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Best and worst places to buy serials
Topic Started: May 1 2014, 01:22 PM (2,906 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Independent serials I recommend:

The Lost City
Shadow of Chinatown
"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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moodyhound
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panzer the great & terrible
May 6 2014, 05:48 PM
Back in the day serials were mostly shown with a western feature, so the western serials got dissed. These days, a serial like Red Ryder, The Mystery Rider, or anything with Buck Jones is more likely to get respect. Except from Gravy of course.
Youngsters like Gravy just dont get old westerns. :)
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Laughing Gravy
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So what's to 'get'?

I probably watch more Westerns than most people these days, everything Olive puts out plus my weekly views of the Cisco Kid and the Three Mesquiteers. A fairly steady diet of oaters, you might say.
"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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Barcroft
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Moodyhound,
I have to agree with my buddy Pa about "Deadwood Dick", I think its Columbia's best western serial. Some may argue that either the Great Adventures of Wild Bill HIckok or Overland with Kit Carson is better but this one runs on all cylinders. It has a pretty good story, Mystery villain and it's probably James Hornes best directed serial. Whether Columbia should have used a different star as Deadwood Dick remains to be seen as I thought Don Douglas was perfect as Dick Stanley the Newspaper Editor and quite believable as Deadwood Dick. It also has one of the largest group of western bad guys ever to appear together in one film i.e. Roy Barcroft, Jack Ingram, Charlie King, Bud Osbourne, Kenne Duncan, Yakima Canutt and I'm just getting started, so if you haven't watched it yet make it the next thing you put in the DVD player and enjoy.
Barcroft
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Pa Stark
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Barcroft, another good Columbia western serial was VALLEY OF VANISHING MEN. Very fast paced, and a lot of fun.
Gravy, another independent serial that was much better than you would expect was MYSTERY TROOPER. Not a great serial, but had some good things in it. Best scene was in chapter one in the ghost town, which the heavies are using for a hideout. The trooper has a hidden room in the hotel where he plays an organ, ala the Phantom Of The Opera, and totally freaks out the gang.
In your list of Universal's, I'm glad you included THE GREAT ALASKAN MYSTERY and MYSTERY OF THE RIVERBOAT. 40 years ago one friend dismissed the latter saying, "The biggest mystery of MYSTERY OF THE RIVERBOAT is why they bothered to make it." Another friend pointed out that he had never seen it.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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The Batman
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Pa Stark
May 7 2014, 10:36 AM

In your list of Universal's, I'm glad you included MYSTERY OF THE RIVERBOAT.

Agreed. I found this to be a highly enjoyable serial and it was a treat to see a serial in a different setting.



Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Sgt Saturn
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The Batman
May 7 2014, 11:42 AM
Pa Stark
May 7 2014, 10:36 AM

In your list of Universal's, I'm glad you included MYSTERY OF THE RIVERBOAT.

Agreed. I found this to be a highly enjoyable serial and it was a treat to see a serial in a different setting.



Any serial with Mantan Moreland can't be all bad.
The Ol' Sarge
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The Batman
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Sgt Saturn
May 7 2014, 11:52 AM
The Batman
May 7 2014, 11:42 AM
Pa Stark
May 7 2014, 10:36 AM

In your list of Universal's, I'm glad you included MYSTERY OF THE RIVERBOAT.

Agreed. I found this to be a highly enjoyable serial and it was a treat to see a serial in a different setting.







Any serial with Mantan Moreland can't be all bad.

I'll go one further: Any piece of filmmaking with Mantan Moreland has at least one saving grace.



Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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moodyhound
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The Batman
May 7 2014, 11:42 AM
Pa Stark
May 7 2014, 10:36 AM

In your list of Universal's, I'm glad you included MYSTERY OF THE RIVERBOAT.

Agreed. I found this to be a highly enjoyable serial and it was a treat to see a serial in a different setting.



I had been wanting to see that one for quite a while, since I found out it had Robert Lowery and Mantan Moreland, in it. I am fans of both. I really enjoyed it, worth watching. Another one of my favorites is The Monster and the Ape. It of course had Robert Lowery and Willie Best, whom I also really like. The only disappointment in that one, was not seeing the ape and the robot fight. I am still amazed they didn't add that scene in.
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Don Diego
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The Batman
May 7 2014, 12:04 PM
Sgt Saturn
May 7 2014, 11:52 AM
The Batman
May 7 2014, 11:42 AM
Pa Stark
May 7 2014, 10:36 AM

In your list of Universal's, I'm glad you included MYSTERY OF THE RIVERBOAT.

Agreed. I found this to be a highly enjoyable serial and it was a treat to see a serial in a different setting.







Any serial with Mantan Moreland can't be all bad.

I'll go one further: Any piece of filmmaking with Mantan Moreland has at least one saving grace.



you are quite right he saved the Monogram Chans (as well as many other Monograms) from being dismal
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Laughing Gravy
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I haven't seen Mystery Trooper but I have it. Thanks for the tip.

Riverboat and Monster/Ape and Alaskan are fun. That's something I wouldn't say about King of the Royal Mounted.
"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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The Batman
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Laughing Gravy
May 7 2014, 05:14 PM

Riverboat and Monster/Ape and Alaskan are fun. That's something I wouldn't say about King of the Royal Mounted.

Curious, what is your beef with KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED? Just curious. For me, it's one of my highest rated serials.



Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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riddlerider
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The Batman
May 7 2014, 05:16 PM
Laughing Gravy
May 7 2014, 05:14 PM

Riverboat and Monster/Ape and Alaskan are fun. That's something I wouldn't say about King of the Royal Mounted.

Curious, what is your beef with KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED? Just curious. For me, it's one of my highest rated serials.

Hell, Bats, whadja expect from a guy who likes Monster and the Ape?

I wouldn't put King of the Royal Mounted in the top tier of Republic serials, but it belongs way up high in the second tier. It's hard to beat for production value, coming at a time when Republic still took cast and crew on location and didn't rely so much on rear projection and back-lot shooting. Stronger villainy and tighter plotting would have improved it, but at least each chapter doesn't resemble the one before it, as is the case with so many of the later Republics with...wait for it...constant fistfights in warehouses and exploding miniatures ending every episode.

The big excitement in Monster and the Ape is Jack Ingram periodically walking monkey-suited Crash Corrigan through the underground passage to his cage. BFD. ;)
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riddlerider
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Pa Stark
May 7 2014, 10:36 AM
Gravy, another independent serial that was much better than you would expect was MYSTERY TROOPER. Not a great serial, but had some good things in it.
FWIW, Mystery Trooper (aka Trail of the Royal Mounted, the Commonwealth reissue title) is the one talkie serial that most closely resembles a mid-to-late-Twenties silent serial from one of the independents. Lose the track, replace the spoken dialogue with title cards, and you've got something that looks and plays just like a 1927 Mascot or Rayart.
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Pa Stark
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Gravy, MYSTERY TROOPER isn't bad for a 1930 poverty row low budget serial, but it is still a couple of steps below a Mascot. It was released by Syndicate Pictures, who also released the silent Joe Bonamo serial, CHINATOWN MYSTERY. We saw some footage from it at SerialFest a few years ago, and it is hard to believe it was from the same studio. It looked really good.
Honest and Lovable Pa Stark
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