Serial Reviews

This has been a fine summer for the release of vintage movie serials on DVD, so let’s get caught up with some of the chapterplays that have crossed our threshold. What say we just take ‘em in alphabetical-type order, eh?

Call of the Savage (Universal, 1935, 12 episodes) is goofy even by that studio’s standards; in the mid-1930s, it seems every Universal serial ran out of ideas in the eight or ninth chapter, so they just veered off and did something else for a few episodes, hoping we wouldn't notice. In this case, we start off with two teams of scientists (one good team, one evil team) looking for the cure for polio in the jungles of… well, some continent where they have African, Asian, and South American wildlife living in the same bush. The good team discovers the cure, so they don’t live very long. Luckily, the young son of the team leader toddles off into the jungle where he becomes… JAN OF THE JUNGLE! Stop snickering; that’s his name, really. Anyway, after a few years’ growth and a few episodes of thrills, Jan decides to find something better to do and swings his vine into the Lost Kingdom of Mu, one of the finest Lost Kingdoms you’ll find anywhere. Noah Beery, Jr. stars; Dorothy Short screams a lot. Directed by Louis Friedlander, one of the few directors who graduated from serials to “mainstream movies”, if you consider I Was a Prisoner on Devil’s Island and Return of the Vampire to be mainstream. The DVD is from our friends at Hermitage Hill Media, and it’s a very nice print indeed on 3 DVDs. Bonus material includes excerpts from the original Jan of the Jungle story in Argosy magazine and a brief photo gallery. You can order it from http://www.hermitagehillmedia.com/ ($14.95).

The Green Hornet (Universal, 1940, 13 episodes) is unusual for its time; while other masked heroes were battling Dr. Daka the dreadful, the malevolent Mask, or the sinister Dr. Satan, the Hornet and Kato tangle with different racketeers from week to week, breaking up a stolen car ring today and then going after the mob that is running a shake down of dry cleaners. Gordon Jones is surprisingly effective as the Green Hornet; when he dons the mask, the voice is supplied by Al Hodge, the radio Hornet. Lots of action and the coolest car in the business, even though you can hear the damn thing coming from 25 miles away (it buzzes, which I guess is supposed to unnerve the crooks, although it just sounds like somebody’s giving ‘em the raspberry, hardly an effect that would strike fear and terror into their black li'l hearts). Keye Luke and Anne Nagel co-star, and the print and transfer on the VCI Entertainment serial ($29.99) are gorgeous except for a few minutes of damage at the end of chapter 9. Also available from VCI: The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941, 15 episodes), with Warren Hull replacing Jones as the star. The two DVD sets include some great liner notes by Martin Grams, Jr., bonus radio episodes of The Green Hornet, and a bio of the Hornet written by Yours Truly.

The Last of the Mohicans (Mascot, 1932, 12 episodes) seems primitive even for its era; one of the problems of so much outdoor filming, I guess, although it wouldn’t surprise me if this were the first sound film anybody associated with it had ever made. Filled with ridiculous histrionics mingled with truly impressive sequences and savage Indian attacks. Harry Carey is not bad as Hawkeye; Frank “Junior” Coghlan is all but unrecognizable as Uncas. I’d mention who Hobart Bosworth plays, but I don’t think I can spell “Chingachgook”. Hint to future serial makers, if there are any: don’t ever put one of your heroes in a white powdered wig; men haven’t looked heroic in one since 1782, if then. The VCI DVD  ($19.99) surprised me; it’s a great-looking print, and is missing the inappropriate yawn-inducing classical music that was added to the serial for TV showings and invariably popped up on previous home video versions of this public domain serial. This chapterplay is actually a lot more fun than I was expecting.

Radio Patrol (Universal, 1937, 12 episodes) is supposed to be about police officers investigating the murder of a scientist; somebody at Universal quickly discovered that police officers in the routine course of a day aren't all that interesting, and so star Grant Withers is out of his uniform quicker than a hooker masquerading as a meter maid, and embroiled in mysterious goings-on in that fables section of Los Angeles known as Little Cairo, movingly portrayed by the Egyptian set on the Universal backlot. Hey, we TOLD you these things veered off into odd directions. Frank Lackteen played the villain, and since nobody can understand a word he ever said, he could play jungle witch doctors, American Indians, or Egyptian gangsters equally well, sometimes on the same day. Based on a not-too-popular comic strip of the day, Radio Patrol offers the gimmick of cops who fight crime by having an actual RADIO in their squad car, although they don't use it much. My guess is once they discover they can't tune in Amos & Andy or Jack Benny, they said the hell with it. The VCI DVD release ($19.99) is very good, but I warn you: if you fall asleep and wake up in the middle of a chapter, you're gonna think you're either watching one of those old Mummy pictures or having the weirdest fever dream of all time.