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Watching Any Good Serials?
Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,295 Views)
The Batman
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CliffClaven
Apr 29 2010, 12:20 AM
Just started Red Ryder; unfortunately may take a while to get back to it.

Don't delay too long, Cliff! TAoRR is an exciting, fast-paced and fun serial, IMHO.


Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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AndyFish
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I got through two chapters of OVERLAND MAIL, or OVERLAND TRAIL or OREGON PAIL-- before I dozed off, fell over, hit my head and forgot I'd started watching this. I'm just not cut out for westerns that don't have Zorro or The Lone Ranger in 'em.
Going to try doing a Chapter a day through the spring summer of a couple of serials I haven't seen in a long time, or not at all (Like Zombies of the Stratosphere).
www.andytfish.com
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Pa Stark
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For some reason OVERLAND MAIL really works for me. Maybe it is because Lon Chaney, Don Terry, and Noah Beery,Jr. work so well together. Wait until you see Harry Cording death scene in chapter 14, it is a beaut.

I just started Universal's last serial, MYSTERIOUS MR. M. Chapter one mostly established the characters and motives, but chapter two had a fight that was almost as good as one from Republic. I seem to remember Dave Sharpe doing some of the stunts.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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cinemalover
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I watched the first chapter of Captain Midnight last night. Nothing particularly remarkable about it, but it was very interesting to see Dave O'Brien in a lead role. I associate him so strongly with all the Pete Smith shorts that he feels out of place anywhere else.
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JazzGuyy
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I finished "Who's Guilty?" a couple of days ago and found it pretty good for a Katzman-era Columbia. For once, there was no silly pseudo-science, no characters wandering around for no particular reason, no cheap animated special effects and no Gene Roth! What it had was a decent, if predictable, murder mystery story and fairly good stunt work. Nothing great but not bad for a post-war Columbia.
TANSTAAFL!
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The Batman
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Currently watching GORDON OF GHOST CITY, which was offered gratis by Trev of DVD DownUnder, as a free sample of his product.

Solid serial so far and the print and sound quality of Trev's DVD is excellent for this early sound serial. I will admit that I was a little worried about having a serial all on one disc, but Trev's GoGC presentation is excellent. 4 Batarangs out of 5.

I am to mention if others would like to take Trev up on his GoGC offer, they just need to send him a PM to start the process.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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LaneCarson
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Thanx for the kind review Chuck
Gordon of Ghost City is indeed available to members of this Message Board for free
The offer includes full case and original artwork and is delivered to your door by Express Airmail - at no cost or obligation whatsoever - and there is no time limit on the offer
One should feel no need to purchase further from my website nor obliged to comment favourably on the product
This is the first time that I have made such an offer at this Message Board, however members of the Cliffhanger Serial Message Board (Cliffhangerserials@yahoogroups.com) would be aware of such similar offers there, going back to 2004 - they can attest to the fact that this offer is genuine
As is usual in such cases there are two conditions (only) on this gratis provision of Gordon of Ghost City ...
One must explicitly agree to both of the following:
1. Not to copy the DVD (except for one's own archive purposes) nor allow it to be copied
2. To advise when the DVD has been received (no need to thank me, just tell me when it gets there)
There are no other conditions

If you would like to take advantage of this offer then please feel free to contact me at any time by Personal Message through this Message Board - just agree to both conditions (mentioning both) and provide a postal address - thats all

One last thing ... wifey and I are presently on a driving holiday through Eastern Europe - we left home in Australia in mid April and we won't be back home until the end of June ... so earliest possible dispatches would not occur until Monday July 5th - delivery time from Australia by Express Airmail to anywhere in the world is usually about two weeks
(Visitors to my website may have noticed that its been truncated and indicates much the same information)
Feel free to contact me at anytime in the next 5 weeks (I usually reply to all enquiries within a day or so) - Eastern Europe is an incredible place these days ... they are spending big on infrastructure everywhere .... roadworks of incredible scope and super fast broadband everywhere

The offer is not time limited so if you discover this post months from now then please contact me - Gordon of Ghost City will still be "on the table"
Cheers (from Ljubljana in Slovenia)
Trev

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Pa Stark
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It took eight years, but the chat room at the Cliffhanger site will discuss the last of the available serials Sunday. We left BLAZING THE OVERLAND TRAIL (1956) for last. As we all know, the last four columbia serials, RIDING WITH BUFFALO BILL, ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN AFRICA, PERILS OF THE WILDERNESS, and BLAZING THE OVERLAND TRAIL, contained massive amounts of stock footage from earlier serials. I would be charitable and say BLAZING was somewhat better than it's two predecessors mainly because it doesn't have as dumb scripts as CAPTAIN and PERILS did.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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The Batman
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Pa Stark
May 28 2010, 08:38 AM
I would be charitable and say BLAZING was somewhat better than it's two predecessors mainly because it doesn't have as dumb scripts as CAPTAIN and PERILS did.

You would be charitable in saying CAPTAIN AFRICA had a script at all.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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panzer the great & terrible
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The nice thing about the old B westerns and western serials is that they were so formulaic that they sort of wrote themselves. In the Fifties people got more creative with the form. For a while in the late Fifties the westerns were arguably the most interesting movies (and TV). I sure liked them the best anyway, even before then. You city boys may feel different, and that's OK with me, but until I reached dating age I didn't think much of any movie without horses. Then the girls I met started turning me on to other things (koff koff), and now I've seen most musicals, most of the comedies, maybe half of the noirs, and a lot of silent and foreign movies to boot -- but still there are folks who know much more about movies than I do. I just don't know where they got the time to learn all that stuff. Maybe they didn't have kids.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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toddgault
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panzer the great & terrible
May 28 2010, 12:16 PM
but still there are folks who know much more about movies than I do. I just don't know where they got the time to learn all that stuff. Maybe they didn't have kids.

We have to fill that void with something. Speaking of kids, I just got Scouts to the Rescue and plan to watch it this weekend. Wasn't sure about getting it at first but then I thought how bad could it be, it stars Jackie Cooper and Frank Coghlan, while the plot deals with both gangsters and a lost Indian tribe.
Todd Gault..........Serial Buff
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The Batman
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toddgault
May 28 2010, 12:35 PM
I just got Scouts to the Rescue and plan to watch it this weekend. Wasn't sure about getting it at first but then I thought how bad could it be, it stars Jackie Cooper and Frank Coghlan, while the plot deals with both gangsters and a lost Indian tribe.

Never fear, Todd, because SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE is a definite winner. An exciting, solid serial. Your trepidation may have come from hearing about YOUNG EAGLES and thinking that this will be similar. It is not. This one is good.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Frank Hale
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I watched “Scouts” a couple of months ago. I was bored out of my mind for the first 3 or 4 chapters, then for some reason I warmed up to it. Goofy 30’s fun, I guess.

A rather indifferent print, though, with the usual VCI tinkering on the credits.
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riddlerider
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I first saw SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE on TV, when I was maybe 11 or 12. It didn't make much of an impression; the only memory I kept of it down through the years was the business of Jackie Cooper falling off a roof and landing in a big barrel of rainwater. I saw it again in the '70s at a film-society screening and had much the same reaction. The third time was the charm: when I watched VCI's DVD a few months ago I enjoyed the damn thing out of all proportion to its actual merit. Go figure.

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Pa Stark
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I also really get a kick out of SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE. I saw it on TV when I was about eight years old, and like Riddle Rider, remember Cooper falling off the roof of the building in the ghost town, but didn't remember the rain barrel. The other two scenes I remember were one of the scouts having a contest with one of the heavies to see who could untie himself faster, and after winning, the scout takes off and leaves the heavy still tied up, and the cliffhanger where Cooper is run over by a herd of stampeeding horses.. We have seen dozens of western serials where this happens, but I always felt that this happening to a boy scout was somehow scarier.
With scouts as the heroes, you know you are not going to see another G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON, instead you have them up in the mountains and in a ghost town. Great fun.
Edited by Pa Stark, May 28 2010, 08:26 PM.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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