Well, I sent off my first article for At the Bijou. I actually completed it about two weeks ago but my e-mail was having problems and every time I would send it, the e-mail got returned undelivered. Bijou Bob, due to an understandably overworked schedule, had referred me to his associate Ron, but for some reason every time I tried to contact Ron my e-mail wouldn’t get through. I finally sent my article to Bob, who passed it on to Ron and they are looking into my e-mail problem.
I have always found Lon Chaney, Jr. to be one of the most interesting stars to appear in serials. Unlike any other actor, Chaney starred in a serial, The Last Frontier (1932), as he was working to establish himself, and then starred in one, Overland Mail (1942), after he had achieved stardom with The Wolf Man (1941). John Wayne and Boris Karloff left serials behind after becoming stars, while Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill started doing serials when their star power began waning (Lugosi’s fall from grace is the most frightening when you consider he started doing serials a mere two years after Dracula (1931)). But the question remains, why was Chaney put into a serial by Universal after becoming the studio’s premiere boogie man of the forties? Was it to give him something to do until Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) was ready to begin shooting? Was it a test run for a western series? I guess it is one those things we may never know.
Neal’s comments about my post on Max Allan Collins’ disappointing commentary on The Phantom DVD got me thinking. Why don’t serials have great commentary tracks like other genre films do. Look at the Universal Horror Legacy Collections, they have commentary tracks from respected writers like Tom Weaver and David J. Skal, who obviously love these films. Why then can’t serials get commentary tracks by Raymond Stedman, Leonard Kohl, or Michael Price; writers who write about and actually enjoy serials. Or how about getting some of the actors from the productions to provide commentary, I’m sure Tim Tyler’s Luck would have been even better if Frankie Thomas had done a commentary track instead of a brief interview for the DVD.
Copyright © 2007 Todd’s Serial Blog.
