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Watching Any Good Serials?
Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,396 Views)
Barcroft
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Marlin:
A better than average later Universal. For some reason I always enjoyed Lon Chaney, Jr. and he looked like he was enjoying himself in this one. It also didn't hurt to have Noah Beery Senior and Junior as well as Don Terry. 2.5 stars
Barcroft
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Laughing Gravy
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Million dollar dialog, from The Red Rider. Buck "Red" Jones is tagged to represent his employer's ranch, the Rancho Del Rosa, at the big rodeo, prompting Ed Cobb (who will sing later in this episode, so be forewarned) to say:

"We'll pick out a buckin' horse for Red that'll throw him so high that the birds'll build a nest in his hat before he hits the ground!"
"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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igsjr
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Barcroft
Dec 24 2007, 07:48 PM
Marlin:
A better than average later Universal.  For some reason I always enjoyed Lon Chaney, Jr. and he looked like he was enjoying himself in this one.  It also didn't hurt to have Noah Beery Senior and Junior as well as Don Terry.  2.5 stars
Barcroft

I wholeheartedly agree, though I'd bump it up to ***. Usually, I'm not all that keen on Western serials but Overland Mail is one of the few exceptions to that rule.
"Life is in color--but black-and-white is more realistic..." -- Samuel Fuller, director

So many DVDs...so little time...
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Pa Stark
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OVERLAND MAIL is one of Universal's better serials. It is really hard to explain why, but it somehow works nicely. Part of it is that Chaney, Terry, and Beery Jr. have great chemistry together, and Beery Sr. and Harry Cording are great villains.
** SPOILER ALERT, sort of**
Cording has one of his great moments of villainy in chapter 14 when mortally wounded and about to die is asked to name the leader of the gang, motions Chaney like he is about to tell, instead says, "Well, I'm not going to tell!" and then dies.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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riddlerider
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Here's an interesting coincidence....

I'm about four chapters into TAILSPIN TOMMY -- the first one -- which I haven't seen since VCI brought out their VHS copy in 1995 or thereabouts. Well, this evening Turner Classic Movies ran CENTRAL AIRPORT, a 1933 Warner Brothers picture starring Richard Barthelmess. That, too, was something I hadn't seen in many years. It turns out that TAILSPIN TOMMY uses stock footage from CENTRAL AIRPORT in each of its first three chapters, including the cliffhangers to episodes Two and Three. In fact, the ending to Chapter Two (in which Skeeter loses control of a plane at the fairgrounds and Tommy crashes into it) uses an entire sequence from the Warners feature, even down to closeups of actor Harrison Greene -- playing an announcer -- telling the crowd to disperse as the runaway plane heads toward them.

I'm rather surprised Universal relied so heavily on stock from a film made by another studio. After all, in the late Twenties they released probably a dozen five-reel features that starred stunt pilot Al Wilson and featured some pretty spectacular sequences, including a lot of wing-walking (Wilson's specialty). The last minute or two of TOMMY's second episode is almost all from CENTRAL AIRPORT; the only newly shot footage is closeups of principal players Maurice Murphy, Noah Beery, and Patricia Farr, which is spliced into the stock rather expertly.

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The Batman
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Just finished up FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS and it was fun. Does anyone know for sure if George Lucas based Darth Vader on the Lightning? Or is that just speculation?

Have started THE SHADOW and it looks like another winner, so far.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Black Tiger
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I've never heard Lucas quoted as saying Vader came from Fighting Devil Dogs, but there has been rampant speculation for years. Vader's helmet actually looks like it may have been adapted from an old Japanese Samurai film.

The Shadow is arguably Horne's finest work - his finest villain, anyway. Perhaps you recognize him from a brief cameo in the Japanese Cave of Horrors in the first Batman serial.
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The Batman
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Black Tiger
Dec 27 2007, 05:39 PM
The Shadow is arguably Horne's finest work - his finest villain, anyway. Perhaps you recognize him from a brief cameo in the Japanese Cave of Horrors in the first Batman serial.

Yes, BT, in fact I do recall him from my dealings with the nefarious Dr. Daka.

This Black Tiger character, though I am only on Chapter 2, seems evil enough to rival the deadliest of my rogues gallery.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Inspector Carr
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The Batman
Dec 27 2007, 03:03 PM
This Black Tiger character, though I am only on Chapter 2, seems evil enough to rival the deadliest of my rogues gallery.

Okay....let's not start turnin' on our own here.....time to kick back in the confines of your cave and take a hit off the bat bong.....and chill :D
"Life is a Crapshoot however you need a pair of dice to participate"
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The Batman
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Inspector Carr
Dec 27 2007, 10:06 PM
The Batman
Dec 27 2007, 03:03 PM
This Black Tiger character, though I am only on Chapter 2, seems evil enough to rival the deadliest of my rogues gallery.

Okay....let's not start turnin' on our own here.....time to kick back in the confines of your cave and take a hit off the bat bong.....and chill :D

*cough* *cough*

Sorry, dude. I was just giving props to your arch-enemy. Ya don't want the illusion that you have pansy villains, like that overgrown Boyscout, Superman.

Toyman...puh-leeze.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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copperhead
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gents, watching the second allan lane mountie serial[republic] , its good , great action fight in the 9th chapter--i love the jap flying wing ----funny its like watching a silent serial---part of the way---ralph g " coppy"
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Laughing Gravy
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In chapter three of Battling with Buffalo Bill, Bill is spying on a powwow at the Indian camp. He suddenly turns and whispers into his horse's ear, "Well, pard, it looks like trouble."

Yes, I said he's a horse whisperer. You gotta love stuff like this.

"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
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copperhead
Dec 27 2007, 11:55 PM
gents, watching the second allan lane mountie serial[republic] , its good , great action fight in the 9th chapter--i love the jap flying wing ----funny its like watching a silent serial---part of the way---ralph g " coppy"

A solid serial, Coppy, that was loads of fun to watch!
Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Laughing Gravy
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Dialog I never thought I'd hear in a serial (from episode 9 of Government Agents vs. Phantom Legion):

"This is the soap powder you were looking for, boys, but I don't think you want it. It really is soap!"

"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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Laughing Gravy
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Incidentally, this may well have been the worst single episode of any serial that isn't named The New Adventures of Tarzan. No wonder Paul Panzer couldn't get through this one!

The chapter began with our hero Hal leaping from a vehicle before it crashed, seemingly for the eighth time in nine episodes, and he and evil Dick Curtis taking turns capturing and then losing each other. The climax takes place in a mine shaft, and Hal is obtuse enough to stand there while a ton of coal or shale or platinum or something falls on him, although I'm guessin' he leaps out of the way by this time next week.

The best thing about this serial is the fact that the four guys who play the council members, one of whom is really the mystery villain, all look exactly like. Tall, balding white guys with silver hair and pencil moustaches. You couldn't pick one out of a police lineup if you tried. When one of these guys is finally revealed as Captain Nefarious (or whatever the hell the villain's name is), it won't be "Which one was he, again?" it'll be "Did it really matter?"
"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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