Todd’s Serial Blog

If you are a fan of classic comedy, you know Stanley Blystone from his many appearances as the foil of Laurel and Hardy at Hal Roach and then later the foil for The Three Stooges at Columbia.  If you’re a serial fan you know the husky, gruff voiced Blystone as a veritable workhorse who played henchmen and bit parts at all four major serial producing studios.

Starting with Mascot he appeared in  The Wolf Dog (1933), Burn’em Up Barnes (1934), Phantom Empire (1935) and The Fighting Marines (1935).  Universal cast him in The Roaring West (1935), Ace Drummond (1936), Tim Tyler’s Luck (1937), Sky Raiders (1941), Sea Raiders (1941), Don Winslow of the Coastguard (1942), Adventures of Smilin’ Jack (1943) and The Scarlet Horseman (1946). Republic used him to good effect in The Vigilantes Are Coming (1936),  King of the Texas Ranger (1941),  King of the Forest Rangers (1946), Ghost of Zorro (1949) and Desperadoes of the West (1950).

But it was at Columbia where he made his most serial appearances.  Starting with Flying G-Men (1938), Blystone went on to appear in Mandrake the Magician (1938), Holt of the Secret Service (1941), Son of the Guardsman (1946), Jack Armstrong (1947), The Sea Hound (1947), Brick Bradford (1948), Tex Granger (1949), Atom Man vs. Superman (1950) and The Great Adventures of Captain Kidd (1953).
This list doesn’t even scratch the surface of of all the B-Westerns, A pictures and TV shows he appeared in.  Trooper that he was, Blystone died on the way to film a TV episode when he died at the age of 71.

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Lois Collier actually began her career as Madelyn Earle where she played in low budget films like Women Must Dress (1935).  Leaving film momentarily for radio, she played a character named Lois Collier on Hollywood in Person.  Deciding that name was more marquee friendly than her own, she took it as her stage name when she returned to film in 1938 with A Desperate Adventure.

She became a regular at Republic appearing in several Three Mesquisteers films like Outlaws of Cherokee Trail (1941), Riders of the Range (1942) and Westward Ho! (1942).  Moving to Universal she appeared in such horror films as Jungle Woman (1944) and Weird Woman (1944).  Around this time she also starred in her first serial Jungle Queen (1946) playing a British Secret Service agent fighting Nazis in the African jungle and helped by the supernatural title character.

She spent the rest of the decade appearing such films as The Naughty Nineties (1945),  The Marx Brothers’ A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Out of the Storm (1948).  Her second and final serial was Republic’s Flying Discman From Mars (1951) helping hero Walter Reed stop a Martian invasion.  She next enjoyed a short run as Mary Westley on the TV show Boston Blackie (1951-53).  Collier decided to retire from acting after the show left the air.

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I know what you’re saying to yourself right now. “What’s he doing on this site? And why’s he in the hero section?” Good questions, read on and all will be revealed.

Dwight Frye was originally going to be a concert pianist and showed great talent in this field, but he got bit by the acting bug and joined a stock company in 1918. Working his way up to Broadway, he became known for his character parts. Brought to Hollywood to recreate his performance in Dracula (1931) as the demented Renfield, Frye became a star overnight and was forever typecast in deranged villainous roles.

After Dracula he played the sadistic hunchbacked assistant in Frankenstein (1931), an unhinged butler in the Charlie Chan film The Black Camel (1931), psychotic gunman Wilmer Cook in the first filmed version of The Maltese Falcon (1931), a mentally challenged bat obsessed murder suspect in The Vampire Bat (1932) and a weaselly grave robber who’s not above taking the initiative when a body’s needed and there’s no time to dig up a grave in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

When the first cycle of horror films was over, Frye found himself out of work and began taking small roles in lower budget B pictures on Poverty Row like Renfrew On the Great White Trail (1937) and The Night hawk (1938), usually as a minor henchman. It was at this time that Republic cast him in a small, but showy role in their serial Drums of Fu Manchu (1940), playing a museum curator who helps set up a trap to catch the villainous would be world conquerer. Not only does Frye help the heroes fight off a murderous band of Dacoit slaves, but in a true rarity for serials, he doesn’t get killed, which happens to so many helpful minor characters.

When horror films came back in style, Frye found himself in demand again, but only for bit roles at his old studio Universal, having blink and you miss him parts in Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) and Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943). His only major role during this period was as a demented hunchback assistant to George Zucco’s vampire in the ultra low budget Dead Men Walk (1943).

To help make ends meet Frye was working full time at an airplane factory. The strain of working all night helping build planes and then hunting for acting jobs during the day proved too much for Frye, who died of a heart attack soon after making Submarine Alert (1943). He was only 44.

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