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The Lost City (1935); Combined thread
Topic Started: Oct 18 2005, 12:37 PM (613 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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This is one of the few serials I've ever seen where I would pause the DVD in the middle of a chapter and go back to watch something again. It's filled with astonishing images and sequences, to say the least.
"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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Inspector Carr
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"I hear the click of a remote control, Yes the sound of a White man's remote control" :D
"Life is a Crapshoot however you need a pair of dice to participate"
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Laughing Gravy
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Okay, now THAT'S funny.
"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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Black Tiger
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I remember seeing a chapter of this with a group of people and one woman just sat there with her mouth open in astonishment. Afterwards she asked if she'd really just seen what she thought she did.
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Vornoff
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Mantan
Jan 23 2008, 12:50 AM
Also - I've become a huge fan of Wm. "Stage" Boyd's amazing, deranged and hammy performance.

Recently watched and enjoyed him in MIDNIGHT WARNING where he plays a shrewd, and sane, detective. Plot was different and entertaining. Available from Alpha or rent on Netflix.


"Doctor of nothing!"
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Inspector Carr
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William "Stage" Boyd added the moniker "stage" in order not to become confused with the other William Boyd (aka Hopalong Cassidy) who in the late silent and early sound era was a rising star of some note.

"Stage" Boyd was a respected theatrical actor, whose drinking was legendary along the same lines as Colin Clive and John Barrymore....He had been arrested numerous times for not only his bad behavior but also drug posession.

his escapades were notorious enough to warrant news worthy stories in the press, and on rare occasion the papers would print William "Hopalong" Boyds picture by mistake, causing the future Cowboy star a great deal of Grief. In fact RKO pictures
would not sign "Hopalong" to a contract in 1935 thinking that all this bad press was really him and not "Stage" they ended up cacelling the deal invoking a morales clause.

rumor has it Boyd was pretty well pickled during the filming of The Lost City. It was his last role and died a few months after production ceased of a Liver Ailment (more than likely Chirrois) he was only 45 at the time.

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"Life is a Crapshoot however you need a pair of dice to participate"
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Pa Stark
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If you want to see him really pickled, check out chapter 12 where he goes on a rampage.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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Mantan
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Pa Stark
Jan 23 2008, 04:25 PM
If you want to see him really pickled, check out chapter 12 where he goes on a rampage.

Great- can't wait.
The next chapter is Chapter 11 and after that one I finally get to see even more of his drunken raving.

Today, rousing myself from my Margaret D'use induced revelries (Queen of the Wangas indeed, heh heh), I noticed that for some time now Appollyn has been wandering the jungle in search of the escaped Dr Manyus & his daughter (Natcha) wearing what appear to be a pair of those sharp new $200+ Air Jordans.

Occasionally he'll hear the voice of his master, Dr. Zolok ("Stage" Boyd), barking orders to him from beyond the aether. Appollyn will then jam the cord of a microphone into the magnetic ground at his feet and communicate with Zolok while Zolok watches & listens to Appollyn's reports from a tv set in his ultra-mod bachelor lab.

This serial is reasonably exciting & occasionally visually stunning.
Inventive use of a retractable landing for victims to stand on before the trap gives and they plummet into a lions pit, black men turned into white trolls by Zolok & Manyus, the nova like heat of Margaret D'use's voracious sexuality and a few other flourishes -like having George aka "Gabby" Hayes in it- combine to make this one of the most shamefully maligned of the earlier serials.
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panzer the great & terrible
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The detractors of this serial make much ado about its racial attitudes, which are just another batty element in an astonishingly unsophisticated movie, one that's certainly worth watching if PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE is. I was in the civil rights movement and don't need sensitivity training from people half my age who think good manners can be legislated and that they are better than their ancestors.

I watch a chapter of THE LOST CITY every so often because it's entertaining, unlike some other serials. If the smug PC dimwits manage to ban it, I'll still keep my copy.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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John Doe
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I thought the racial stuff in Blazing Saddles was way more out there than this serial.

You gotta admit that one of the most hilarious lines in any movie has to be "Excuse me ladies while I whip this out".


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Mantan
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I finished the last chapter of THE LOST CITY this morning.
What can I say about William "Stage" Boyd's perfomance that hasn't already been posted?

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Boyd spends the entirety of Chapter 12 escaping from his dungeon prison cell, giggling like a carnie geek stoked on a heavy dose of psilocybin, staggering through the halls of his "Lost City" laboratory muttering to himself and swaying from side to side.
William "Stage" Boyd is as Pa Stark so succinctly put it "pickled". And then some.
Economic restraints must have led to the director to order the final chapter be shot in a series of one-takes because Boyd isn't even afforded a hair stylist. Boyd does the entire final chapter without once combing his wildly mussed up hair & winds up looking a like the pop-singer ponce & poseur Morrisey standing inside a wind tunnel.
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Anyway, it was a great trip. Had a great time. I'm glad I made it all the way through this serial. Lotsa nonsense and fun.

BTW:
Anyone else notice how much Kane Richmond resembles Mitt Romney?
Sort of lessens my affection for the actor.
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CliffClaven
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Finally got around to this one. It IS boggling. You get the impression there was a ton of backstory that was either hacked out of the script or forgotten by the writers as they plowed straight ahead.

Was Appollyn supposed to be one of the villain's experiments or did he just like that outfit? What was the deal between Butterfield and "his" natives? With all the talk of slave trading I began to suspect that was his business. How did Manyus plan to benefit humanity by turning African natives into short white people?

A bit more uncomfortable than the expected stereotypes was the hero telling the hot native queen he couldn't possibly marry her. He was radiating contempt and the dialogue was hinting it was a matter of race. And Butterfield (kind of a wimpy name for the guy) scribbling "Raza's Desire" on the hero's chest before shooting him -- What was THAT all about? Hints of a much more lurid story in there somewhere.

By the by -- Didn't Raza look like Betty Boop in her leopard skin dress and jaunty hat?

Billy Bletcher registered as oddly dignified -- he looked like he'd walked in from the set of a slightly better serial or perhaps a Universal horror. He even managed some subtlety when bidding the heroine goodbye. I kept waiting for him to do the Pegleg Pete voice, but he resisted.

Watching the natives screaming in terror or the giants standing abound and grunting at each other, I couldn't help but wonder what the shooting was like:
-- "You see the skulls, and you all act surprised and run away screaming. And keep screaming over the dialogue."
-- "Why are we surprised? Didn't we do this bit with the same skulls before the spider men? I mean, if we're afraid of skulls and we know they're here, we'd just avoid the place . . ."
-- "It's five bucks a day, Ed."
-- "SKULLS! AIEEEEE!"

Liked how they'd forget various characters even existed for episodes at a stretch. Sidekick Jerry especially seemed to be left in dire straights, only to crop up much later with no comment. Also, tickled by the scene of the heroes searching the Arab camp, and checking out a little striped tent that somehow screamed "outhouse."

The line that sums it all up comes from the heroine in Chapter 11, and is thoughtfully encored in the Chapter 12 recap:
"It's no use, father. He's too crew-el!"
She puts more acting into that one line than in the rest of serial. Not good acting, but acting.

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riddlerider
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Coincidentally, I'm just finishing a big article on The Lost City for the next issue of Blood 'n' Thunder. I've dug up some interesting behind-the-scenes info that includes reminiscences from Kane Richmond, who discussed the serial with Sam Sherman in a 1962 interview (which was the basis of Sam's career study in Screen Thrills Illustrated).
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The Batman
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riddlerider
May 3 2014, 04:41 PM
Coincidentally, I'm just finishing a big article on The Lost City for the next issue of Blood 'n' Thunder. I've dug up some interesting behind-the-scenes info that includes reminiscences from Kane Richmond, who discussed the serial with Sam Sherman in a 1962 interview (which was the basis of Sam's career study in Screen Thrills Illustrated).

I cannot wait for the next issue of BnT.



Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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moodyhound
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My only qualm with this serial, is every time I watch it, I think Zolok should have been played by Bela Lugosi. B)
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