Return Of The Ape Man!

When is an "ape man" not an "ape man"? When that "ape man" appears in the 1944 flicker Return of the Ape Man. This is one of those delightfully awful movies from the poverty row side of Hollywood and it stars Bela Lugosi, John Carrdine and George Zucco (almost). The final name appears only momentarily in the movie, but was taken ill and replaced by a bloke named Frank Moran.

Moran plays the title role, but alas is only an ancient caveman and not anything really much like an ape. From some of the dialogue and even the movie's title card one gets the sense a different creature was intended. Moran is mildly menacing at times, but hardly an "ape man".

He was defrosted from some Arctic ice by scientists Lugosi and Carradine who went looking specifically for a cave man in ice. Now it's worth pointing out that this movie has no apparent connection to the earlier Lugosi effort titled The Ape Man.

Lugosi's scientist is properly mad and murderous and ends up dissolving his partnership with the much more easygoing Carradine in the most macabre manner. There are some younger folks to fill in as hero and heroine, but the story is hapless from the get-go with plot holes easily fixed which were not. The scenes are all on stages aside from some images of glaciers falling apart and the scenes are just dumb. Almost as dumb as the police, who will shoot at nearly anything at anytime. You'd almost think Ed Wood had something to do with this mess.

But that said, I found a few things here and there to hang some fun on. If you can see this one for free, it's worth a fan's time, but don't pay much for it unless you're obsessive like I am.

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Blackhawk - Fearless Champion Of Freedom!

Reed Crandall
I've been wanting to see the serial Blackhawk forever and a day. I passed up picking up a VHS copy way back in the 90's, and I've regretted it ever since. Now at long last I can report what it was like to have seen this 1962 Columbia serial.

It was just okay!


Now that's poor commmentary on a movie I've yearned so long to see, but it happens to be the miserable truth. I wish it had been better, but it was just okay. Now to be honest I'd read reviews which spoke of this movie's lackluster nature, but I guess I'd hoped against hope that I'd disagree when I at long last saw it. I don't.

The story is pretty standard for a serial. The Blackhawks are pitted against "The Leader" and his gang of saboteurs who seek to steal a few big secrets such as a ray gun device in some early chapters and then later a secret fuel dubbed "Element X".
Blackhawk (Kirk Alyn) and his comrades, most notably Chuck (John Crawford) battle the Leader, a typical serial anonymous type and his gang led by Laska (Carol Forman).

Harvey, Crawford, Alyn & Vallin
The story begins rather well actually as Stan (Rick Vallin)is kidnapped and replaced by his twin Boris. This section is apparently inspired by this comic book story. There follow a few chapters dealing with this confusion, then the story switches abruptly to a Doctor Rolph (William Fawcett) who invented some ray device and we spend a few chapters spinning around on that maguffin. Finally around chapter six or so the main plot unfolds and Element X is introduced and the gang attempts to steal it sending Blackhawk and Chuck to Mexico for several chapters. At the beginning of this story, there is a pretty terrific series of explosions at an oil field. Blackhawk and Chuck return to the U.S. just in time to rejoin the rest,and to tie up all the loose ends.

Laska Gets Drop On Blackhawk
They try to wedge in a little flying into this saga, but frankly it always seems to be an afterthought and the only action appearing to be a dogfight is when the animated robot saucers from Columbia's Superman serials show up for an exceedingly brief attack. Most of the serial is spent in cars on back roads as the two groups endlessly punch at one another.

Blackhawk and Chuck get the most screen time, as Chuck becomes the go-to sidekick. Stan gets a lot of attention in the first several episodes, as does Chop (Weaver Levy). Olaf (Don Harvey) shows up for a few key fights, but mostly is relegated to second tier status. Andre (Larry Stewart) is in it all the way, but does little but run around a bit and fly some airplanes when an extra pilot is needed. Hendrickson (Frank Ellis) is barely in this movie, always in his mechanics gear and he gets a few scenes, being key to only one sequence really.

Press Book
Early chapters have the five Blackhawks running around in a gang a lot, but later they seem to break up more. That's good, because frankly all of them together is a bit of a mess. It's a shame a more complex plot giving all of them some real work to do couldn't have been worked out, but then I guess that would've required spending some real some money, not something Columbia or Sam Katzman were known for doing on these serials.

Carol Forman Gets Cuffed
Carol Forman is adequate as the femme fatale of the story, though she seems unusually stiff in the early going. She gets a tad more personality as the story unfolds as her role as a woman leading some ignoble men comes to be a real problem for her. The government she works for is not identified of course, but there is some talk of being loyal to the "party" so I guess in 1952 there was little doubt who that signaled.

Kirk Looking Macho
Kirk Alyn is pretty good in the lead role, looking the part, but his mincing way of running while making Superman seemed arguably graceful. Here it comes across a bit girlish in places. It's a problem especially when contrasted with John Crawford who comes across with classic screen machismo.

Blackhawk is a decent serial with some solid actors going through the serial paces. It's a bright saga told exclusively in the daytime, and features a few fun stunts along the way. But it seems to get tired before it reaches what amounts to a climax. It is notable that there was not re-run chapter in the later stages which indicated some more money being spent I guess, but frankly that just meant more time in Mexico where the story sort of grinds to a halt a bit.


I recommend Blackhawk. It's a decent serial, but not one of the best by any means. I did note that Reed Crandall, the regular artist on the series, though not the creator got mention on the credits. Here's the trailer.



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Brick Bradford!

I finished up the 1947 Columbia serial Brick Bradford yesterday. I want to be relatively kind in this review because the VHS copy of the serial that I watched was perhaps the grungiest I've ever tried to view. I don't know the condition of the source materials, but this was washed out and thrashed together. For what I paid for it, I'm not going to complain, but I do want it known that I didn't see the serial under ideal conditions.

This serial is structured like no other that I've come across. It's really three stories in one, three different types of serial in one package. The first five chapters introduce Brick Bradford (Kane Richmond) and his sidekick Sandy Sanderson (Rick Vallin) as well as the striking Doctor Tymak (John Merton) and his two assistants. Also on hand are Professor Salsbury (Pierre Watkin) and his daughter June, Brick's girlfriend. Tymak's scientific breakthroughs are at once the maguffins of these stories as well as the means by which they unfold.

Dr.Tymak
The first several chapters introduce us to Tymak's cosmic door which can transport someone to its counterpart which has been flown to the dark side of the Moon. Tymak goes there to escape the villain Laydron (Charles Quigley) and his henchmen. There Tymak finds a society of Earth colonists who have broken into two groups, one democratic and the other under the heel of a tyrant and a token queen. Soon enough Brick and his associates show up and there is much activity in a distinctly Flash Gordon style.

Brick & June
But then suddenly the story shifts gears and Brick and his amigo find themselves in the Time Top headed back two hundred years to get a treasure from some pirates. They run into some natives, fight some grizzled pirates and get the treasure. When they return the story shifts yet again.

This time the story becomes a more traditional crime serial with a few sci-fi touches such as an invisibility gadget. There is a great deal of running around the countryside and eventually as it must in all serials the situation is put to rights. There are a few twists and turns, but overall this is a pretty predictable story.

And alas I have to say, a pretty dull one. The pacing is the problem here for sure. As in all serials there is a lot of running about, but here that takes a long time it seems and long stretches go on where little if anything is accomplished.

Brick & Sandy Meet Lois Lane
There are a few neat suprises such as Noel Neill showing up in the middle of the story as a native girl. She doesn't get any lines, but she sure is pretty.

The Time Top is a keen gimmick and a wonderful prop/set. It's too bad they didn't focus on it more in the last few chapters where most of the dullness sets in. The movie seemed to lack some funds. It had a pretty large cast overall, but some of the costuming was pretty meager.

Kane Richmond does his usual as a hero, but there's surprisingly little for him to do. The fights are pretty ho-hum and as I said, a lot of the time of this serial was taken up by running to and fro.

Brick Bradford might be better under ideal viewing circumstances, but the big storytelling issues aren't going away. It's only marginally recommended for serial purists.


If you're interested in the comic strip by William Ritt and Clarence Gray that inspired this serial, check out this link.

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Dracula Versus Tarzan!

Shadow Of Chinatown is a 1936 serial from Victory Pictures (a Sam Katzman operation) and stars Bela Lugosi as an "Eurasion" villain named "Poten" bent first on destroying the commerce of Chinatown in San Francisco and later on apparently destroying any and all Chinese he comes across. Pitted against him are the usual plucky girl reporter and an author, an evident expert on Chinatown with the whitest name I've perhaps seen in a movie, "Martin Andrews". This virile and handsome hero is played by Herman Brix fresh off his turn as Edgar Rice Burroughs' hand-picked Tarzan in the serial The New Adventures of Tarzan.

So it's quite a thing to see Brix, a very capable action star pitted against Lugosi a classic villain in this very very long serial. Some sources say this is the longest serial ever made, and I'd have to say it's the longest one I've watched. The print I saw was pretty tough, especially the sound which had that can effect you get in older and cheaper productions. The action is pretty decent with such cliffhangers as the sliding walls, the explosion, and even a car tumbling off a cliff, though it's a relatively short cliff. The story does shift at one point to Los Angeles but that's a dodge as it only serves to get the actors aboard a ship for some whodunnit stuff there.

The story alas has many regrettable stereotypes, and gets particularly painful in that regard in the last chapter when Bela tries on a very cheesy disguise. There's a lot of racism in the script itself as Chinese are clearly presented as citizens with fewer rights and protections than the "white" citizens of San Francisco.

Brix is pretty dang good and I'll have to hand it to Lugosi who does the most with a very scattershot part. The villain's motives seem to be revenge but the impetus is unclear and his goal seems uncertain. He's a "madman" so I guess that's all we need to know.

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