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Watching Any Good Serials?
Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,340 Views)
Pa Stark
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Quote:
 
These days I can watch a serial chapter I saw a month ago and not remember a thing about it. When we were kids we remembered every detail


You think that's bad, I watch a chapter and by the time the credits for the next chapter run, I already forgot what I just saw. The good thing about being senile is I get to meet a bunch of new people every day.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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The upside is we can watch our collections over and over. I know a guy who lost much of his memory because of a car accident, and he says the good thing about it is, he keeps meeting new people.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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rodney
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The Batman
Feb 27 2009, 12:30 PM
panzer the great & terrible
Feb 27 2009, 08:36 AM

I'm pretty sure Rodney's will be as good as any, and the price is right.

How about it, Rodney? What is the quality of your version of King of the Carnival like?

It's top notch. I watched it maybe five years ago, and thought it looked just fine. Republic took care of their stuff, and actually bothered to release it on VHS so there are good copies of those circulating. Until they actually release it themselves, what we have is as good as you'll get.
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George Kaplan
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Okay, had to deep-six The Oregon Trail after Chapter Two. The stock footage, which made up easily 50% of the action sequences, looked so much better (more real, more immediate, more violent) than the 1939 Ford Beebe/Saul Goodkind material, that I decided I wanted to see the silent they had scissored up more than I wanted to see the padded serial.

Anyone know where those early stock shots in Oregon Trail came from? I haven't seen James Cruze's The Covered Wagon (1923), but I know it contained the soon-to-be-standard scenes of wagons fording rivers, getting caught in brush fires, and so on. It was photographed by the great Karl Brown, so I'm wondering if this was the movie that Beebe and company later plundered.
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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The Covered Wagon was released by Famous Players-Lasky, which later became Paramount -- so it's possible, but doubtful.
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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Just finished chapter 4 of Son of Zorro and it's about as boring as I remembered it.

Some original cliffhangers are fun, but other than that, it's like watching paint dry. Fights are lackluster. The plot is not that exciting (good guys are building a road to avoid paying a toll). The hero, George Turner is a non-entity. And he goes against the basic Zorro plot of using an unsuspected ineffective civilian identity in contrast to the Zorro personality. In this one, Turner is as wanted by the baddies as Zorro is.

The dull mystery villain, only referred to as "The Chief" is so easy to guess, you'll probably get it in chapter one.

Edward Cassidy as the corrupt sheriff is miscast as is Stanley Price as a laughably bad "Mexican". Roy Barcroft as the chief henchman is an almost saving grace. Peggy Stewart is pretty and spunky, but not given a lot to do.
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rodney
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I, on the other hand, just watched the first chapter of The Secret Code, and I think I'm going to have a great time with it. There are those who poo-poo the Columbia serials, but I'm not one of them, at least not with the ones that I've seen so far. The Universal ones seem much worse to me overall.

Anyway, it kept my interest entirely. I think the Black Commando is pretty cool, and I thought Spencer Bennett kept things moving along well. I'm looking forward to chapter two, which I will probably see on Wednesday.
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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I love The Secret Code for it's action. Oh, and those cool code-breaking techniques!
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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Secret Code is one of Columbia's best for sure. And love those code breaking scenes too. Funny stuff!
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KanSmiley
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Rodney: I would second all the kudoos for The Secret Code...it is a good one. As Black Tiger said it is one of Columbia's best serials. I have watched three times and continue to like it.

Kan
http://www.saturday-matinee-memories.com/

intoxicated, adj.: When you feel sophisticated without being able to pronounce it.
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Pa Stark
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Add Lovable Pa Stark's name to those who like THE SECRET CODE, it is second to THE SPIDER'S WEB as Columbia's best serial. It really rocked. SPY SMASHER was released earlier in the year and was a huge success for Republic, so Columbia tried to connect THE SECRET CODE to it, using Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in the credits, and ads said "Thrill to Spy Smasher's biggest chase." In the Squadron chats, every other Sunday we discuss and rate serials. Out of 183 rated so far, THE SECRET CODE is in eighth place with a 9.43 out of 10.
Incidentally so far SPY SMASHER is the only serial to rate a perfect 10, followed by:
FLASH GORDON 9.86
MYSTERIOUS DR, SATAN 9.75
THE LONE RANGER 9.73
ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL 9.69
PERILS OF NYOKA 9.68
DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE 9.44

In last place we have:

CHICK CARTER, DETECTIVE 2.60
ADVENTURES OF FRANK MERRIWELL 2.35
HOP HARRIGAN 2.20
QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE 2.16
PERILS OF THE WILDERNESS 2.08
and in dead last place is:
YOUNG EAGLES 1.10
We haven't reviewed ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN AFRICA or BLAZING THE OVERLAND TRAIL (which we are saving for last) but you can be sure they will join this group.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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I saw chapter 8 of Buck Rogers yesterday, but I really wanted a place to put some info, and dis be da place.

I just wanted to put that I've been ITB for a year and a half and I've accumulated 49 serials in that span. Whoa Nellie!
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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The Batman
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THE SECRET CODE is a blast, enjoy Rodney!

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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The Batman
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rodney
Feb 28 2009, 12:17 PM
The Batman
Feb 27 2009, 12:30 PM
panzer the great & terrible
Feb 27 2009, 08:36 AM

I'm pretty sure Rodney's will be as good as any, and the price is right.

How about it, Rodney? What is the quality of your version of King of the Carnival like?

It's top notch. I watched it maybe five years ago, and thought it looked just fine. Republic took care of their stuff, and actually bothered to release it on VHS so there are good copies of those circulating. Until they actually release it themselves, what we have is as good as you'll get.

Thanks, Rodney. Since I have missed your serial sale, I'll hold off for now, as money is tight even here around Wayne Manor.

I'll keep ya in mind, as I do want to get this one.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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The Batman
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Well, I don't know if it's a good serial or not (not yet anyways) as I have only finished up to Chapter 2, but I am watching THE INVISIBLE MONSTER.

A mostly typical Republic effort so far (nothing wrong with that), but the main "catch" of this particular serial is pretty inane. The villain of the story goes about committing his evil acts by making himself invisible. Sound good, in theory, but for this baddie to rend himself invisible he must have one of his henchman project a special light beam on him. Yes, it makes him invisible, but since the beam must remain trained on him for him to remain invisible, there is a curious spotlight running around wherever he commits a crime. Which of course anyone, except a serial hero, could figure out right away that it was the invisible bad guy.



Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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