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| Watching Any Good Serials? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,368 Views) | |
| riddlerider | May 25 2008, 09:35 AM Post #841 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Although this thread is titled "Watching Any Good Serials," I dutifully report that I'm suffering through THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES for what may well be the last time. Years ago I came to the conclusion that this turkey marked the beginning of Republic's decline, and I see no reason to change my mind. It's a really dumb serial. |
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| panzer the great & terrible | May 25 2008, 11:29 AM Post #842 |
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Mouth Breather
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When I ran a bed and breakfast a couple visited us and brought their son. Turns out the Dad had been telling the son Purple Monster stories all his life. The Dad had seen it on TV and it obviously caught his imagination. Bores me to death though. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| Chandu | May 25 2008, 12:27 PM Post #843 |
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Champeen of Justice and Seeker of Knowledge, but rascal at heart!
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I thought I had a good idea when I decided to watch King of the Royal Mounted and King of the Mounties back-to-back, so the character would still be fresh in my mind when I viewed KOTM. Unfortunately, not only the character, but the footage from KOTRM remained fresh in my mind. Taking nothing away from the marvelous job Dr. Grood did with KOTM, the amount of stock footage in it from KOTRM is almost criminal. Practically all of chapter 9 is stock footage and the villain "Garson" appears again after being killed in KOTRM and even the cliffhanger is from KOTRM. Maybe this chapter was part of what had to be recreated. If so, Grood did a good job with it, but if it was part of the original KOTM, it's too bad. Anyway, a word of warning. View these two serials as far apart as possible! Don't repeat my big mistake. :rolleyes: |
| Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me... | |
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| Laughing Gravy | May 25 2008, 05:31 PM Post #844 |
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Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
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"Eyes, ears, and nose -- that's what any good scout needs." -- from the penultimate episode of The Scarlet Horseman. |
| "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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| riddlerider | May 25 2008, 06:27 PM Post #845 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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No, that footage was originally in the serial. The excessive stock significantly weakens MOUNTIES, in my estimation, as does the frequent use of rear projection in place of location shooting. Even when those two serials first resurfaced, long before Grood's "restoration," I preferred ROYAL MOUNTED to MOUNTIES. The second serial has the better cast, but that doesn't count for much when a great heavy like Douglass Dumbrille is relegated to standing in a log cabin and talking over the radio for 12 chapters. The first serial is far better from a production standpoint if nothing else, and I much prefer to see Dave Sharpe doubling for Allan Lane. |
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| Pa Stark | May 25 2008, 08:10 PM Post #846 |
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Charter Member
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I agree with Riddle Rider that production and direction wise, KOTRM is superior to the sequel, but the second serial with the Falcon plane, the volcano hideout, faster pacing, and far more slick, is more what serials were about. Right now I am watching JUNGLE GIRL, and totally enjoying it. It has the strongest and biggest variety of cliffhangers of any serial, great cast, and top notch direction. The knock on it is that it didn't have a plot strong enough to run 15 chapters. I don't understand why fans bring up the subject of plots, they are the least important part of serials. DAREDEVIL OF THE WEST'S plot had the heroine attempting to build a road for her stagecoach line, which will help open the territory to settlers, but the villains want the land for themselves, and do everything to stop construction. Some attendees at SerialFest gave it lower marks because of the almost nonexistent plot. |
| Honest and Lovable Pa Stark | |
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| Laughing Gravy | May 26 2008, 05:58 AM Post #847 |
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Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
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Finally finished Blackhawk. Our hero gets shot pointblank in the final episode and falls off the roof of a building. He hits the ground on his feet and runs away, leaving the impression the roof of the building is 3 feet off the ground. Daffy. Not a very good serial, but fun in its dinky way, and there are parallels to the new Indiana Jones movie. |
| "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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| mort bakaprevski | May 26 2008, 06:46 AM Post #848 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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They are the "least important part of serials" to YOU, Pa. I first saw JUGLE GIRL when I was nine years old in a theatre. By Chapter 8, I had had enough. BORING!! One of the all-time great first chapters, however!!! Unfortunately, the plot was pretty much used up by the time our protagonists were swept out of the tunnel by that wonderful wall of water!! |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| cquigley | May 26 2008, 09:24 AM Post #849 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I agree Jungle Girl was a complete waste of time. Also agree that King of the Mounties can not hold a candle to first one. Bill Witney pretty much wrote the sequel off for most of the reasons you folks cited. I am currently revisiting Mysterious Doctor Satan. Enjoy Edwardo Cianelli chewing the scenery. I can't figure out if Robert Wilcox is a great actor because he underplays the part, so well. They probaly did not have Prozac at the time. I suppose he could have a lobotomy; or he is just not a very good actor. I would suspect that the latter is true. Whatever. it works with this serial which is one of my all -time favorites. |
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| riddlerider | May 26 2008, 09:49 AM Post #850 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I'm consistently amazed at the antipathy to JUNGLE GIRL. I agree it's not strongly plotted, but you can say the same thing of many serials. I also agree that it should never have been 15 chapters long, but remember that the serial's length was dictated primarily by the box-office strength of Edgar Rice Burroughs' name. By having that extra three chapters to sell, Republic picked up thousands of dollars in additional rentals. Yes, there's a lot of seemingly pointless wandering -- but you can say that of any jungle serial. As Pa mentioned, JUNGLE GIRL has some unusual chapter endings; that alone is good for relatively high marks in my book. How many times can you watch a guy jump out of a speeding car before it sails over a cliff or hits something and blows up? Or dash through the door of a warehouse before it blows up? JUNGLE GIRL had most of the ingredients of a bang-up serial. It could have used more animal action, which in the silent era went over big with serial patrons. And I don't think Frank Lackteen was used as effectively as he might have been. The screenwriters should have played up the witch-doctor angle and given him semi-supernatural abilities. Nonetheless, I enjoy JUNGLE GIRL just as it is and revisit it every few years. And as I've said before, I don't see how any red-blooded male could call "a complete waste of time" any serial with Frances Gifford in that outfit! |
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| marlin lee | May 26 2008, 10:32 AM Post #851 |
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Charter Member
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I'm also in the camp surprised at the negative reaction to Jungle Girl. You have three top notch villains each with their own agenda, a large variety of cliffhangers, and excellent stunt work. Frances Gifford as Nyoka makes one of the great serial heroines and Tom Neal makes a very servicable hero. Put those ingredients in any other serial and everyone sings its praises. |
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| mort bakaprevski | May 26 2008, 11:07 AM Post #852 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Yes, I remember what a disappointment it was, in the 2nd chapter, to find out that Lackteen's powers, strongly implied in the first chapter, were actually non-existent. Booooo!!! :angry: |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| Bert Greene | May 26 2008, 06:19 PM Post #853 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Entirely conscious of Gravy's disdain over multi-chapter viewing marathons, it's with some trepidation that I admit I watched all of "The Master Key" last week in a single day. A possible capital offense, I know. But, I had a reason. I'd hurt my back, digging up an old fencepost in the yard, and it left me somewhat immobile. Restricted to a recliner, it was a good time to just stay still and watch Milburn Stone round up fifth-columnists for hours on end. I'd seen the darned serial before, so I wasn't particularly ruining a debut viewing by zipping through it. Anyway, despite serials' tendencies towards slam-bang action, they can also be strangely relaxing at times. |
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| riddlerider | May 26 2008, 07:12 PM Post #854 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Hey, Bert, no need to apologize. Nobody died and left Gravy the boss of you. Despite what he says, the best way to watch a serial is the way you enjoy the most. I saw dozens of serials for the first time in marathon screenings like the one you describe, and there were damn few I didn't enjoy. Granted, that wasn't necessarily the best way to do it, but at the time (pre-video) I had no way of knowing if I'd ever get a second chance to see some of them. I first saw KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED in a marathon one-evening screening with brief breaks between every three or four chapters. I had my own VHS copy and could have stopped any time I wished, but I had two friends watching it with me and we were enjoying it so much that none of us wanted to call a halt. |
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| Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer | May 27 2008, 06:59 AM Post #855 |
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Sapient Balconeer
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Last Saturday I saw an episode of The Shadow, where he jumps from his car into a car of baddies then the car crashes into some electrical stuff....cliffhanger. Yesterday during The Spider's web, The Spider jumps from his car into a car of baddies and the car crashes into some electrical stuff. repetitive cliffhanger. The Shadow survived by jumping from the car in the nick o' time this past Saturday. I wonder what'll happen to The Spider next Monday?????
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| It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong." | |
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6:53 AM Jul 11