This legendary Republic serial is certainly vigorously staged: - chariot races, atom guns, a whizzy armored car, a night-time siege on a walled city, an exploding mountain, a disintegrator ray, flying torpedoes, crazy planes, a mad scientist, an "I'll rule the world or destroy it!" despot, weird robots, a gladiatorial combat.
Yes, this movie has everything: pulp plotting, risibly incredible situations, laughable dialogue, quasi-science, pasteboard characters, ham acting, side-splitting costumes and lots of ingeniously primitive special effects.
But it's all mighty enjoyable entertainment, both for run of the mill audiences and the ultra-sophisticated. The former will become pleasurably involved in the movie, the latter will find it a real hoot.
It's hard to believe that all this action with all these costumed extras milling around, plus all the special effects gadgetry, were realized on such a minuscule budget. The negative cost for the entire serial was only $99,222. It took less than a month (from 3 March to 28 March 1936 inclusive) to shoot.
A lot of the technical work is highly professional too (photography, film editing - despite some ill-matching ancient stock footage in the opening episode), though the music score is one of the most entertainingly pedestrian we've ever heard. It tones in delightfully with the corny efforts of the players (though it must be admitted that Crash is certainly an athletic enough hero, and Miss Wilde, if dowdily costumed, makes a pretty enough heroine).
Yes, this movie has everything: pulp plotting, risibly incredible situations, laughable dialogue, quasi-science, pasteboard characters, ham acting, side-splitting costumes and lots of ingeniously primitive special effects.
But it's all mighty enjoyable entertainment, both for run of the mill audiences and the ultra-sophisticated. The former will become pleasurably involved in the movie, the latter will find it a real hoot.
It's hard to believe that all this action with all these costumed extras milling around, plus all the special effects gadgetry, were realized on such a minuscule budget. The negative cost for the entire serial was only $99,222. It took less than a month (from 3 March to 28 March 1936 inclusive) to shoot.
A lot of the technical work is highly professional too (photography, film editing - despite some ill-matching ancient stock footage in the opening episode), though the music score is one of the most entertainingly pedestrian we've ever heard. It tones in delightfully with the corny efforts of the players (though it must be admitted that Crash is certainly an athletic enough hero, and Miss Wilde, if dowdily costumed, makes a pretty enough heroine).