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Watching Any Good Serials?
Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,346 Views)
Black Tiger
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Recently watched Adventures of Frank & Jesse James. Although the first 3 chapters are mostly taken directly from Adventures of Red Ryder, the serial goes along its own way after that. Clayton Moore is excellent as Jesse with Steve Darrell being a particularly bland Frank (certainly no Henry Fonda!)

Noel Neill is pretty as the gal. John Crawford, the lead villain has the world's worst agent, he's billed after Stanley Andrews who only lasts about 10 minutes in chapter 1. George J. Lewis is good as the chief henchman.

Mostly original cliffhangers and some good fights staged probably by co-director Yak (along with Frank Brannon) make this a slightly better-than-average late Republic. Nothing you haven't seen before, but still fun.
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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Thanks Tigre == I agree. Loved it when I was a kid.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Vornoff
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I'm on Chap. 8 of PHANTOM OF THE AIR with Tom Tyler and nice little number, Gloria Shea, with one of my personal faves, LeRoy Mason, as the baddie. His main henchies are Craig Reynolds (not billed under that name but recognizable anyway) and none other than WALTER BRENNAN! The print I have is not too good but I try to ignore stuff like that.

LeRoy is trying to steal Gloria's dad's (a fairly young-looking, at least to me, Wm. Desmond) new invention, CONTRAGRAV, which lets anything defeat gravity and float. He uses it to devise a 'phantom plane' which he controls from his office. The usual mayhem ensues.

So far there have been 4 actual or near plane crashes, 1 poison gas outbreak, 1 car crash, and 1 exploding ship. I'm always amused when after the horrible plane crash shown the week before, the hero gets out of it with minor or no bruises, and just walks away. The supposedly lethal gas was, well, just not that lethal.

Anyway, I love the heroic Tom Tyler and his unmistakeable voice. I guess being a pilot is what he did when he wasn't being Captain Marbles.
Edited by Vornoff, Jan 16 2009, 10:51 AM.
"Doctor of nothing!"
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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Where on earth did you get it? I've been looking for years.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Laughing Gravy
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Yeah, where?

Last night during our FNF show the topic of "greatest serials we've ever seen" came up. Everybody likes Cap'n Marvel very much, but nobody thought it was the GREATEST. Getting votes were Spy Smasher, Flash Gordon, and -- of all things -- Undersea Kingdom!
"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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Vornoff
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panzer the great & terrible
Jan 16 2009, 11:09 PM
Where on earth did you get it? I've been looking for years.
Years ago from oldiedvd.com and it looks like he's still got it
"Doctor of nothing!"
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panzer the great & terrible
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That's a great site. Vornoff, a fellow villain salutes you.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Pa Stark
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I am three chapters into CODY OF THE PONY EXPRESS, and am liking it a lot more than I expected. It is almost a forgotten serial that almost no one ever talks about. Alan Barbour claimed it had no action at all, but that isn't true. I think it is better than any Republic western serial from 1945 on. Spencer Bennet's direction is quite good, and the location work is some of the best of any western, not just the usual work at Iverson's Ranch.
The cast is made up of familiar faces, with Tom London showing a winning personality as Jock Mahoney's sidekick, but the best performance is by good old William Fawcett as the manager of a Pony Express relay station. He is totally henpecked by his wife, and a funny scene is when Mahoney asks him if she was always like this, and he answers, "She used to be worse."

Pa says, check it out.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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mort bakaprevski
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Pa Stark
Jan 17 2009, 07:46 PM
Alan Barbour claimed it had no action at all, but that isn't true.
Never met the man, but he wrote like a none too bright nine year old. Published some interesting magazines though. I remember a three-part article (NOT written by him) on Ford Beebe that was fascinating!!
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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Black Tiger
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Actually, Barbour was very bright and a true film aficionado. His books were very important back when there wasn't much published on serials. Back in those days, most serials were still lost so he like any other author of the era were only going on memory of what they had seen in the theaters. As more serials became available and he saw some of the Columbias again, he reversed his opinions on many of them. We have so many serials available to us now and so much in writing and the convenience of the internet. Back then, it was a different world.

Have been watching Cody of the Pony Express and after six chapters agree with Pa that this is a pretty decent serial. The plot rambles a bit, but Jock Mahoney (or O'Mahoney here) is terrific as usual. Dickie Moore is an above-average sidekick that more than holds his own. George J. Lewis is great as the oily bad guy as are his henchmen Jack Ingram, Pierce Lyden and Rick Vallin. As per usual with Columbia, there is bickering and treachery among the ranks of henchmen. Spencer Bennett directs some pretty good fights.
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mort bakaprevski
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Oh, he may have been very bright, but his writing style was once best described as belonging to the "Gosh, Gee Whiz School!!"
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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panzer the great & terrible
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Cody of the Pony Express was the first serial I ever saw. I was only six that year, but what I saw of it (probably six chapters or so) gave me the serial bug permanently, so how bad can it be?. Thanks for reminding me -- I need a copy.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Pa Stark
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Cody of the Pony Express was the first serial I ever saw. I was only six that year, but what I saw of it (probably six chapters or so) gave me the serial bug permanently, so how bad can it be?. Thanks for reminding me -- I need a copy.

It started you as a serial fan and you don't have it? When I first started collecting serials, my first priority was seeing the serials I watched as a child. Amazing thing was how many scenes were exactly as I remember them.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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panzer the great & terrible
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Cody wasn't always as easy to find as it is today. I had the feeling of near-total recall with Undersea Kingdom, the James Brothers serials, Radar Patrol vs. Spy King, the one chapter of Sir Galahad I managed to see, and especially Mysterious Island, which remains my favorite serial, though not the best by a long shot. What I love about it now is what I loved as a kid -- it's all over the map. If you don't like what's happening wait five minutes and something totally unrelated happens. There are so many bad guys and shifting alliances it's hard to tell who to root for. All that and Gene Roth, as a pirate no less!
Edited by panzer the great & terrible, Jan 18 2009, 11:46 AM.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Black Tiger
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Mysterious Island is a guilty pleasure of mine too. As soon as the Mercurians showed up, I went, "whoa, I've just got to see this!"
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