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Watching Any Good Serials?
Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,391 Views)
George Kaplan
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So THAT'S how he subdues the villains! He flounces in and they all fall on the floor!
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Laughing Gravy
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Finished The Red Rider this morning. Although there was ample stock footage in the final episode, I got the feeling they were genuine flashbacks and that this wasn't an economy chapter. A fine serial, and Ed Cobb sings!
"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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DickFlint
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LG: I was waiting for you to finish the serial, because I have a contrary opinion.
After the promise of Gordon of Ghost City from the prior year, this serial is a true disappointment. It is Buck Jones’ second serial and while Jones was always an engaging performer, he was let down in this chapter play by the writing and the disappointing cliffhangers.
One of the problems is the length of the serial, which was far too long for the flimsy plot of searching for the real killer of Scotty McKee and locating some valuable smuggled diamonds. The chapters themselves have little pacing. Many end without a true cliffhanger at all, such as Buck captured or Buck in a runaway wagon. There is substantial padding, whether it is a cowboy who suffered an accident which turns out to be an injured animal, Edmund Cobb singing for his true love Marie or one chapter filled with loads of stock footage from a rodeo. The story ends in the first few minutes of the last chapter so the episode is filled with flashback footage from earlier chapters and not much else.
There are some good lines in the serial, as you noted in your prior posts. But, in the end, I fouind this a bore.
I've seen 4 of Buck Jones' six serials and I highly recommend White Eagle and Riders of Death Valley (although he was not the star of the latter one)and Gordon of Ghost City is also entertaining.

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Laughing Gravy
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I've seen White Eagle and Riders of Death Valley, and liked 'em both, although neither as well as this one. Now that there's a nice nifty shiny new DVD of White Eagle out, though, I'm planning on revisiting it. I have Gordon of Ghost City, too, and will get to it.

At this point in my serial-watching life, I enjoy seeing anything that's "different", and found Red Rider to be charmingly different. What you found "padding" probably is, but to me, it was just, well, "leisurely" progression of the chapterplay. Buck and company seemed to be having fun, and so was I. Weak cliffhangers don't bother me; I wish they'd have done away with cliffhangers completely for the good of the genre. Well, when I say they don't bother me, let me qualify that: 1950s Republic serials that end chapter after chapter with a car going over a cliff are just ridiculous.
"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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Jerry Blake
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RiddleRider can probably confirm if I'm right, but I believe that many of the so-called weak cliffhangers in Red Rider result from the fact that the VCI print of the serial (which is the one everyone seems to have) seems to have been edited from a 300+ minute feature version that had been de-cliffhangered. Notice that the original next-week cards don't appear in the serial--you simply get a message that says "Don't miss our next exciting episode." The reconstructed prints of the Lone Ranger Rides Again have this problem too, and the same thing seems to be true of VCI's Flaming Frontiers, at least their old VHS one. I wonder if this is indeed the case with this one.

This is one time when I concur with Mr. Gravy about the merits of a chapterplay; if you regard the Republic template as the only model for a serial, this serial's great cast interaction and character touches (like Ed Cobb's singing) will seem like huge wastes of screen time, but if you approach the serial as an elongated Western feature that doesn't have to have a fight sequence at every interval, you'll enjoy it mightily.
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Laughing Gravy
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Hey, guess who showed up in the third episode of The Vanishing Shadow? Mr. Lee J. Cobb! He's blowing up a road that the hero is blundering into. I recognize this sequence; footage from it was used later in The Phantom Creeps.

This chapter had some neat sequences with Onslow Stevens turning invisible; he leaves his shadow, and the special effects are well done as a shadow walks through doors, etc.
"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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Paul
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Jerry Blake
Jan 22 2008, 02:22 PM
RiddleRider can probably confirm if I'm right, but I believe that many of the so-called weak cliffhangers in Red Rider result from the fact that the VCI print of the serial (which is the one everyone seems to have) seems to have been edited from a 300+ minute feature version that had been de-cliffhangered. Notice that the original next-week cards don't appear in the serial--you simply get a message that says "Don't miss our next exciting episode."

But each chapter does begin with a series of stills recapping what relevant characters have been doing that's led up to the cliffhanger resolution about to come; those wouldn't have been in the feature version, I wouldn't think.
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riddlerider
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Paul
Jan 23 2008, 07:48 AM
Jerry Blake
Jan 22 2008, 02:22 PM
RiddleRider can probably confirm if I'm right, but I believe that many of the so-called weak cliffhangers in Red Rider result from the fact that the VCI print of the serial (which is the one everyone seems to have) seems to have been edited from a 300+ minute feature version that had been de-cliffhangered. Notice that the original next-week cards don't appear in the serial--you simply get a message that says "Don't miss our next exciting episode."

But each chapter does begin with a series of stills recapping what relevant characters have been doing that's led up to the cliffhanger resolution about to come; those wouldn't have been in the feature version, I wouldn't think.

I haven't seen VCI's RED RIDER, but what Jerry describes sounds like one of the TV prints that has a remade main-title card bearing a copyright notice for "Serials Incorporated." The Serials Inc. negatives deliberately omitted Universal's end titles, reportedly because it was believed that early TV viewers would be confused by such phrases as "At This Theater Next Week," since (1) no theaters were involved, and (2) some TV stations ran serial chapters daily rather than weekly.
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Jerry Blake
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Thanks a lot, RR. That explains the puzzle of those cards; I've been scratching my head over them for a while. Flaming Frontiers and Red Rider both have the Serials Incorporated title cards as well.
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Paul
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Paul
Jan 23 2008, 07:48 AM
But each chapter does begin with a series of stills recapping what relevant characters have been doing that's led up to the cliffhanger resolution about to come; those wouldn't have been in the feature version, I wouldn't think.

You guys are talking about Red Rider, which I hadn't picked up on. My comment was about Red Ryder on VCI. Sorry.
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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Gravy sent me some serials thru the mail awhile back and I'm going to give 'em a whirl. Flash Gordon, The Lost City and I'm gonna add at least 2 more. I'm gonna take Gravy's advice and watch 'em a week apart.
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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Black Tiger
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Wow what a spread - one of the best serials and one of the worst! Which are you watching first?
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The Batman
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Black Tiger
Jan 24 2008, 12:42 AM
Wow what a spread - one of the best serials and one of the worst! Which are you watching first?

I agree, BT, that LOST CITY is a blast. Having not seen FLASH GORDON, I can't comment on it, but yours is one of the only negative opinions I have ever encountered for this serial.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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marlin lee
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The Batman
Jan 23 2008, 11:46 PM
Black Tiger
Jan 24 2008, 12:42 AM
Wow what a spread - one of the best serials and one of the worst! Which are you watching first?

I agree, BT, that LOST CITY is a blast. Having not seen FLASH GORDON, I can't comment on it, but yours is one of the only negative opinions I have ever encountered for this serial.

ROFLMAO! I would agree that Lost City is entertaining. It is one of those serials which didn't live up or in this case live down to its reputation. I also don't consider it nearly as racist as some claim. It certainly has its racist elements. But I wouldn't consider it excessively so for a mid 30s film.
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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Black Tiger
Jan 23 2008, 08:42 PM
Wow what a spread - one of the best serials and one of the worst! Which are you watching first?


I've already started Flash. Episode 3 will be this Sunday am. Last night was the 1st chapter of Lost City so it'll be my Wed night serial. Saturday I will start The Phantom Creeps. Next Tuesday I will return to The Secret Code. I've already seen 2 chapters of this one, then never went back to it, so I'll start it over again next week. 4 serials a week, this gives me 3 wiggle days in case of emergencies.

I enjoyed Lost City's 1st chapter. I think the opening credits with the actor who plays Hugo is a hoot in itself. I watched the beginning of the 2nd chapter just to see his mug up close one more time.

After reading these serial posts for months, I think I can enjoy these for what they are, action packed entertainment for kids. Since my brain has never developed past adolesence.....voila.

Man oh man.....coffee and Flash....to quote the dead speach giver at the beginning of The Warriors....."Can you dig it?"....Damn straight I can.
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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