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| Zorro's Black Whip (1944) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 27 2017, 11:25 AM (501 Views) | |
| turan38 | Nov 27 2017, 11:25 AM Post #1 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I originally bought this serial at a bargain store some time ago and enjoyed it - until I finished viewing chapter 6 and realized the rest of the serial was packaged in a separate DVD that the store didn't have. I finally picked up the serial from VCI when they ran a recent sale. I've been watching the serial along with my daughter and son-in-law when they are here and we've seen through chapter 6. My daughter complained about the redundancy of two practically identical cliffhangers where a buckboard, later a stagecoach, plunge off a cliff with Vic Gordon (George Lewis) aboard. Then she complained about the ineffectual Gordon, always getting knocked out by the heavies. Then it was "C'mon, they can't tell it's a woman behind that mask?" Of course this was all said in good fun. I was impressed by some of the stunts - a thug jumping from a moving coach to double up on a horse his cohort is riding. The VCI DVD is only fair quality, soft picture, but better than many I've watched. Edited by turan38, Nov 27 2017, 11:38 AM.
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| Laughing Gravy | Nov 27 2017, 06:22 PM Post #2 |
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I ordered this serial from England when there were precious few DVD serials available in this country, and we watched it in 2003. Turned out to be one of the most popular serials with ever showed with the kiddies - they loved it. |
| "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 | Nov 28 2017, 04:01 PM Post #3 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I first saw this serial in 1976 under conditions that, short of following it one week at a time during original theatrical playoff, were about as good as one could hope for: a nice original 16mm print projected on a (fairly) big screen to an appreciative audience that included leading man George J. Lewis, who'd never seen the whole thing. And yet, it didn't really impress me. Later, once I'd seen all the Republic serials, I decided that Zorro's Black Whip actually heralds the beginning of their decline. To me it's a pedestrian offering that could just have easily have been made several years later: cheap, repetitive, and predictable, with capable but perfunctory action sequences. And it drives me crazy that, during the fights and chases, the music changes with each cut. A couple years ago I decided to give Black Whip another chance but didn't like it any better. Mind you, I don't find it horrible, just routine. |
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| Pa Stark | Nov 28 2017, 07:02 PM Post #4 |
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Charter Member
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Riddle Rider, as usual, you are right on. Remember, it was it was made only a year and a half after DAREDEVILS OF THE WEST, and it is several steps lower. The budget and episode running times were cut, chapter one lead player opticals were eliminated, the economy chapter returned. One year later, Republic's THE PHANTOM RIDER, was even more routine. |
| Honest and Lovable Pa Stark | |
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| Laughing Gravy | Nov 28 2017, 08:08 PM Post #5 |
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I have some dim memory of having this conversation years ago, here or in the SS. Yes? In any case, I recall voting for Federal Operator 99 as the one where Republic jumped the shark. Still, there were good serials to come - Purple Monster, Crimson Ghost, Rocketmen to name three. |
| "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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| Pa Stark | Nov 28 2017, 10:16 PM Post #6 |
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Charter Member
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I like FEDERAL OPERATOR 99, and don't feel Repbublic jumped the shark there. It was strange to have an FBI agent speak with a British accent though. |
| Honest and Lovable Pa Stark | |
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| Jerry Blake | Dec 24 2017, 05:43 AM Post #7 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I know I'm coming too late to this conversation, but blame it on law school. In the course of my efforts to comprehensively review all of Republic's serials, I've formed my own opinion as to the studio's "shark-jumping" that departs from the normal Barbour-inspired view (I'd summarize this "conventional" view as: Republic greatness stayed on an even keel right from the studio's founding through the war era and started a consistent downslide when budgets were cut back after the war). In my view, the studio, after a rather lackluster preliminary year (most of their 1936 serials are weaker overall than many of their Mascot predecessors), had a strong warm-up year in 1937 and hit its Golden Age in 1938. The Golden Age, to my view, ends in 1942--due to the advent of the war and the resultant sharp drop-off in the on-location filming that marked most of the Golden Age serials, the breakup of the Witney-English team, the loss of Dave Sharpe to the Army, and the departure of all of the studio's best serial writers (Barry Shipman, Norman S. Hall, Sol Shor, Morgan Cox) for other pastures. Perils of Nyoka to me is the last Golden Age outing, and King of the Mounties the first post-Golden Age outing; though its action and special effects are tremendous, if you take those away you're left with the basic template of most subsequent Republic serials--hero fights a pair of henchmen in an endless series of unrelated encounters, with much less emphasis on the dramatics, atmospherics, or visual flourishes that made the Golden Age serials with similar plotlines (the Dick Tracy outings, Spy Smasher) more than just a collection of action setpieces. That said, I still think King of the Mounties and its close relation G-Men vs. the Black Dragon are a cut above the other wartime Republics that followed them; William Witney's sheer directorial flair makes them much better than the ensuing Spencer Bennet outings like Secret Service in Darkest Africa, The Masked Marvel, Haunted Harbor, The Tiger Woman, and Zorro's Black Whip; Bennet, unlike Witney, obviously didn't care about any aspect of filmmaking aside from action, and his lack of interest in acting or atmospherics, coupled with the by-the-numbers writing of folks like Ronald Davidson and Basil Dickey, makes his Republic efforts much less than the sum of their (usually very enjoyable) parts. John English's two wartime efforts, Daredevils of the West and Captain America, have better acting and more interesting visuals than Bennet's, but suffer from the same rote scripting and emphasis on action at the expense of everything else. I tend to feel (and I know not even RiddleRider will agree with me here) that Republic's serials actually took a brief uptick in quality in the immediate post-war era, thanks in part to the more creative Yakima Canutt's temporary ascension to co-director status with Bennet, to Ronald Davidson's temporary departure from the serial writing department--and to Albert DeMond's joining of the writing team, beginning with Manhunt of Mystery Island; DeMond wrote some of Republic's best B-westerns, some of them marked by surprisingly funny dialogue, and his influence makes itself strongly felt, I think, in lines like Barcroft's famous "If I thought you understood, I'd kill you" in Mystery Island, a lot of George J. Lewis' snappy dialogue in Federal Operator 99, the many amusing quips in The Crimson Ghost, and the verbal light touches and unusual plotting gimmicks in Daughter of Don Q. The return of Golden Age writer Sol Shor in the post-war era also probably had a lot to do with the improvement in scripting around that time. Also, the cutting back of post-war budgets prevented Bennet from going quite as overboard on action scenes as he had during the war, allowing slightly more breathing room for actors to engage in actual characterization and writers to engage in flourishes. I find the Republic serials from this 1945-1947 period more fun and much more rewatchable than many of the wartime "classics," with the exception of King of the Forest Rangers--but even that has some good location work and funny lines; its biggest flaw is its horribly-cast hero and villain. This Indian Summer period started waning in 1948; by then, DeMond was gone, and Republic's decision to let Bennet, Canutt, and Thomas Carr all go their ways and replace them in-house with company man Fred Brannon showed that they weren't really interested in turning out anything but competently mechanical rehashes of earlier successes. However, several of the studio's 1948 and 1949 serials--King of the Rocket Men, James Brothers of Missouri, Federal Agents vs. Underworld Inc.--are marked by entertaining flashes of creativity, which I would tend to attribute in part to Shor's continued presence on the writing team. When he (and the rest of the regular writers) gave way to Davidson in 1950--who made an inauspicious return with the absurd Invisible Monster--the studio irrevocably jumped the shark for the last time; while I often find things to like in 1950s Republics, at their best they're only pallid echoes of the Golden Age outings. |
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| JazzGuyy | Dec 24 2017, 01:24 PM Post #8 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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But they are still better than anything that Columbia was turning out at the same time IMO, with the exception of the last couple of Republics which were as bad as their Columbia counterparts of the same time. |
| TANSTAAFL! | |
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| Pa Stark | Dec 24 2017, 07:30 PM Post #9 |
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Charter Member
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I have always been a fan of KING OF THE MOUNTIES and THE MASKED MARVEL for being two of the fastest paced and slickest serials ever made. I don't know how many times I have screened chapters eight and 14 of G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON, or chapter eight of THE MASKED MARVEL. I'm sure that audiences in the early 40's must have gone crazy over them. Let's face it, who could not love those set destroying melees? |
| Honest and Lovable Pa Stark | |
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| riddlerider | Dec 25 2017, 02:02 PM Post #10 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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It's great to see Jerry Blake back here, and as always I find his analysis well-reasoned and skillfully articulated. I concur with many of his conclusions, although he's correct in guessing that I don't share his enthusiasm for the 1945-47 Republics (with the exception of Manhunt of Mystery Island). Specifically, I agree that the studio's Golden Age ends with Perils of Nyoka. All of Republic's chapter-play innovations had taken place by that time. The apex of the action serial was reached with Spy Smasher and subsequent tinkering with the formula—especially while producer William J. O'Sullivan maintained control of Republic's serial unit—was just a matter of degree: larger sets for fight scenes, more elaborate explosions for cliffhanger endings, and so on. It's not insignificant that O'Sullivan did away with the mystery villain; to him the chapter play was simply a vehicle for action. And it's during his tenure as serial-unit head (late 1941 through mid-1944) that the writing loses much of the previously displayed ingenuity and periodic attempts to defy audience expectations. Several decades ago, one of my friends—a particularly astute serial fan—neatly divided Republic's output into three more or less equal eras, which he named the Ascending Period (1936-42, ending with Perils of Nyoka only because none of us had seen King of the Mounties yet), the Established Period (1943-49, ending with King of the Rocket Men), and the Descending Period (1949-55). At the time I thought his breakdown a pretty good one, although my enthusiasm for the postwar serials waned considerably, as I've often mentioned here. There's much I could say to continue this discussion, but I'm told Christmas dinner is nearly ready, so maybe I'll pick up it later. Assuming the tryptophan doesn't knock me out. |
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| Laughing Gravy | Dec 26 2017, 06:05 PM Post #11 |
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Yep, good stuff - thanks Jerry and (as always) RR. Personally, I think the first two Republic serials - Darkest Africa and Undersea Kingdom - rank in their all-time top handful, probably because they're a continuation of the Mascot days. I haven't seen The Painted Stallion but the others in that early period are not favorites of mine, although some are certainly okay. Dick Tracy Returns and Hawk of the Wilderness are the turning points, to me, to the "golden age" that runs through the end of the war and closes with Purple Monster, although a few in that period don't do it for me, including the one I pointed to as the shark-jumper, Federal Operator 99. After Purple Monster, they're a fairly routine lot, fun-wise, although with a few high spots. |
| "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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| CliffClaven | Dec 27 2017, 12:55 AM Post #12 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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It's been a while, but I remember two scenes in particular: One, in the middle of a fight, there's a shot of Ms. Zorro whipping a villain who's trying to crawl away. It's slightly undercranked, so it comes off as S&M with Benny Hill. Two, at the very end, Lucian Littlefield does the obligatory lousy closing gag: Drinking an Indian elixir and dancing around like a Hollywood Indian. This is when I realizing that serial closing gags -- and often entire closing episodes -- are deliberately lame to make the next serial look better. |
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