The Superman serials (1948/1950)

Posted on July 3, 2011
Filed Under films, serials

The movies’ first live-action Superman was Columbia contract player Kirk Alyn, who was the Man of Steel in two Columbia serials in the waning days of the chapterplay era. While Superman (1948) and Superman vs. Atom Man (1950), both 15 chapters long, are said to be the most successful serials ever made, they’re notable today principally for their obvious influence on The Adventures of Superman, the iconic early television series that starred George Reeves, and for their priority; these are the first entries in the film series that will soon include Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. The production credits note that both serials are “based on” the DC Comics character, but are “adapted from” the radio series then running on the Mutual Network. Read more

The Phantom Empire (1935)

Posted on March 25, 2011
Filed Under films, serials

Minutes after escaping from the secret underground city of Murania, where he was killed by a radium bomb and then restored to life in the Radium Reviving Chamber, singing-cowboy radio star Gene Autry hijacks a plane belonging to the evil scientists who gunned down his partner. Accompanied by Frankie and Betsy, his dead partner’s teenaged kids, Autry pulls a gun on the pilot and orders him to fly the dynamite-packed plane to Radio Ranch, the remote desert home of Autry’s radio show. Autry, who is wanted for murder, is obliged by contract to appear live on his show every day at two o’clock on pain of losing his contract, and with it the ranch. On this day it appears that Autry will indeed miss his appearance, what with having been killed and resurrected and all, until sharp-eyed Frankie, who is the president of the Junior Thunder Riders Club and a radio whiz, spots a radio-telephone in the cockpit and connects to the transmitter at Radio Ranch, enabling Autry to perform from the plane. Frankie tunes the radio and holds the gun on the pilot as the resurrected Autry, dressed in the uniform of a Muranian Royal Thunder Rider, sings “I’m Getting A Moon’s-Eye View of the World” in his thready, inoffensive tenor. Read more

Batman (1943)

Posted on January 18, 2011
Filed Under films, serials

The first attempt to bring Batman to the big screen is a luxe 15-chapter Columbia serial released eighteen months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Batman (1943), with Lewis Wilson in the title role, is filled with echoes of the war then raging around the world and is a grand chapterplay, but it’s marred by its failure to adequately dramatize the title character. Read more

The Whispering Shadow (1933)

Posted on January 1, 2011
Filed Under films, serials

Serials changed forever in 1936 with the release of Universal’s Flash Gordon, which chapterplay fans often cite as the greatest serial ever made. I’ve not yet seen Flash Gordon, but I’ve seen 1940’s Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, and it’s great. Universal spent big money on these productions—Flash Gordon cost more than $350,000 and took six weeks to complete at a time when most chapterplays cost about $100,000 and were made in three weeks. It inaugurated the era of big-budget superhero and masked-crimefighter serials like The Adventures of Captain Marvel and The Green Hornet. They’re all a lot of fun, but I enjoy Mascot Pictures’ The Whispering Shadow more than any of them. Read more

The Green Hornet (1940)

Posted on August 30, 2010
Filed Under early television, serials

This excellent Universal serial is stylish, simple and fast—its best moments have the frenetic air of a good Mascot production. The Green Hornet stars Gordon Jones as playboy newspaper publisher Britt Reid, who goes masked in the night to fight crime. The great Keye Luke plays Kato, Reid’s faithful retainer, a scientist, master of martial arts and the designer of Black Beauty, the Hornet’s tricked-out 200-mph car. Its two directors, Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor, were chapterplay specialists who also directed Buck Rogers and the Flash Gordon serials. Like the radio show from which it is adapted (then four years into a 17-year run that ended only in December 1952), The Green Hornet depicts our hero(es) busting a series of mostly conventional urban rackets like extortion and election fraud. As soon as Jones dons the mask, the Hornet’s voice becomes that of Al Hodge, who played the character on radio. It’s all done with great energy and dash. VCI’s DVD edition presents a rich print in generally good condition and includes two episodes of the radio series. Read more

keep looking »

Recently


Categories


Archives


Blogroll