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Reviews
Lost City of the Jungle (1946)
Screen Legend's Final Film
This is a sad film to watch as it's star, the great Lionel Atwill died halfway through filming. Due to the disjointed way serials are filmed, Atwill is seen intermittently throughout the proceedings with another character filling in for the scenes Atwill was supposed to appear in, while a body double stands in the background or is only shown from behind. The plot concerns a search for a rare element that can be used as defense against the atomic bomb. War monger Sit Eric Hazarias (Lionel Atwill) has traced the element, dubbed Meteorium 245, to the Himilian province of Pendrang, ruled over by casino owner Indra (Helen Bennett). Hazarias fakes his own death and shows up in Pendrang as philanthropist Geoffrey London along with his secretary Malborn (John Mylong), who is secretly the real war monger, Hazarias being his beard, and they start an archaeological dig for the legendary Lost City of Pendrang as a cover for their search for Meteorium. United Peace Foundation operative Rod Stanton (Russell Hayden) arrives in Pendrang soon after having trailed Hazarias there with a two fold mission, prove London is really Hazarias and find out what he is looking for in Pendrang. Made during the final year of serial production for Universal, the plot is a rehash of the previous year's Secret Agent X-9, where two groups are in an area cut off from the rest of the world, fighting over a simple maguffin while a third party plays them off each other, while waiting to grab the prize for themselves, and a mystery man hangs around in the background occasionally giving the heroes and villains information he shouldn't really have. Most of the action is lively, though it is obviously taken from bigger budgeted feature films with new footage of the serial actors inter cut with it. The acting is pretty decent, though Hayden's side kick Keye Luke continually blows him off the screen without even trying. John Mylong is also horribly miscast as the true villain of the piece, being unable to produce a single moment of true menace in the entire serial. Atwill of course shines in every moment he is on screen, even though he is noticeably ill. He has several great moments. Chapter Four has a cat and mouse confrontation between Atwill and Hayden where Atwill plays the other man expertly and smugly lets him in on secrets without revealing anything. Chapter Eight has another of those great moments where the archaeologist Atwill has been conning reveals he knows Atwill's true identity. Atwill starts out giving an impassioned speech about trying to change his evil ways but a man's reputation always follows him, when that doesn't work he immediately drops the facade and shows his true nature by having the man tortured right there in front of him with out the barest glimmer of feeling showing on his face or in his voice. It's just business as usual for Atwill and he's the biggest selling point for viewing the film.
Raiders of Ghost City (1944)
Horror Star in Western
Raiders of Ghost City is a decent western serial that has an interesting premise and the unusual casting of Lionel Atwill as the villain. The plot is set during the last days of the American Civil War where Union Army Captain Steve Clark (Dennis Moore) is dispatched under cover to Oro Grande California to stop a series of gold raids being perpetrated by Confederate Army Captain Clay Randolph (Regis Toomey), who was a West Point student with Clark. What no one knows, not even Randolph, is that the raiders actually work for saloon owner Alex Morel (Lionel Atwill), who is posing as a freelance spy for Randolph. In actuality Morel is a Prussian (ie German) secret agent who is secretly transporting the gold to his own country instead of to the Confederacy, his country wants to buy Alaska from Russia before anyone else knows it's on the market. This is a pretty complicated serial with lots of double crosses between Morel and Randolph and then Morel and his own men, who don't know he is a spy, plus a mystery informant hidden amongst the good guys who lets Morel know everything they do. There are also some great plot twists like the war ending after the half way point of the story and Randolph switching sides because even though he fought against the Union, he is still an American. The action is fast and furious with lots of shoot outs, fist fights and horse back chases. But the real draw is Atwill, who snaps out lines with cultured glee and contempt at every turn, a true high light is his scene where he uncouples a train car with the hero in it so that will slide back down a mountain and crash. He nonchalantly wipes grease off his hands while casually commenting to a fellow conspirator about the unfortunate accident that has just happened to their enemy. Nobody in film was ever cooler.
The Sign of the Wolf (1931)
Early Sound Serial
Sign of the Wolf is not the best of the independently produced serials in the early days of sound, but it is a fast paced adventure with a few tinges of intrigue to keeps things from becoming too monotonous. The plot concerns a rancher named John Farnum (Harry Todd), who while in India buys a small puppy that carries the Sign of the Wolf, which enables him to tell good people from evil ones. He also buys two chains from an unscrupulous killer that are made from a rare radioactive material, when put into a container with heated sand, the sand is transformed into priceless jewels. The chains were stolen from a sacred temple and the guardian of the chains,Prince Kuva (Edmond Cobb) is dispatched to retrieve them. Years pass and Farnum, who has been receiving menacing notes from Kuva by way of blow gun darts, has decided to sell the chains to multi-millionaire Clyde Winslow (Al Ferguson). But Winslow would prefer to steal the chains instead of the simple and more cost effective method of just purchasing them outright and hires local outlaw Butch (Jack Mower) and his gang to do the dirty work. Preventing this is Farnum's daughter Ruth (Virginia Brown Faire), her sweetheart, local rancher Tom (Rex Lease), his ranch foreman Bud (Joe Bonomo), and the now grown up wolf dog Muro (King). The serial has a lot of good western action in it with chases on horse back, shootouts, and fist fights that allow Bonomo to frequently demonstrate his fame as the Strong Man of Film by lifting full grown men over his head and tossing them around like they weighed nothing. But the plot is extremely repetitive with first one group getting the chains, the good guys retrieving them and so on and so on, intermixed with scenes of Cobb popping up every now and then to send another note. As for the dog's supernatural ability to tell friend from foe, it isn't used at all, except to explain at the end of the serial why Cobb can keep hanging around the Farnum ranch and not get mauled unlike the outlaws who can't take two steps across the property line without getting kneecapped by King.
Red Barry (1938)
An Overlooked Serial Gem
Lost in the shuffle between Flash Gordon and Busk Rogers, Buster Crabbe's only mystery serial is an unfairly neglected serial romp made during Universal's hey day. Based on William Gould's comic strip about a San Francisco police detective stationed in Chinatown, Crabbe plays the title character on the trail of stolen bonds needed for Chinese War Relief. Also after the bonds are Tong Warlord Quong Lee (Frank Lackteen), exiled Russian Countess Natacha (Edna Sedgewick)who feels they are her rightful property, and dilettante detective Valentine Vane (Hugh Huntley)who just wants to show up the cheerfully dogged police detective. The serial is an action packed, thrill ride filled with fist fights, shoot outs and car chases. The first eight chapters are the best with Crabbe constantly matching wits with Lackteen and besting Huntley at every turn, but then it takes a serious misstep in Chapter Eight when it is revealed that Lackteen is really a disguise for another character and Lackteen disappears while the rest of the serial is a repetitive back and forth between the characters as first one gets the bonds, loses them to someone else, only to recover them and lose them again in the next chapter. Still and all an enjoyable film to watch on a lazy summer day off.