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| Watching Any Good Serials? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,413 Views) | |
| riddlerider | Mar 13 2007, 07:06 AM Post #166 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I have to admit I'm not wild about so-called mystery villains about whom there's no mystery. DICK TRACY makes no effort whatsoever to build up its two "suspects," so their periodic deployment seems totally arbitrary and pointless. But serials have a long tradition of missing the boat where mystery men are concerned. Every chapter of the 1916 IRON CLAW ends with a shot of its hero about to unmask himself, followed by a dissolve to a title card that reads, "Who Is The Laughing Mask?" But the serial doesn't really develop a guessing game. Based on the episode synopses I've read, only a couple red-herring characters are presented, only to be disposed of summarily. As I recall, one "suspect" is killed off at the close of the chapter in which he's introduced. And the last-reel revelation of Creighton Hale's character as The Laughing Mask is marred by his confession that, whenever he needed to avoid suspicion, he persuaded friends of his (to whom the audience hasn't previously been introduced) to wear his mask-and-beard disguise. That's a cheat even Mascot wouldn't have attempted to try! The title character in THE LION MAN also is eventually unmasked as a character the audience has neither seen nor been told about: the second female lead's long-lost husband, who's been acting on behalf of a character believed to have been killed in Chapter One. The script for Pathe's 1928 MAN WITHOUT A FACE makes a big deal of describing its titular terror, who always appears in black hood and robes. But not only isn't there a guessing game, the villain is ultimately revealed as the only character not clearly identified as one of the heroes or the heavies -- in other words, the only principal player not already accounted for! The silent GREEN ARCHER was held in high regard partly because it developed the guessing game logically and consistently. Suspicion fell at one point or another on practically every person in the cast -- even female lead Allene Ray, who was seen clutching a bow and arrow at the end of Chapter One immediately following the Green Archer's first "kill." There were no less than four other suspects, including (for a chapter, anyway) leading man Walter Miller. What made things interesting was that, at various times, the Green Archer seemed to be working both for and against the good guys. So just when audience members figured they had guessed correctly, something would happen to throw their careful calculations into a cocked hat. (Late in the serial it was revealed that there were two Green Archers -- a gimmick also employed in the sound version, although to lesser effect.) The success of this serial proved that there was no impediment to crafting a good guessing game; it was simply a matter of careful writing. |
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| Laughing Gravy | Mar 25 2007, 10:27 AM Post #167 |
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I haven't had any chance to watch serials this week, so I got caught up this morning. My report: Don Winslow of the Navy, ch. 7: I waste 18 min. of my life every time I watch a chapter of this. It may be an okay serial (I doubt it) but the Alpha disc is so crummy, who could tell? It's like watching the reflection of a drive-in theatre screen in a mud puddle. The only highlight of this chapter was watching what appeared to be South Sea Island natives doing what passes in the movies for a Native American Navajo dance. Son of Zorro, ch. 7: Let's just call this serial "lackluster" and leave it at that. All of the villains -- even the routine henchmen -- are more interesting than the heroes. Good ol' Stanley Price is Zorro's Mexican sidekick, and he's about as Mexican as Little Orphan Annie. Peggy Stewart bumps her head in a stagecoach and is unconscious for about 10 of the serial's 14-min. running time. G-Men vs. the Black Dragon, ch. 7: And no, I have no idea how I managed to work it so that three serials are all on the same chapter number. This is a good serial (not as good as the sequel, though) and the AC Comics' print is terrific (better than that Zorro thing I just watched). The head of the Black Dragon Society is barely in this chapter, which is too bad, 'cause that little monkey has grown on me as he struggles with his faux Japanese accent. Rod Cameron and Constance Worth hatched some cockamie plan to track him to his secret lair, something to do with Ms. Worth wearing a dark wig. It didn't work. Tom Steele pops up as a henchman; I'm pretty sure he's been in all 7 chapters as 7 different guys. Superman, ch. 12: What, no chapter 7? Well, anyway, Superman is billed in the credits as being the star of the serial, leaving kids to wonder, probably, why Superman turns into a cartoon when he leaves his feet. Can't Superman fly? Apparently not. Turkeys can't fly either. An apropos analogy for this serial, by the way. Clark Kent gets beaten up in this serial, not for the first time. He recovers fast, though, although he and Lois end up on the wrong end of a crate of dynamite. I am looking forward to the end of this one, and probably won't watch the sequel until the year 2027. And hey, I still have this week's to-be-blogged episode of Hop Harrigan to go! Be still my li'l heart! |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| The Batman | Mar 25 2007, 11:35 AM Post #168 |
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Charter Member
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I have been watching, in honor of Herman Brix, The New Adventures of Tarzan. I am finding this serial to be fun, and it works as a nice sequel to Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984); which I happened to watch just prior to starting the serial. Since both are attempts to directly interpret Edgar Rice Burroughs' vision of Tarzan, and both use Tarzan's friend Philippe D'Arnot, there is a nice continuity there. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
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| George Kaplan | Mar 25 2007, 01:40 PM Post #169 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I'm on Chapter 7 or so of Atom Man vs. Superman, having slogged my way through all 15 chapters of Superman. I guess I can forgive Kirk Alyn for the mincing plié he does, arms wide, every time he prepares for takeoff, but as for the flying scenes--jeez, hadn't anybody on the production watched Captain Marvel? In Atom Man the cartoon sequences include an actual shot of Alyn "in flight"--that is, a sideways shot of him sitting on a stool with his hands held out. Nobody was trying too hard to make these scenes thrilling. One particular annoyance--for me, anyway--is the radio-style voiceover which accompanies every extreme closeup of wide-eyed Clark: "Once again, Clark Kent makes use of his X-ray vision!" This is invariably followed by a shot of a wall becoming transparent. It isn't all bad, of course. Noel Neill is nice to watch, though she has next to nothing to do. Watching these serials makes me realize how completely George Reeves rethought the Clark Kent/Superman roles. |
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| Sgt Saturn | Mar 26 2007, 09:49 AM Post #170 |
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Charter Member
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I think that New Adventures called him by his real name Paul D'Arnot. Greystoke changes his first name and nationality for no apparent reason. He's Belgian in Greystoke and French in the books and almost everywhere else. |
| The Ol' Sarge | |
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| rodney | Mar 26 2007, 10:52 AM Post #171 |
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Charter Member
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Five chapters into Jungle Girl. I like it okay, certainly more than Gravy does, but I'm not engrossed in it like I have been other Witney-English serials. |
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| Mantan | Mar 26 2007, 11:54 AM Post #172 |
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Unregistered
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This morning I finished Chapter 9 of the Buck Jones serial, ROARING WEST. What can I say? It meanders. It's like watching a badmintton tournament. Every other chapter, Walter Miller kidnaps Harlan Knight - a pal of Buck Jones and his sidekick "Jinglebob" (Frank McGlynn, Sr)- and Buck & Jinglebob keep rescuing their pal in alternating chapters. Harlan Knight spends more time in bondage than an Irving Klaw model. Too bad Muriel Evans escapes such knotty issues. Nice, sharp image quality on this dvd purchased from Richard Orsak. Original source was a little dark, with occasional jumpiness, but nothing to throw a tantrum over. Quite pleased with the overall quality. Nice thing about Richard's product is that he always puts 12 chapter serials on 2 dvds (six chapters per disc); a 15 chapter serial on 3 dvds (five chapters per disc). After watching SOS COASTGUARD, it's hard to find a follow-up. I wish the rest of Dick Tracy serials were out. Still -I wanted to watch a western serial for a change from the fedora boys and mad scientists and lost civilizations I've been enjoying over the past few weeks. Saturday's mail brought a package from Australia -Trevor's Buster Crabbe 2-fer, SEA HOUND/PIRATES OF THE HIGH SEAS. Watched the 1st chapter of SEA HOUND so far. Another nice job by Trevor with his usual gorgeous packaging. |
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| Barcroft | Mar 26 2007, 05:12 PM Post #173 |
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Charter Member
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Mantan: This has to be my least favorite Buck Jones serial. Your absolutely right it just meanders. Personally, I think his first was his best, that's 'Gordon of Ghost City'. Barcroft |
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| Mantan | Mar 26 2007, 09:14 PM Post #174 |
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Unregistered
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GORDON OF GHOST CITY is one of my favorite western serials. I neglected to mention I also purchased THE RED RIDER with Buck from Richard. Haven't looked at it yet. There are few of the truly typical wise-guy Buck Jones moments in ROARING WEST -the best so far coming in Chapter 6 (?) where Buck & Jinglebob are once again smack dab in the middle of rescuing Harlan Knight (as "Clem") from a burning cabin. The whole time, Walter Miller and Charlie King & the rest of the gang have surrounded the cabin and are ventilating the premises just in case the fire fails to incinerate Buck, Clem and Jinglebob. While Buck sweats away at tearing loose the floor-boards so they can escape, Harlan Knight is wringing his hands and fretting over getting recaptured by Walter Miller's gang and starts wailing about how "...we're gonna be burned alive and shot full of lead -we're goners for shore!..." Buck stands up, looking over his shoulder at him and says, "If you keep talking that way folks won't like you." |
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| Mantan | Apr 19 2007, 04:24 PM Post #175 |
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Unregistered
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Yesterday I finished the 1934 Univeral serial THE RED RIDER -starring Buck Jones-that I'd ranted about elsewhere regarding dope references. Yeah- I'm hip: who cares? Right. So with that aside, duly noted, here are my final thoughts on THE RED RIDER: Nice supporting cast: Grant Withers as "Silent Slade"- Buck's best pal, Edmund Cobb as a ranch-hand who joins forces with Buck & Withers to help rid the range of pot-toking Walter Miller and el gordo Richard Cramer (looking like he was raised on beer) as a Mexican bandito aligned with Miller in diamond smuggling and range racketeering. The two female leads - Marion Shilling and Margaret La Marr - failed to raise my pulse rate. Likewise, the Jim Thorpe and Monte Montague "stooopid brothers" comedy act became tiresome and never quite qualified as "comedy". The intriguing marijuana-smoking aspect of Miller's character was never developed beyond the third or fourth chapter. In the first 3 chapters, whenever Walter Miller offs another character, he tosses a roach next to the body of his victim. Due to the roach clues, Buck's able to figure out that the murderer smokes marijuana cigarettes by Chapter 4. Buck grimly proselytizes over the evils of dope each time marijuana is mentioned. But you know all this. By Chapter 5, all reefer references disappear and we're left to deal with such ticklish situations as Edmund Cobb's competition with Buck over Marion Shilling's affections, how pizzed Richard Cramer gets each time Jim Thorpe and Monte Montague screw up an assignment, and a couple of fist-fights and a chase scene or two per chapter. I enjoyed this western serial a great deal but it's not for all. In fact, if you're not a total Buck Jones fan, there are at least 3 other Buck serials you'd probably enjoy more than this one. My version of this serial came from Richard Orsak -pretty much a personal favorite source. Despite his warnings that the quality wasn't up to his usual standard, I found it to be of better image quality than advertised. |
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| KanSmiley | Apr 19 2007, 05:35 PM Post #176 |
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Charter Member
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Watched the first chapter of THE SECRET CODE TODAY. This will be my third viewing and it just keeps getting better. Will try to develop my own code based on Major Burton's lectures. Kan |
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http://www.saturday-matinee-memories.com/ intoxicated, adj.: When you feel sophisticated without being able to pronounce it. | |
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| Laughing Gravy | May 4 2007, 08:08 AM Post #177 |
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We issued a secret code when we watched Captain Midnight, and included code messages in our weekly newsletter. It was a lot of fun. After a couple of weeks away, I've restarted watching serials. Seen the penultimate chapter of Superman (I've decided that I don't like Tommy Bonds' Jim Olsen nearly as much as I'd remembered) and watched chapter four of Mystery of the Riverboat. It's not exactly going anywhere, and we keep seeing the same stock footage of a riverboat over and over. Is the boat going in circles, or is the serial? Anybody else have the new SS DVD, and an opinion? |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| Sgt Saturn | May 4 2007, 09:39 AM Post #178 |
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Charter Member
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Hey, how much stock footage do you expect them have? It wasn't like there was lots or riverboat footage out there for the taking. It's not like we are talking trains or something. Actually, MotRB is pretty good mid-list serial. It won't make any body's best list, but it doesn't chase its tail like some serials. The serial pretty much leaves the riverboat about mid-way; so, you won;t have to endure the stiock footage much longer.
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| The Ol' Sarge | |
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| Sgt King | May 4 2007, 11:45 AM Post #179 |
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Charter Member
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I saw Mystery of the River Boat several years ago and hated it. Thought it was boring, very predictible and below average. I was hoping it would hit a submerged log and sink or Captain Nemo would ram it before the 13th chapter -- but noooo. One even has to put up with singing and dancing! Not quite what I watch serials for. |
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| Sgt Saturn | May 4 2007, 12:06 PM Post #180 |
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Charter Member
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The SS DVD is much better than the old VHS copy that I had. YMMV And, at least, the singing and dancing is only in the first chapter.
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| The Ol' Sarge | |
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6:53 AM Jul 11