known cast for a serial than usual. 

Verdict: Decidedly one of the better Universal serials. ***. 

HOT ROD

Jimmy Lydon, Art Baker, Myron Healey

HOT ROD (1950). Director: Lewis D. Collins.

"Parents, be grateful you're attending a hearing today instead of a funeral. -- Judge Langham.

David Langham, a kind of mopey "youngster" (Jimmy Lydon, billed as James Lydon), is in love with hot rods and wants to build a super-charged one to impress his sometime girl, Janie (Gloria Winters), Janie is more taken with obnoxious Jack (Tommy Bond), who gets David in trouble when he "borrows" his vehicle and gets into an accident. David's older brother, Joe (Myron Healey of Panther Girl of the Kongo), is a cop and their father is Judge Langham (Art Baker), who takes a dim view of hot rods and the lives cost by dangerous amateur racing. David feels that lives might be saved if the town opened a legal racing strip so the kids wouldn't have to race illegally and get into trouble. Seventy years ago hot rods and racing were a big issue, and lots of movies, mostly "B" films, dealt with it, along with juvenile delinquency. Lydon, who so winningly played Henry Aldrich in a series of comedies, gives a good performance in this, but the film is mediocre, like an expanded "Leave It To Beaver" episode with a heavy-handed (if appropriate) moral tone. Gil Stratton is weird as David's geeky pal, Swifty. Serial stars Marshall Reed and Dennis Moore both have small roles in Hot Rod, with the former playing a guy whose car is hit by David's jalopy, and the latter as a motorcycle patrolman. Those hoping to see some amazing souped up and sexy hot rods in this picture will have to look elsewhere. Lewis D. Collins co-directed many serials (generally with Ray Taylor) and also helmed The Spanish Cape Mystery.

Verdict: Despite a high speed chase at the end, this has little zzzooom. **.

THE SPANISH CAPE MYSTERY

Helen Twelvetrees and Donald Cook

THE SPANISH CAPE MYSTERY (1935). Director: Lewis D. Collins.

"They're so rich and snooty that half the time they don't even talk to each other!"

Ellery Queen (Donald Cook) and his dyspeptic buddy Judge Macklin (Burton Churchill) arrive in Spanish Cape for some fishing and are instead embroiled in a mystery concerning the household of Walter Godfrey (Frank Sheridan). Some of Godfrey's relatives are gathered on his estate for a meeting to see if they can break an old aunt's will, while Godfrey just wishes they would get the hell out of his house. One by one the heirs start getting murdered, with the suspects including Godfrey; his wife (Betty Blythe of Charlie Chan and the Chinese Cat); his daughter, Stella (Helen Twelvetrees), with whom Ellery becomes involved; Stella's handsome alleged fiance, Leslie Court (Arnold Gray); and other heirs; as well as the butler, Teller (Frank Leigh) and other domestics. Sheriff Moley (Harry Stubbs) does his best to solve the case but is no match for the insouciant wit of Ellery Queen. There are so many murders that the grumpy, intense Judge says, "It's getting so the corpses are in the majority. If this keeps up, we won't have a quorum for the inquest!" The leads and supporting players are competent enough, and Katherine Morrow has a nice bit as the grief-stricken maid, Miss Pitts. A Republic production. Lewis D. CXollins also directed several serials, such as The Mysterious Mr. M  [Universal].

Verdict: Easy enough to figure this one out, but modestly entertaining. **1/2 out of 4.

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M. 13 chapter Universal serial/1946). Directed by Lewis D. Collins and Vernon Keays. 

Anthony Waldron (Edmund MacDonald of Great Guns), who is presumed dead by the police, is holed up in his wealthy grandmother's estate with an evil brother and sister team who are helping him with his plans. Calling himself "the mysterious Mr. M," Waldron uses a drug called hypnotreme to keep the old lady (Virginia Brissac of The Scarlet Clue) compliant and get many others to do his bidding even while he piles up corpses in the river from his experiments. He is particularly interested in getting the plans for a device that will enable submarines to be as large as ocean liners and do more than forty knots an hour. But Waldron and his cronies get a surprise when somebody else calling himself "Mr. M" sends them recordings giving them orders and threatening to tell the cops Waldron is alive if they don't comply with his wishes. As the gang wonders who this new "Mr. M" could be, agent Grant Farrell (Dennis Moore) is on the case, especially after his brother, Jim (William Brooks/Ching), is hypnotized and killed; Farrell is aided by Detective-Lt. Kirby Walsh (Richard Martin) and insurance investigator Shirley Clinton (Pamela Blake of Ghost of Zorro). 

The Mysterious Mr. M is an entertaining and suspenseful serial with Moore in good form as the hero, Waldron suitably gruff, and Jane Randolph [Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein] and Danny Morton [The Royal Mounted Rides Again] effective as the nasty brother and sister team. Byron Foulger [The Master Key] scores as Grandmother Waldron's lawyer, who nearly becomes a victim of Mr. M more than once. Memorable sequences include the fight between the Farrell brothers as electricity discharges all around them; a bit with a cigarette lighter that has a dart inside it; a cliffhanger concerning falling high-tension wires; and another in which Grant's car goes hurtling down a high shaft in a parking garage. The best cliffhanger -- one of the best ever, in fact -- has Waldron and Grant struggling on one parachute after they fall out of a plane even as a train races towards them on the ground below, with Grant eventually falling off the chute right into the path of the express!The serial also keeps you guessing as to the true identity of "Mr. M."

Verdict: Universal's very last serial is one of its best. ***.

THE ROYAL MOUNTED RIDES AGAIN

Distinctive bad guys:Joe Haworth and Danny Morton

THE ROYAL MOUNTED RIDES AGAIN (13 chapter Universal serial/1945). Directors:Lewis D. Collins; Ray Taylor.

Northwestern Canada at the turn of the century. Mine owner Tom Bailey is murdered by Brad Taggart (Milburn Stone), but his employer Jackson Decker (Addison Richards) becomes the chief suspect. Bailey's daughter, June (Daun Kennedy) comes to town to investigate her father's murder, as do mounties Frenchy Moselle (George Dolenz) and Corporal Wayne Decker (Bill Kennedy) the son of Jackson Decker. Jackson wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and work for his copper mine and other businesses, but Wayne didn't like his father's unethical business practices. Now he's hoping to prove that his father was not mixed up in this murder. Other characters include Madame Misterioso, a fortune teller whose real name is Dillie Clark (Helen Bennett), who is an ally of June's; and colorful codger "Latitude" Bucket (Paul E. Burns) '' -- he's been "everywhere" -- who has a rather surprising secret. The bad buys in this movie are not the usual generic gunsels but have a bit more flavor to them, especially Bunker (Joseph Haworth) with his ingratiatingly insolent manner, and "Dancer" (Danny Morton), with his shiny hair and casual, non-subservient attitude. Milburn Stone is typical of the rather bland actor who makes more of an impression as a villain than as a hero [which he played in The Great Alaskan Mystery and other serials], although he's hardly a Charles Middleton. Robert Armstrong, who also appeared in a number of serials such as The Adventures of the Flying Cadets, plays shady Price, who owns the Yukon Gold tavern, where several scenes take place. Rondo Hatton does nothing for chapter after chapter except sit watching the proceedings and drawing his gun now and then; he has no dialogue. Royal Mounted Rides Again has a fairly good story and a few noteworthy cliffhangers, such as when a huge log is shoved down a chute toward a prone Corporal Decker; a mine car that hurtles down a deep shaft towards the same man; and a bit with a dangling suspension bridge in a rainstorm that has explosives attached to it. Paul Birch (Not of This Earth) appears very briefly as a highwayman. While this is not as slick or snappy as Republic's "Mounted" serials such as King of the Mounties, it is nevertheless entertaining. Apparently stars Bill and Daun Kennedy were neither related nor married to one another. Bill was a busy television actor while Daun had only a few credits to her name. Helen Bennett was also in Lost City of the Jungle.

Verdict: Interesting serial with several flavorful performances and good scenes. ***.

JUNGLE QUEEN

JUNGLE QUEEN (13 chapter Universal serial/1945). Directors: Lewis D. Collins; Ray Taylor.

"They're walking into their graves and don't know it."

In 1939 on the eve of WW II, the Nazis have sent agents to the "dark continent" believing it is a necessary strategy to take over Africa, and are using "Tambosa" as their base of operations. One of the German agents is Dr. Elise Bork (Tala Birell) who runs an experimental farm, and works with another Nazi named Lang (Douglass Dumbrille). On the side of the angels are Bob Eliot (Edward Norris) and his buddy Chuck (Eddie Quillan), who go on a mission to Africa and share a plane with Pamela Courtney (Lois Collier), whom they suspect of being an imposter until they all wind up lost in the jungle after the plane crashes. The Nazis are trying to force control upon the natives, but they are less successful with a weird white queen named Lothel (Ruth Roman), who shows up unannounced  to make pronouncements, give advice to the natives, and rescue the boys and Pamela; Lothel is also impervious to bullets [where the hell she came from is never explained]. Then there's the "Sword of Tangu," which has a supposed secret, and is coveted by some of the characters. This is a fairly ridiculous serial but it's often entertaining, the leads are all competent, and it has everyone from Cyril Delevanti to Cy Kendall [the untalented Charles Laughton] in the supporting cast. Pamela is nearly eaten by hungry gators and mauled by a lion, there's a volcanic eruption that sends buildings and statues toppling, and Bob is pursued by dozens of salivating crocs in a river, nearly falls into a pit of lions, and is subjected with the others to a deadly gas attack. Birell had a notable role in The Monster Maker and Collier was in Flying Disc Man from Mars and many other movies.

 Verdict: For all of its flaws, it's one of the better Universal chapterplays. ***.

DON WINSLOW OF THE COAST GUARD

DON WINSLOW OF THE COAST GUARD (/13 chapter Filmcraft serial/1943). Directors: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor.

 "The Japs would give their eyeteeth to get this information."

"You mean their buck teeth, sir." [Oy!]

In this superior sequel to Don Winslow of the Navy, Winslow (Don Terry) is assigned to the Coast Guard and continues to battle the machinations of the Scorpion (Nestor Paiva) and his female lieutenant, Tasmia (June Duprez). Elyse Knox is cast as the plucky nurse, Mercedes, and talented Philip Ahn is rather wasted in the role of bad guy Hirota. Highlights include a fire in an oil derrick, a plane that smashes into a boat, another boat that is blown to bits, and a neat bit with a car that rolls down a hill backward and winds up in the drink. The Scorpion has an interesting headquarters located in a cliff behind a waterfall. An interesting aspect of the serial is that the story is conversationally recapped/reported at the beginning of the chapter by one of the supporting characters. Terry is more than adequate as the action-hero, and Paiva, in a rare villainous role, is adequate if a little bland. Full of WW2 lingo and stock sea battle footage.

Verdict: Much better than Don Winslow of the Navy. ***.

SECRET AGENT X-9 (1945)

SECRET AGENT X-9 (1945). 13 chapter Universal serial. Directed by Ray Taylor and Lewis D. Collins.

This is the second serial adapted from the comic strip "Secret Agent X-9." The action takes place mostly on Shadow Island, “the only neutral territory in Asia,” during World War 2. The villainess is not some sexy Asian doll, but is made up to be a plain-faced, skulking, matronly type named Nabura [Victoria Horne, who is at least a good actress]; the heroine, Jan Wiley, is rather luscious, however. (Wiley was also in Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. and She-Wolf of London.) Lloyd Bridges was never much of an actor, and he makes one of the least memorable serial heroes of all time. Smirking his way through all thirteen chapters, he seems less dashing than disinterested, and is simply not cut from the heroic mold. Keye Luke, however, is notable as a suitably brave Chinese agent. A scene with a moving floor is more comical than thrilling; in fact, the serial on a whole is rather dull, slow and almost pitiful in spots, definitely not a high point in chapterplay history. Universal may have turned out some of the worst cliffhanger serials of all (although there were exceptions). This one just lacks punch, although the theme music is gripping and terrific.

Verdict: Too bad everything else is so blah. *1/2.

GREAT ALASKAN MYSTERY

GREAT ALASKAN MYSTERY (1944). 13 chapter Universal serial. Directed by Ray Taylor and Lewis D. Collins.

This serial focuses on attempts to steal and use a “Peraton” ray gun that uses a new energized mineral as a power source. At the beginning an evil captain maroons the inventor and party on an iceberg, but they manage to survive for several more chapters of highly moderate and essentially mediocre “excitement.” Yep, Great Alaskan Mystery is more evidence of why Universal was never considered one of the better studios for cliffhanger serials. Milburn Stone is too low-key and dull to make a memorable serial hero. There are a few good scenes, however: a polar bear swims after and attacks a man in the water off the iceberg; and a terrific cliffhanger when a mine car plunges into a pit with the added danger in the fact that it's carrying explosives! The theme music is excellent, and the ever-versatile Jay Novello plays an Eskimo chief. With Marjorie Weaver as Ruth Miller and the always-sinister Martin Kosleck as a nasty turncoat scientist.

Verdict: Okay if you're in the mood for nothing special. **.

ADVENTURES OF THE FLYING CADETS

ADVENTURES OF THE FLYING CADETS (1943). 13 chapter Universal serial. Directed by Ray Taylor and Lewis D. Collins.

Johnny Downs is a troubled cadet [of the L.A. Air School]. Danny Collins, who, with some buddies, is accused of being responsible for a series of murders actually committed by The Black Hangman. The victims belonged to a group of seven men who traveled to Africa to find a cave which supposedly holds valuable elements coveted by the Germans. We learn early on that the Black Hand is actually Arthur Galt (Robert Armstrong) who feigns friendship with the boys while trying to trip them up or kill them at every turn. Although there are some exciting moments in the serial – such as an aerial descent and near-crash into a flaming crater – Adventures of the Flying Cadets is rather leisurely-paced. It was also a major mishap to reveal the villain's identity so early in the serial.

Verdict: As cliffhanger serials go, this one is pretty minor. **.