Serial of the Month: Tim Tyler’s Luck
After the phenomenal success of Universal’s Flash Gordon (1936), the studio was on a roll, quickly following with other adaptations of popular comic strips like Ace Drummond (1936), Jungle Jim (1937), Secret Agent X-9 (1937), Red Barry (1938) and Buck Rogers (1939). One of the serials lost in the shuffle, memory wise, is Tim Tyler’s Luck (1937), a jungle action comic strip by Lyman Young (brother of Blondie creator Chic Young) which told the adventures of an orphan in Africa fighting poachers with the Ivory Patrol and befriending more animals than Tarzan could shake a stick at. So of course Universal gave Tim a father and completely reworked the whole strip, which is strange as Universal was usually one of the more meticulous adapters of of comic strips, making few changes if any.
The serial starts with Tim (Frankie Thomas) journeying to Africa in search of his father Professor Tyler (Al Shean) who has disappeared in the gorilla country. Tim stows away on a riverboat heading deep into the jungle. Also aboard is big game hunter Lora Lacey (Frances Robinson), who is really searching the jungle for ivory poacher Spider Webb (Norman Willis) who stole a fabulous diamond and framed her brother for the crime. Also aboard is Gary Drake (Anthony Warde), a man who also claims to be a big game hunter, but is in reality Webb’s right hand man. Lora recognizes him immediately, but he seems oblivious to who she really is.
That night Drake and henchmen who have infiltrated the ship’s crew stage a mutiny and kill everyone but Lora, who is locked in her cabin. Tim rescues her and they slip away from the ship and head into the jungle.
Drake and the men pull into a natural harbor and unload the cargo of guns and ammunition intended for the Ivory Patrol, a mounted police force who’s job is to prevent the poaching of lucrative ivory in elephant country. A patrolman (Lane Chandler) spots them but Drake quickly guns him down. Unfortunately for Drake, the patrolman’s runner gets away. He makes it to the Ivory Patrol’s fort headquarters, where he details what happened. Sergeant Gates (Jack Mulhall) mounts up his squad and they head off to investigate.
Meanwhile back at the rendezvous, Webb arrives in a large tank like vehicle to pick up his men. Gary reluctantly tells Webb about killing the patrolman, which ticks off the jungle gangster, who wanted to avoid the Patrol getting wise to the theft for as long as possible. Then Drake tells him about spotting Lora Lacey on the boat and how she got away in the jungle. Webb’s not too concerned about her, feeling she can’t prove he framed her brother, and thinks she probably died in the jungle anyway.
Webb could not be further wrong. Not only did Tim and Lora survive a night in the jungle, they have trailed the boat to it’s landing. Tim recognizes the tank as his father’s Jungle Cruiser and fears Webb has done something to him. Lora suggests they get to the Ivory Patrol and notify them of Webb’s whereabouts. Just then a panther comes out of the jungle, causing Lora to scream and give away there presence.
Tim spots the dead patrolman’s horse, grabs it and pulls Lora aboard. They race away with Webb and his men close behind in the Cruiser. Just then the Patrol comes over a rise, sees the chase and pursues the Cruiser, quickly discovering it is bullet proof. Drake lobs a grenade out the front of the Cruiser, where it explodes in front of Tim and Lora, knocking them off their horse and right into the path of the Cruiser…..
This is a top notch effort by Universal made during their peak serial producing years. The action scenes are an exciting blend of hard riding chases and numerous shootouts with the bad guys, with a few obligatory lion attacks thrown in (it is a jungle serial after all). One of the most interesting aspects of it is that none of the animals in the serial are used for comedy shtick. Most jungle serials always show cute chimps doing amusing bits of physical comedy, not here. All the animals are shown as being wild animals, not tame pets.
The gorillas in the serial are also different from other jungle adventures. Usually they are either shown to be violent killers or professional comedians indulging in slapstick antics (or in the case of Columbia’s The Monster and The Ape (1945) they are both). Here they are shown to have a society of their own that doesn’t like to be trespassed on, with the exception of Tim’s father who is learning their language. Many of them exhibit different personalities and come off as individuals. One is used as the cliffhanger peril a couple of times, but as everybody seems to be trying to take over his cave, you kind of understand his violent outbursts.
Something that Universal did that Republic and Columbia didn’t really indulge in was developing the characters past Chapter One. This serial takes several chapters to show a developing friendship between Tim and Earl Douglas’ henchman Lazarre. After Tim is captured by Webb to learn where his father discovered the elephant’s graveyard, Lazarre takes a liking to Tim and tries to cheer him up by playing a song on his squeeze box. Later Tim saves him from a panther attack and the two bond, Lazarre helping Tim escape and becoming his faithful sidekick for most of the rest of the serial.
Another great aspect of the serial is the Jungle Cruiser, a large, armored vehicle that speeds along the jungle trails, attacking and looting safaris coming from the elephant country. It changes hands a couple of times between the good guys and the bad guys, before Webb regains control of it in the final chapter where it meets it’s match against an elephant. The one thing I’ve never understood about this serial is that the Ivory Patrol quickly discovers that it is bullet proof in the first chapter yet they continue to chase after it, emptying their pistols at it every time it shows up, never once thinking of requisitioning a cannon or hand grenades from their armory.
The Ivory Patrol itself is a pretty fanciful creation, taken from the comic strip. Though a fictitious African police force, they look and act like they are a real organization, sort of the Congo version of the Mounties. I was a little disappointed that they weren’t more involved in the serial, being kept in the background for the most part, popping up every few chapters to help Tim and friends out of a tight spot. What’s most disappointing is that William Benedict is cast as Corporal Spud, a major character in the comic strip and Tim’s best friend, but in the serial he is a bit character who only appears in the background in a handful of scenes, and has maybe three lines total, mostly consisting of “Sergeant, look out!”
But such grumblings aside, the serial is an excellent piece of classic escapism with some great performances. Frankie Thomas gives an earnest and likable performance as Tim, making him a little naive but not stupid. It’s a little hard to take when Tim manages to befriend everything from chimps to panthers and elephants, but Thomas makes the hokiness of the image palatable. After seeing the talent exhibited here (and in his fifties TV show Tom Corbett, Space Cadet) it’s kind of sad that he wasn’t able to make the transition to adult actor like Mickey Rooney and Jackie Cooper did.
Ann Robinson gives another excellent performance, playing a character who is gutsy and smart. When captured by Webb in the latter half of the serial she effectively pulls off a major bluff, making Webb and even the audience believe she isn’t really Lora Lacey, but a jewel thief using that name who wants to throw in with Webb. Of course after she rescues Tim, the truth is revealed. Her English accent used here is as perfect as the Southern one she affects for Red Barry (1938).
Comedian Al Shean ( who shows up in Chapter Seven) gives a surprisingly dramatic performance minus any of his patented shtick he exhibited in films like San Francisco (1936), as Tim’s father he portrays a dignified and authoritative figure, just the kind of guy who would travel into the jungle to study gorillas. His concern when Tim is grabbed by the head gorilla and about to be crushed would bring a lump to the throat of even the most hardened cynic.
Anthony Warde is his usual nasty self, a cruel and bullying individual, he is all tough talk and threats, except in the presence of his boss, then he is a cowering bowl of jelly. His whipped dog countenance foreshadows his eventual double cross of Webb in the later chapters.
Norman Wills gives an interesting portrayal in this serial. He plays Webb as a big city gangster transplanted to the jungle. Imagine James Cagney in a pith helmet and you’ve got his performance in a nut shell. A man so mean that when one of his men falls into quicksand, he saves the supplies the men was carrying while letting him die. His entire reaction is to spit out, “That’s what he gets for being clumsy!” My favorite scene of his is at the end when his criminal enterprise is smashed and he lays dying. It won’t cost him anything to make amends toward Lora’s brother, but Wills practically spits in Robinson’s face and sneers, “Why should I help you after all you’ve done to me!” You have to a admire a villain who is unapologetically rotten right up to the very end.
