Lost Planet

The Lost Planet, a 15-chapter serial from Columbia in 1953, starring Judd Holdren and Vivian Mason. Flying saucers are reported over the city, then one supposedly crashed in the mountains nearby. Reporter Rex Barrow (Holdren) and his photographer, Ted Thorpe (Tim Johnson) locate the crash site, but meet a girl there, too. She claims to be Ella Dorn (Mason) the daughter of professor Dorn (Forest Taylor) who has been missing. The three are captured and sent to the planet Ergro as workers in mining a special mineral. The first half of the serial is jumping back and forth between Earth and Ergro in a space rocket or jet plane. With the serial going nowhere, at midway gangsters are brought to spice up the plot. Unfortunately, this is 1953, and serials are about finished. I was told that Lost Planet was supposed to be a sequel to Captain Video, but I don’t know that for a fact. In any case, as serials go, this one didn’t. This may have been Columbia’s final serial, if not it should have been. Not one of the best.

The Spider's Web

The Spider’s Web, a 15-chapter serial from Columbia in 1938. Based on the popular pulp magazine of The Spider from Popular Publications, it starred Warred Hull as Richard Wentworth/Blinky McQuade/The Spider, and Iris Meredith as Nita Van Sloan. Richard Fiske played Jackson, Kenneth Duncan played Ram Singh, and Donald Douglas played Jenkins. The Octopus, dressed in a white robe and hood so that even his gang didn’t recognize him, was after the power structure of the city; the utilities, construction, and transportation. To reach his goals he killed and tortured. Warren Hull was excellent as the warring Spider against the underworld, though I thought Kenneth Duncan was a poor choice for Ram Singh – or maybe it was just the writing that left him weak in the part. Still, an excellent old serial.

King of The Congo

King of The Congo, a 15-Chapter Serial from Columbia in 1952: With Buster Crabb as Thunda/Roger Drum, and Gloria Dea as Pha, the Queen of the Rock People. Roger Drum is sent to Africa as a spy where enemies of America are trying to bully the local natives and locate an important radioactive ore. When Drum’s plane crashes, Pha and her warriors rescue Drum and take him to their caves. The enemy is searching for him too, as he is supposed to be carrying an important message to them. While in the cave the enemy attacks, and Drum lifts a heavy club to strike the warning gong for Pha’s warriors. By lifting the great club the Rock People believe he is Thunda, the only one capable of the feat, thus they make him king of their tribe. I believe this was the seventh and last serial Buster Crabb made, and possibly the weakest. He appeared still in good shape and all, but the acting and directing was just weak. The growling Cave Men tribe and Rock People have numerous battles, and there was a lot of fake growling. Thunda’s fight with the gorilla is the best scene in the film, I think. This was the only serial that Gloria Dea was in, and she just wasn’t very good in the part. Jungle Drums of Africa, the 12-Chapter Serial from Republic, would follow in 1953 with a similar plot (minus the muscular jungle man), but with better acting and directing. Even with the awful giant claw monsters, it is a better serial than King of The Congo. But then anything with Clayton Moore and Phyllis Coates is going to be good. Still, it was fun finally getting the chance to see this serial thanks to my friend Ralph Grasso. And it did provide a serial weekend for me. So that can’t be all bad.

Superman Serial 1948

SUPERMAN, 1948 serial from Columbia, a 15-chapter cliffhanger starring Kirk Alyn as The Man of Steel and Noel Neill (who only recently passed away) as Louis Lane, with Carol Forman as the notorious Spider Lady. Not the best serial by any means, but the one that made an unforgettable impact on an 8-year-old boy in 1948. I had only discovered Superman and Batman comic books the year before when my family moved us to Wichita Falls, and for me, the day Superman began at the Tower Theater on Indiana Street was the beginning of my love for serials. It has remained one of my favorites since childhood. I was planning on waiting until 2018, the 70^th anniversary of its premiere, to watch it again, but this past week’s medical emergency taught me that we are not promised two more years, or indeed, even one more year, so I watched it again this past weekend. I still plan on watching it one more time in summer of 2018, if I’m still around.

Congo Bill

Congo Bill: This 1948, 15-Chapter serial from Columbia was a fairly nice entry from 1948. It starred Don McGuire as Congo Bill. There are a lot of similarities between Congo Bill and Jungle Jim, both in character, and plot to this serial. Bill is tasked to deliver a letter to the heiress of a circus in Africa, and there are rumors of a white jungle queen named Lureen, played by 24-year-old bombshell Cleo Moore, who turns out to be the missing heiress. Bernie McGraw, played by I. Stanford Jolley, wants the inheritance and tries to intercept Congo Bill. Congo Bill was patterned after Jungle Jim, of course, but I thought Don McGuire was better in the part than the actor in the Jungle Jim serial. Also in the Jungle Jim serial a 16 or 17-year-old actress played the jungle queen, but looked too young for the part. Cleo Moore, the actress who played Lureen in Congo Bill, however, did look the part, though maybe too mature for a 20-year-old jungle queen. My DVD was a bad quality, and hard to see and hear. It was probably recorded from a poor VHS version. Overall, I did think it was a better serial than Jungle Jim, and regret it’s poor quality. I would love to see a good film of this one.

Mandrake The Magician

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN: I watched this over the weekend. Released from Columbia in 1939, it is a 12-chapter serial starring Warren Hull as Mandrake. Although Columbia had some fairly good serials, I didn’t care much for Mandrake. Lots of lesser cliffhangers in every chapter, but none of them very good, even the chapter ending. Some cliffhangers were actually repeated, like the airplane crash. But serials are a lot of fun, and Warren Hull also played The Spider and Green Hornet in serials, so he was chosen well as Mandrake. And you’ve got to like the magic acts Mandrake performs.