Todd’s Serial Blog

DOC SAVAGE: A COLUMBIA SERIAL IN 15 CHAPTERS

Producer: Larry Darmour
Director: James W. Horne
Photography: James S. Brown, Jr.
Script: Basil Dickey
George H. Plympton
Wyndham Gittens
Music: Lee Zahler

Cast:

Doc Savage: Larry “Buster” Crabbe
Pat Savage: Iris Meredith
Tarnack: James Craven
Natalia: Veda Ann Borg
Renny: Roy Barcroft
Ham: Tristram Coffin
Monk: Charles King
Long Tom: Guy Wilkerson
Johnny: William Bakewell
Brown: Ray Teal
Taylor: Al Ferguson
Butch: Jack Ingram
Karl: George Magrill
Wheeler: Dick Botiller
Meeks: Kit Guard
Lyle: Lester Dorr
DA Warwick: Forbes Murray
Inspector Nolan: Robert Fiske
Judge Watkins: Selmer Jackson
Tuka: Al Kikume
Narrator: Knox Manning

Recap: “Doc Savage and his Fabulous Five fight to defend the world from evil world conquerors and master criminals! Doc and his men race for his famed Fortress of Solitude to prevent criminal mastermind Tarnack from looting it of valuable scientific inventions to use for his own nefarious ends, unaware that he has already beaten them there and is planning an ambush!”

CHAPTER 6: PLUNGE TO DESTRUCTION

Doc and the Fab Five arrive at the Fortress. He presses his hand against a panel, explaining that only his hand print can open the hidden door to the Fortress. Once it is open and the men enter, Tarnack and his men rush into the opening before it can close and engage in furious battle. Surprisingly, for once, the henchmen overpower the good guys, and they are all knocked unconscious. Tarnack has his men gather up several devices, then he has Doc and his friends dragged to Doc’s lab. Tarnack mixes up a deadly gas, then releases it in the lab. Laughing in triumph, Tarnack leaves, locking the door behind him.

As the fumes start the fill the room, Monk comes to first, coughing and sputtering, he mutters that he recognizes the alkaloid base of the gas and quickly mixes a counter gas. Monk’s concoction quickly dissipates the deadly gas in the room, helping to revive the others in the process.

While the others are gathering themselves up, Renny punches open the door. Doc bemusedly mentions that he had the key in his pocket. Renny apologizes, wisecracking that he would have done it anyway, punching holes in doors is his hobby. After sharing a quick laugh at this, the heroes dust themselves off and proceed to search the Fortress.

Tarnack is long gone. Johnny and Long Tom are all for heading after him immediately, but Doc feels it is more important to find out what was taken first so that they know just what they are up against. While they others grumble about doing inventory work, Ham jumps into it enthusiastically, saying he is in his métier.

Once that is completed, Doc unveils his latest invention, several two man super jet powered sleds that will quickly catch them up to Tarnack and his gang, who are utilizing ordinary dog sleds. Reving them up, Doc and the Fab Five speed off in pursuit of Tarnack.

Tarnack has made camp for the night and is examining the fabulous inventions he has stolen, chortling about the plans he has for them. Butch comments that he’ll be a big man now that they have these machines, prompting Taylor to snap back, “What do you mean you’ll be a big man!” The argument quickly evolves into a shoving match that escalates into a full blown fist fight. Tarnack angrily puts a stop to their shenanigans by proclaiming himself to be the only big man there and if they have any doubts he is more than willing to make them the first test subject for the Sonic Vibrator Gun he is holding in his hands. The men all meekly apologize.

Natalia come up beside Tarnack and cracks that if everyone is through playing around they might be interested in the weird sleds that are coming up in the distance. Tarnack’s eyes almost pop out of his head as he turns to see Doc and his men on their pursuit vehicles. His immediate fear is quickly replaced by evil cunning as he spots that they will have to round a bend that hangs over a cliff to get to him.

Shouldering the Sonic Vibrator Gun, Tarnack gloats that he has found the perfect test for his new weapon. Moving to a better vantage point, Tarnack aims the gun at the path in front of where Doc and his men will have pass over to get around the mountain and fires the weapon. The sonic vibrations set up by the gun cause the cliff edge to crumble and collapse just and Doc and the Fab Five start to cross it. The six men tumble helplessly into a deep chasm to their apparent doom.

“Has Tarnack finally succeeded in getting rid of Doc and the Fabulous Five? Will Pat Savage be the only one left to stand against the criminals’ attack on the city? What use is Tarnack planning to make of his stolen inventions? Find out in SONIC CRIME WAVE! The Seventh Thrill Packed Episode of DOC SAVAGE, at this theater next week!”

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Finally got to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and it rocks!  I don’t know what all of the critics were complaining about, maybe the film isn’t dark and somber enough for them, if so I’m sure The Dark Knight will more than make up for it this July.  For me from the minute when Harrison Ford and his buddy are surrounded by guns and he tells the other man to put his arms down because he is embarrassing them, I was hooked.

After a seemingly endless series of lackluster action films and thrillers, it is great to see Ford back in harness, the charm and charisma are still there, and like his cinematic father Sean Connery, he can still make a believable hero at a time when most men his age are preparing to take it easy from now on.

The film delivers everything you have come to expect from an Indiana Jones picture; great stunts, fist fights, care chases, creepy tomb raiding with death traps, and plenty of humorous exchanges along the way,  best of all he gets to crack that whip several times in the course of the film.   Some of the highlights include  a car chase inside a warehouse,  Indy’s  clever escape from an atom bomb explosion using a major appliance of the 1950’s ( the image of him silhouetted against a mushroom cloud is an instantly iconic shot), crawling through two tombs, going over three consecutive waterfalls, having to be pulled out of quicksand with a snake for a rope, and Indy silhouetted against another classic 1950’s image that I don’t want to spoil for the few who haven’t seen the movie yet.

Of course one of the biggest highlights is the pairing of Karen Allen with Harrison Ford.  Once she enters the film at about the halfway mark, where Ford and LaBeouf have wrung just about all they can from the buddy cop/teacher mentor motif they were doing, the film switches to domestic comedy in the face of danger with Ford and Allen bickering so much that even their Russian guard yells at them to shut up.  Ford and Allen still have that great chemistry from the first film.

I can understand some of the complaints, it must have been off putting to see Indy engaging in a science fiction based story as opposed to a supernatural one, but the setting is the fifties and that suits the time period better than the late thirties and early forties, when supernatural horror was popular in films of the period, just as science fiction was the mainstay of fifties cinema.  I don’t get the complaints about Cate Blanchett’s performance.  It isn’t the one note stereotypical caricature critics have accused it of being, and I think her accent is well done.  Maybe they just don’t like seeing a great actress doing what they consider a mindless popcorn film.  I know why she did it, it’s the same reason that we all love Indy movies, at the end of the day, they’re just plain fun.  And what’s wrong with that?

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DOC SAVAGE: A COLUMBIA SERIAL IN 15 CHAPTERS

Producer: Larry Darmour
Director: James W. Horne
Photography: James S. Brown, Jr.
Script: Basil Dickey
George H. Plympton
Wyndham Gittens
Music: Lee Zahler

Cast:

Doc Savage: Larry “Buster” Crabbe
Pat Savage: Iris Meredith
Tarnack: James Craven
Natalia: Veda Ann Borg
Renny: Roy Barcroft
Ham: Tristram Coffin
Monk: Charles King
Long Tom: Guy Wilkerson
Johnny: William Bakewell
Brown: Ray Teal
Taylor: Al Ferguson
Butch: Jack Ingram
Karl: George Magrill
Wheeler: Dick Botiller
Meeks: Kit Guard
Lyle: Lester Dorr
DA Warwick: Forbes Murray
Inspector Nolan: Robert Fiske
Judge Watkins: Selmer Jackson
Tuka: Al Kikume
Narrator: Knox Manning

Recap: “Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze, and Champion of Justice, having deduced that master criminal Tarnack has located Doc’s famed Fortress of Solitude at the North Pole, pursues the evil mastermind, unaware of the treachery being planned against him!”

CHAPTER 5: THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE

Doc and his men come to an Eskimo village and prepare to greet the villagers. Meanwhile Tarnack has Butch and Karl sneak in around the side and plant a bomb on the village’s sacred idol. After Doc and the Fab Five pass the idol it explodes. Tuka, chief of the tribe, immediately comes to the erroneous conclusion that Doc has done the sacrilege and orders his men to attack. Doc and his friends take cover behind some rocks and use their non lethal dart guns to defend themselves, but the Eskimos converge on them and bind the heroes. They are marched to a smoking pit where Tuka prepares to push them in to their death to appease the wraith of their god.

Johnny, who has been listening to the natives speak, recognizes the unusual dialect of the tribe and starts to speak to them in their own language. He explains that they are innocent of the idol’s destruction and points with his head to the skulking forms of Butch and Karl trying to sneak away. The two miscreants prove their guilt by simultaneously jerking upright in surprise at being spotted, then crying out in fear and running away. The village warriors give chase, but lose them among the frozen mountainside.

Tuka apologizes to Doc and his friends through Johnny. Doc graciously accepts the apology as they are being untied, and revives the warriors hit by his men’s dart guns. Doc wants to push on immediately but Tuka insists on a feast first, to acknowledge his new friends. Desiring to avoid insulting the chief, Doc and the gang graciously accept the invitation and enjoy a fine meal complete with dancing entertainment, the dancers all clearly smitten with Doc. They push on the next day.

Tarnack locates the frozen dome of the Fortress of Solitude and laughs in maniacal triumph, until he realizes he can’t find an entrance to the seemingly solid structure. Wheeler suggests blowing a hoe in the wall with dynamite, and Tarnack berates him for being an idiot, the structure is obviously defended against such attacks. Natalia asks him how they are going to get in, sarcastically calling him Mr.Big Shot. Tarnack cryptically answers, “Oh, there are ways.”

Doc and the Fab Five arrive at the Fortress. He presses his hand against a panel, explaining that only his hand print can open the hidden door to the Fortress. Once it is open and the men enter, Tarnack and his men rush into the opening before it can close and engage in furious battle. Surprisingly, for once, the henchmen overpower the good guys, and they are all knocked unconscious. Tarnack has his men gather up several devices, then he has Doc and his friends dragged to Doc’s lab. Tarnack mixes up a deadly gas, then releases it in the lab. Laughing in triumph, Tarnack leaves, locking the door behind him.

“Has Tarnack won at last? Can anyone stand against him now that he has stolen Doc’s inventions? And what fiendish use is he making of this infernal device? For the startling answers, see PLUNGE TO DESTRUCTION! The Sixth action packed episode of DOC SAVAGE, at this theater next week!”

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