The Lost Planet

Dr. Grood, a mad scientist, plans to conquer the Earth using his scientific inventions directed from a lost, but nearby planet Ergro. While investigating a flying saucer crash near Grood's earth hideout in the hills, Rex Barrow (news writer) and Tim Johnson (staff photographer) are kidnapped and sent to Ergro by Grood, along with Ella Dorn, whose father is on Ergro, used by Grood to develop his gadgets. For 15 chapters, Rex, Ella, Tim, and Prof. Dorn must overcome the hypnotic effects of Grood's mind control devices to prevent Grood from taking over the world. A very imaginative serial with new gadgets and inventions popping up in every chapter make this late Columbia chapterplay fun to watch. The serial is repetitive and probably has the least amount of fistfights of any serial (I think they all happened when Rex was invisible "fighting" Grood's planet guards.) The addition of the racketeer character, Wolper, doesn't help the serial like the character should have. The bad characters should have been meaner, IMO. Rating, based on serials, 4.