Desert Legion

Desert Legion with Alan Ladd and Arlene Dahl, from Universal in 1953. Like Lost Horizons, this film has a hidden valley paradise with its leader growing old and looking for a replacement. Captain Paul Lartal (Alan Ladd) serving with the French Foreign Legion in North Africa leads his men in search of the notorious outlaw, Omar Ben Khalif. His men are ambushed in the mountains, and he’s left for dead, but awakes in a tent treated by the beautiful Morjana (Arlene Dahl). He is later found wondering in the desert by the Legion, and tells the story of the beautiful woman. He wants to return to the mountains and capture Khalif, but is refused orders to do so, and takes a corporal with him, returning to find Morjana. It is a good movie with plenty of action, but not as powerful as his portrayal in Shane, from Paramount in the same year.

Red Barry

Red Barry, a 13-chapter serial from Universal from 1938, featuring Larry “Buster” Crabb as detective Red Barry, and Francis Robinson as reporter, Mississippi (I loved her southern accent). Edna Sedgewick plays a Russian dancer, with a pretty good French accent. This serial was almost five hours long, but lots of fun. Many twist, as the good guys weren’t always good. Everyone was after two million dollars in bonds that Russia sent to Wing Fu to buy bombers for the war. Plenty of good fight scenes, as usual and Tom Steele is around for this. The best fight scene was when the Russian café erupts in a free-for-all, and everyone was fighting. While white men were playing a couple Asian bad guys, it was nice to see Philip Ahn around as a real Asian actor. Buster Crabb gets to show off his swimming abilities. The cliffhangers weren’t as good as those from Republic, but none of the studios beat Republic with cliffhangers. Still, another great serial.

Jungle Jim

JUNGLE JIM: This 12-chapter serial from Universal in 1937 starred Grant Withers as Jungle Jim, with Raymond Hatton as his sidekick, Malay Mike, and Betty Jane Rhodes as the white Lion Goddess, Joan. Jungle Jim has been asked to find the white Lion Goddess who is thought to be a the missing child from a shipwreck, and the heiress to a family fortune. However, her evil uncle wants the fortune and hires men to kill her, so he will inherit the fortune. To add to the mix, The Cobra and his sister Shanghai Lil rule the local natives, and Joan thinks they are her parents, not knowing the pair are wanted in England for murder. There were some nice animal clips from other films. Most of the action takes place around a rocky landscape with a cave, and some jungle scenery. The cliffhangers were pretty good, but Joan doesn’t work well for the girl raised by lions. Too educated in her speech. In fact, some of the natives were pretty highly educated too, I think. My real problem was watching all those Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan and Jungle Jim movies growing up. Grant Withers just didn’t match up to Weissmuller. And the only sidekick Weissmuller needed was a monkey. Overall, it just wasn’t the quality of Republic Serials, nor the Jungle Jim I grew up with.

Secret Agent X-9

Secret Agent X-9, a 13-chapter serial from Universal from 1945, starring Lloyd Bridges as an American agent and his Chinese (agent?) helper on Shadow Island, a gateway to Asia and a gathering of international spies. Japan is planning on hiring a crooked American to take over the identity of an American scientist, to learn the secret of a special fuel that will help Japan and Germany win the war. This was an above average serial, with good acting, and some nice cliffhangers. Lloyd Bridges is perfect as Secret Agent X-9, and Keye Luke as Ah Fong. Jan Wiley is okay as an Australian spy pretending to be working with Japan, though an accent would have improved her performance more. The only downside was the blatant need to repeat what everything was about in the beginning of each chapter. This would have been overlooked in the weekly installments at the theaters, but watching it in one or two setting, it became repetitive. Still, it’s a darn good serial. I haven’t watched the special features yet, but will do so this afternoon.

The Green Hornet Strikes Again

The Green Hornet Strikes Again: This 194o, 13-Chapter Play serial from Universal stars Warren Hull as Britt Reid/Green Hornet. Keye Luke as Kato, and Anne Nagel as Lenore Case. Warren Hull had the honor of playing both The Spider and Mandrake The Magician in serials, and was a lot of fun in the parts. Oddly, The Green Hornet Strikes Again follows closely on the heels of The Green Hornet, the first serial, but starring Gordon Jones as The Green Hornet, also from Universal. Great fun.