THE MONSTER AND THE APE (1945)

(Feb 5, 2005)

I expected too much from this serial. A killer robot and a ferocious gorilla in the same story... how could it go wrong? Well, if you're like me (and I know I am), you expected to see a titanic battle between the two monsters. Don't get your hopes up, that's all I can say.

But aside from that (and from the disappointment that the robot does not see nearly enough action), THE MONSTER AND THE APE has a certain charm. Some of the chapter endings have a fairly clever solution (as when the hero finds himself tied up and lying behind a running auto, so that the carbon monoxide will kill him; he thinks of something that did not immediately occur to me). Some others are outright cheats that rewrite what we just saw more shamelessly than White House spokesmen. The frequent pugilism does not show the acrobatic flair of the better-known Republic chapterplays, but the basic slugging back and forth in this serial seems more natural and convincing in contrast.

Here's the set-up. A group of five brainiacs with titles have developed an impressive robot called the Metalogen Man (so called because he is powered by that rare metal). The robot is as strong as you could reasonably ask. He lifts a one-ton granite block and rips open a vault door for a demonstration. He does lack a sense of genuine menace, though, even when the villains get hold of his remote control. The Metalogen Man is slow and klunky enough that the Mummy could outmanuever him, and he has a convenient pod on the side which can be unplugged to turn him off. This is sensible design by the robotmakers but it does lessen the threatening quality of the creation.
(The scientists claim Metalogen Men will free humans from drudgery, but that seems unlikely when you consider someone still has to sit there and work the controls, which look just like a big Etch-a-Sketch. Add the problem that metalogen is exceedingly rare, and the idea of rolling out an army of these contraptions sounds like a pipe dream. Personally, I think Metalogen Men would be most useful in rescues under hazardous conditions - gas leaks, bomb disposal, buildings about to collapse and so forth.)

Well, no sooner has the Metalogen Man gone through his shakedown cruise than the scientists who developed him begin to get strangled by (get this) a gorilla. Seriously, if you got in a car even at night, don't you think you would hear or smell a five hundred pound ape lurking in the back seat?
On the other hand, Thor the ape is the most entertaining thing about this serial. Ray "Crash" Corrigan plays him with enthusiasm. Thor is always acting up, barely co-operating with his alleged masters and in generally stealing every scene he's in. He has a lot more charisma than most of the actors.

Why would a gorilla be carrying out such a series of murders and upsetting Dian Fossey so much?
Well might you ask. Thor is being used as a henchman by one of the scientists, who wants to end up with sole possession of the Metalogen Man so he can sell it to a foreign nation before WW II breaks out (the swine!). This mastermind has a remarkably elaborate headquarters. You enter the panel at the back of his cozy fireplace and find yourself in a laboratory; going through another secret panel, you head down a tunnel to come out in another secret lab, even more filled with ominous Mad Science gizmos. Then, you can go through still another panel through another tunnel and come out in Thor's cage at the zoo! Dear Lord, this criminal genius has spent enough money and effort on this layout to live comfortably the rest of his life if he had just skipped the whole affair.
And what if the zoo management decided to move Thor and this series of hidden doors and tunnels suddenly opened on a cage full of wombats?! Not much use as assassins, those fellas.

A company interested in cranking out an assembly line of Metalogen Men sends their best engineer Ken Morgan to help, and I wonder if all electrical engineers are as tough in a fight as Ken. This guy must have been a roadhouse bouncer before going in for science. Ken is played by Robert Lowery (who was also Batman in the Columbia serial BATMAN AND ROBIN). Lowery's okay, I can take him or leave him as an action hero.

Ken finds himself mostly protecting and rescuing Professor Arnold (Robert Morgan) and his daughter Babs (not once do I recall anyone calling her Barbara or Miss Arnold, she must seem very accessible. Babs is played by Carole Matthews, a likeable young woman who seems mildly bemused by everything going on. It's interesting too that she's a bit taller than everyone but the hero and the robot; it's odd to see a thug have to look up slightly to give her a menacing glare.

Once things settle in the groove, we get your basic tug-of-war plot. The bad guys snatch the Metalogen Man, but Arnold had removed the control pod; they get the control pod but then Ken makes off with the metalogen; the crooks manage to get hold of the metalogen, but by then Arnold has retrieved the robot. This runaround goes on for quite a while, with Thor getting frisky and various deathtraps narrowly escaped, all frequently interrupted by the dismal comic relief of "Flash".

Probably the biggest drawback to this serial is Willie Best as "Flash", Arnold's chauffeur and general assistant. Flash is easily frightened or confused, and he is so extremely simple-minded that you suspect he must have nearly drowned or something as a child. Now, the Three Stooges were just as stupid, Bob Hope just as cowardly, and the Bowery Boys just as deficient in English skills as Flash is. For that matter, Gracie Allen in the 1930s was so ditzy that she seemed like a Bizarro. But of course, they were white actors and so it wasn't considered offensive when they acted like complete fools. Flash, on the other hand, is black and plays up the rolling eyeballs to emphasize it. (At one point, I'm sure they use cartoon animation to white his eyes out completely.)

All this I could forgive if only the performance was funny. It's not amusing in the least. Mantan Moreland and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson were saddled with similar roles, but they had enough talent and innate dignity to make their characters likeable. Willie Best sure looks to me like he just hates the whole business and is only going through the motions because it's a paycheck. The best I can say about Flash is that he sometimes rises above the stereotype. When he hears Ken slugging it out in a house, he draws out a straight razor he carries (!) and goes immediately to help (he is surprised and offended when the police refer to this as a lethal weapon). And, at a critical moment near the end, when it looks like the bad guys are going to win for a change, Flash finds himself tied up next to a rotary telephone and he thinks up a moderately clever way to use it.

So there you have it, THE MONSTER AND THE APE. Not what I had expected, but fun in its own way and a nice treat for any serial fan.

Dir: Howard Bretherton (maybe more familiar dealing with Hopalong Cassidy than Thor the unruly gorilla).

THE MYSTERIOUS DR SATAN

(Nov 25, 2001)

From 1940, this is another great serial from Republic in its prime. If you started watching a chapter after the credits, you might well think this was an atmospheric little "B" picture-- and considering the low budgets which serials were allotted, that's pretty impressive.

Dr Satan himself is a classic villain who would have done as well in the pulps or on radio. Played as a smooth, well-dressed gangster by Eduardo Cianelli, usually lit from beneath to look more sinister, Dr Satan is one of those mad scientist masterminds who have a wide range of technical skills. He has control discs fastened to his often unwilling henchmen, the devices containing a radio transmitter and television lense so he can monitor their activities. These devices also can give off a deadly electrical charge in case killing off a minion if necessary.(Dr Satan's television gimmick is hard to fathom, though, as apparently it can show the man wearing the transmitter. This would be like a camcorder that can record an image of the person using it. Perhaps the mastermind is actually picking up and deciphering images through some other quasi-rational means, but it sure seems like a combination of X-ray and telescopic cameras.)

Most fondly remembered by serial fans, though, is the robot. (In fact, this serial was edited into a feature retitled DR SATAN'S ROBOT.) There is only one working model, although the villain is planning to construct an army of these things to conquer the world. Seven feet tall, with a slim cylindrical body and flexible arms and legs, Satan's robot saw a lot of use over the years. First appearing in the 1936 UNDERSEA KINGDOM, the creation made a comeback in the 1952 ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE (although largely through generous uses of stock footage). A lot of flesh and blood actors had shorter careers. You have to crank up your suspension of disbelief to give this automaton any credibility, but like the gorilla suits of that era, men in robot get-ups were part of the genre and it's best to just smile and enjoy them.

Cianelli, with his piercing stare and doom-laden voice, gives a fine performance in the title role.
Unfortunately, his opponent is a rather bland young crimefighter named the Copperhead.
Played by the competent but unexciting Robert Wilcox, Bob Wayne has just learned that his own father had been a masked vigilante of the Old West called the Copperhead (a misunderstood hero) when his adoptive dad is killed by Dr Satan's thug. So Wayne has a double motive, to avenge his foster parent's murder and to clear the good names of both his real father and the Copperhead.
The Copperhead mask is strikingly unattractive, a chain mail hood that fits loosely and has a big mouth opening. Think how heavy and hot and uncomfortable a hood made of copper chain would be, how easily it would fall off or twist around to block vision. And somehow Bob folds this thing up and puts it in his inside jacket pocket to yank out as needed.

Originally, Republic had planned this as a Superman serial but had trouble negotiating with DC Comics. (It's interesting to think of a Repubic serial featuring the Man of Steel battling an army of robots, especially considering how well the Captain Marvel cliffhanger turned out a year later.)
Watching this again, there are a few hints left from the original conception. For one thing, the Copperhead does a lot of very dramatic acrobatic leaps onto his opponents-- in one scene, he runs across a lawn and dives through a basement window down onto a group of thugs. At the very beginning, as Bob Wayne is in a race car pursuing a train, it's easy to imagine the original script having Superman running alongside the locomotive And when Dr Satan shoots Wayne in the chest with a poisoned hypodermic needle (that villain has great toys), the dart is stopped harmlessly by the folded copper mask in the hero's pocket. Most likely, it would have been Clark Kent who took that needle in the chest, only pretending to be killed, to get up later and throw the bent dart away.

Well, it would have been great to have had a Superman serial made by Republic in their prime years (how about Kane Richmond from SPY SMASHER as the Man of Steel?), but instead we got the wonderful ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL and this very entertaining, well made serial, so maybe it was for the best.

NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN (1935)

(Aug 9, 2006)

NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN is something unique, in that Edgar Rice Burroughs himself had input into the project. He slammed out a story which served as a basis for the screenplay, he selected the actor to play Tarzan, and he saw that the character was presented as literate, articulate and yet savagely violent when appropriate. It's the dichotomy of the sophisticated Lord Greystoke and the feral Apeman which gives Tarzan so much of his appeal to me.

As much as I really wanted to like this serial, it's still a mixed bag of good and bad. On the one hand, it remains a film interpretation of Tarzan nearer to Burroughs' original vision than any other (Gordon Scott's version is also pretty faithful and my personal favorite movie Tarzan). Herman Brix (later Bruce Bennett) is visually perfect, lean and muscular in an athletic rather than bulked-up weightlifter way. He had been in the 1928 Olympics and obviously did not sit around with donuts and beer all day. This Tarzan also acts intelligent, speaks normal English and looks comfortable in a formal dinner jacket or white tropical trousers and shirt (although he spends most of his time in a ragged loincloth, of course). Brix can wrestle several men at a time or rush up a tree and it's convincing because he actually WAS fit enough to do it.

The mandatory lion-fighting scene is led up to with some suspense as Tarzan finds himself tied up in a small chamber with the big cat chained near at hand. It's a question of whether the Apeman will be cut free by gal pal Ula (helpfully reaching in through a hole in the wall with a knife) before the lion breaks loose. In the books, Burroughs always had Tarzan try to land behind the lion, wrap himself around the beast and stab it furiously in the chest before those claws and fangs would shred him. Here, as in most movie versions, Brix literally wrestles with the lion the way you'd tangle with a human opponent. Maybe this would work for someone like Hercules or Samson, but a mortal man trying this approach would certainly be killed in a few seconds. Still, it's a tradition of the series.

The serial was shot on location in Guatemala, so the scenery is often stunning (like the rushing river going over waterfalls) or miserably hot and filthy like real jungles are. (Stock footage seems to be telling us that there are rhinos and giraffes in Central America, which is kind of a shock to learn.) The actors are obviously sweaty, grimy and uncomfortable in most shots, which seems more authentic than the usual Hollywood backlot emoting. Unfortunately, this location shooting also means the sound recording is atrocious. Dialogue is hard to follow, and the lack of normal noises sometimes gives the impression of watching a silent movie but without the benefit of constant musical scoring. Money spent on a decent foley artist or dubbing in some of spoken lines would have help immensely.

Also, the editing is usually so choppy and incoherent that it reminds me of today's split-second MTV-style style. The fights are sped up way too much; you expect a little discreet undercranking but these guys go overboard. I much prefer the Republic approach, where the action is clear and exciting. Brix is so good in the role, it's a shame he wasn't given a better vehicle to show his approach. (Check out FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS to see him in a better light as an action hero.) My copy of the feature version is rather grainy and murky, but that's not necessarily how the original twelve chapters looked in theatres as I'm relying on cut-rate modern DVD companies.

The story itself is nothing special, just the usual tug of war over a hot potato. In this case, the knick-knack everyone is desperately trying to snatch from one another is the Green Goddess, a rather unattractive slab of stone. The Mayan-descent natives of a ruined city in the jungle worship the Green Goddess and naturally want it back, while archaeologist Major Martling is contending with ratfink Raglan. These intruders from the world outside know that inside the idol is the secret formula to a new super-powerful explosive that every European nation would gladly drop a bundle to buy. So there follows the series of brawls, kidnappings and escapes, deathtraps, encounters with wild animals etc that normally take place in serials. In NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN, though, the pacing is slack and I had the distinct impression that many times no one involved was sure what was supposed to happen next. Improv is fine for comedy, for adventure not so much.

My favorite scene took me by surprise with its goofiness. Comic relief George is sitting on a log, fooling around with a snapping turtle for no good reason. Another turtle sees him and (wait for it) calls for help. Half a dozen of the large beasts swarm up rather quickly behind George and one clamps its beak hard right where you would expect. As George howls and prances around, bouncing off trees with a turtle hanging down from the seat of his pants, I had to smile at this unexpected tomfoolery. I especially like the way Tarzan rolls his eyes disgustedly when he examines the panicky man and is told he was attacked by "thousands and thousands" of turtles.

Along with expedition for no apparent reason is shady lady Ula Vale (played by the rather attractive Ula Holt), who turns out to have motives of her own and is a bigger help to Tarzan than the others in the party. As in several Burroughs stories, the woman of mystery always is revealed to be a spy or something similar. The other character with a distinctive look is the high priest of the lost tribe. With his neatly trimmed white beard, headband and wild staring eyes, he reminds of this guy I used to see loitering around gas stations near the Thruway exit.

Dir: Edward Kull (not of Valusian descent, as far as I know)

PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO

(Nov 12, 2003)

1955 was pretty close to closing time for the serials. The waiters were putting chairs up on tables and the bartender was taking off his apron, when Republic decided to crank out just one or two more cliffhangers. PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO was the next to last to be produced. This serial isn't so dreadful that it can't be watched, but it is seriously weak and doesn't really reward a viewing.

There's a mad scientist lurking around Africa, and his particular brand of mad science involves breeding giant crayfish (not Godzilla-sized, about as big as a horse maybe) so he can scare the natives away from his diamond mine. Heck, if he can produce big crustaceans like these, he could count on a Nobel Prize in biology or at the very least open a chain of seafood resturants but thats too direct for his twisted brain.

Opposing him is Jean Evans, the Panther Girl, who turns out to be Phyllis Coates wearing the tempting outfit which Frances Gifford filled out so well back in JUNGLE GIRL. Many of us loved Phyllis as the tough, no-nonsense Lois Lane from the 1950s TV show, as well as such drive-in classics as I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN (her being married to Whit Bisselll in that film is as hard to believe as the monster). Phyllis is her usual feisty self here as she goes after the big crawdaddies with both movie cameras and rifles. She has a nice rapport with her likeable pal Myron Healey, but we don't see all that much of Phyllis as the serial keeps throwing big chunks of JUNGLE GIRL at us. So the Panther Girl shows up riding on her pet elephant, fights a lion with a knife (she has the knife, not the lion... although that would be a novelty) and has to deal with a variety of killer gorillas in various clips.

Stock footage was a fact of life in Republic serials after WWII, with actors wearing familiar outfits to facilitate use of long stretches of film last seen years earlier in different storylines. Sometimes the effect is oddly endearing; serials like ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE has a comforting nostalgic feeling as we greet Dr Satan's robot or the Purple Monster going through the paces once again. It`s just overdone way too much here, though.

The real sinker for PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO is the dismal presentation of the giant crawfish. *Sigh* Look, we know it's a real live critter filmed alongside tiny props. We're willing to meet you guys halfway, but make an effort to convince us. Use low camera angles, moody lighting, creative intercutting with that plastic prop claw grabbing Phyllis (in a polite way). No one expects another THEM! on the pitiful budget these guys had to work with, but we do hope for something better than another GIANT GILA MONSTER.

Dir: Franklin Adreon