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| Watching Any Good Serials? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,307 Views) | |
| Black Tiger | Nov 18 2009, 08:03 AM Post #1756 |
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Charter Member
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Decent, but not a whole lot more. This Sam Katzman produced Columbia serial and is also a murder mystery. Robert Kent (Republic's Phantom Rider) is the wooden hero. Tim Ryan provides overly-buffoonish Irish comic relief. The spooky old mansion is full of secret passages that the mystery character and almost everyone in the house seems to know about. The story drags when they go to Mexico for a couple of chapters, but gets back on track from there. Also Charles Middleton (Ming in the Flash Gordon serials) appears as a creepy butler.
Edited by Black Tiger, Nov 18 2009, 08:07 AM.
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| panzer the great & terrible | Nov 18 2009, 09:46 AM Post #1757 |
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Mouth Breather
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Let's put it this way: it's the only Old Dark House serial, and for that reason is worth watching. Good is not a word I would use to describe many Columbia serials, but I like 'em anyway. So is it an enjoyable serial? Yes, it is. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| Sgt Saturn | Nov 18 2009, 02:17 PM Post #1758 |
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Charter Member
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Always remember, that half of all serials are below average. |
| The Ol' Sarge | |
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| Pa Stark | Nov 19 2009, 07:13 PM Post #1759 |
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Charter Member
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Always remember, that half of all serials are below average. ________________________________________________ Sarge, remember, What do you call someone who graduates last in his class from medical school? Doctor. Panzer, don't forget THE IRON CLAW is also a old dark house serial at times. |
| Honest and Lovable Pa Stark | |
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| toddgault | Nov 20 2009, 11:47 AM Post #1760 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Shouldn't The Green Archer also be considered an old dark house serial, or an old dark castle serial? |
| Todd Gault..........Serial Buff | |
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| Black Tiger | Nov 20 2009, 02:42 PM Post #1761 |
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Charter Member
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Green Archer is a favorite here. It is definitely an old dark house (castle) serial. |
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| riddlerider | Nov 20 2009, 04:36 PM Post #1762 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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And the silent version was even more so, according on the surviving footage. The 1940 incarnation of Garr Castle is way too bright and cozy. A number of silent chapter plays were "old dark house" serials, at least partially. Much of the 1927 BLAKE OF SCOTLAND YARD, for example, unfolds in a spooky old castle honeycombed with secret passages and hidden doors. And the famous Universal mansion (most likely built for the company's million-dollar 1927 production of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, although I still haven't confirmed that to my satisfaction) doubled as an old dark house in HAUNTED ISLAND, a 1928 serial. |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Nov 20 2009, 08:34 PM Post #1763 |
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Mouth Breather
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OK, I stand corrected, and I suppose there are parts of Daredevils of the Red Circle that fit the Old Dark House designation too, and The Monster and the Ape, and I don't know what all, but they aren't really Old Dark House serials all the way through, and the sound Green Archer. is a comedy serial like Terry and the Pirates, with Mr Horne's world-famous subtlety prominent (it's a favorite in the old dark Panzer house too). Thanks for reminding me of the good ole Iron Claw, Pa, because that one really does fit. So, gentlemen, kindly allow me to correct myself: the Old Dark House elements are what makes Who's Guilty worth watching as far as I'm concerned. There's a scene where a hole the wall opens up and swallows the heroine AND HER BED that set me off into the kind of laughter only a dyed-in-the-wool Old Dark House picture can induce. I mean, heck, guys, secret panels are the very beating heart of serials, but that's not to say they aren't damn silly plot devices. What do you do after the house gets built? Kill the carpenters? riddle rider, you've seen what's left of the George Seitz Green Archer. Could you please tell us more about it? My father told me it was "The only good serial I ever saw after Pearl White quit making 'em." I've been curious about it ever since. (My Dad was a huge silent movie fan, but had little use for talkies. I'm grateful to him for giving me the bug. Hours and hours of fun, to this day. I happen to be watching Bardelys the Magnificent currently, and enjoying it a lot more than I did Pirate Radio last week. But maybe that's because feel-good movies about the redemptive power of rock and roll make me want to barf. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| toddgault | Nov 21 2009, 01:07 PM Post #1764 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Spent most of yesterday and today burning through Radio Patrol. Probably the best of the cops and robbers style of serial Universal did in the thirties. Love the Karloffian element of Frank Lackteen having a hypnotized slave he keeps in an automated sarcophagus, always introduced with a closeup of Lackteen's eyes reflecting pinpoints of light in perfect emulation of Karloff in The Mummy. |
| Todd Gault..........Serial Buff | |
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| riddlerider | Nov 21 2009, 04:41 PM Post #1765 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Coincidentally, Todd, I've been revisiting RADIO PATROL myself and am about halfway through. I'm taking a break from it to watch VCI's BUCK ROGERS, which arrived in today's mail (and which I'll discuss in a separate post). RADIO PATROL seems to be a nostalgic favorite of many sixtyish serial fans, who were too young to catch it in theaters but apparently saw it frequently on early-'50s TV. I enjoy the serial but have never thought it one of the better Universals, partially because of the screwy "Karloffian element" you enjoy. It's poorly defined and strikes me as having been shoehorned into the plot to add some exotic seasoning to what otherwise is a pretty bland serial. Even allowing for suspension of disbelief, the notion of an "Egyptian quarter" in a major metropolitan area is pretty tough to swallow. And there's no explanation provided in the early chapters for the hypnotized slave played by Leonard Lord. He's just, well, there in the sarcophagus -- a typical Occidental guy in a double-breasted suit. Who is he? Where'd he come from? And why does he only act like a zombie, walkin' all stiff and such, in Frank Lackteen's presence? The rest of the time he's just as animated (to the extent that's the right way to describe serial actors) as the other heavies. But those who saw RADIO PATROL as kids have no such reservations. A now-elderly friend of mine, whom I knew as a 16mm film collector back in the early '70s, cheerfully shelled out $400 for a print even though he hadn't seen RADIO PATROL since 1937 and remembered nothing of the plot. He was willing to pay four hundred bucks to recapture his one memory of the serial: the opening shot that dollies in on an excited kid reading a RADIO PATROL comic book, his eyes bulging with excitement. My friend, who was roughly the same age when the serial played theaters, identified with that kid. He explained to me what a huge deal it was to see your favorite comic strips come to life on the big screen. Kids back then, he claimed, weren't as critical as we are today about such things as paunchy actors, ill-fitting costumes, and deviations from the strips' storylines. When RADIO PATROL flashed across their theater screens, they might have been watching Grant Withers, but in their mind's eyes they were seeing Pat O'Hara as he appeared in the comic strip. Every now and then I have to remind myself how much a child's sense of wonder factored into his or her enjoyment of these comic-based serials. |
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| mort bakaprevski | Nov 21 2009, 05:11 PM Post #1766 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Count me as one of those who was “sold” on RADIO PATROL when I was young (although I WAS 12 & starting to grow hair where I had never had any before). And, yes, without the Egyptian quarter, Frank Lackteen, the automated mummy case & the zombie inside, this serial would have been as boring as a Republic post-war effort (although the iron-works scenes (stock, though they may have been) were exciting). And, I too, thought the cartoon story reprises at the beginning of the King Feature serials was an inspired bit of business!! |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| toddgault | Nov 23 2009, 09:41 AM Post #1767 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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RR, Lord's character is explained in the last chapter of Radio Patrol, and one bit of warning, if you didn't like his character before, you'll really hate him when you learn his "real identity". Personally it is the whole hypnotic slave aspect of the serial that makes me like it better than Secret Agent X-9 or Red Berry. I've always been drawn to the odd additions to serials, like the cowboys vs cossacks concept of The Vigilantes Are Coming or the "reanimated dead" henchmen in Gangbusters. |
| Todd Gault..........Serial Buff | |
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| JazzGuyy | Nov 23 2009, 10:23 AM Post #1768 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I've started watching "Bruce Gentry" a Katzman-era Columbia serial. This is one of those serials that we've all seen many times before: evil genius (who uses the newfangled reel-to-reel tape recorder to communicate with his minions) with a diabolical weapon (this one designed to cash in on the flying saucer mania of the late '40s) who desperately needs a rare metal or isotope or chemical or something like that to make the weapon work. There's the hero, a daring pilot (who seems t bail out of his plane at the least hint of something wrong), a teenage sidekick, a couple of pretty girls and the usual collection of none-too-bright henchmen. Nothing new at all here but I'll stick it out to see if my guess about who the Recorder is turns out to be true. Basically, this is a second-rate copy of a lot of other serials. Off course, with Katzman involved, we get cheap animation for special effects and lots of process shots. The only so-so print is from Rodney. Doubt it's Rodney's company's fault the print is so-so. I suspect there aren't any good copies of this around. Maybe Riddle Rider knows. Edited by JazzGuyy, Nov 23 2009, 10:24 AM.
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| TANSTAAFL! | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Nov 23 2009, 10:28 AM Post #1769 |
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Mouth Breather
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As far as I know, the Columbia negatives exist and belong to Sony: they're just not interested in marketing items that aren't pre-sold. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| JazzGuyy | Nov 23 2009, 11:05 AM Post #1770 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I wonder. I seem to remember reading tha Columbia didn't take very good care of some of its secondary archive material or is my memory mixing it up with another studio? |
| TANSTAAFL! | |
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