Greaest Serial Never Made #3
I know you have been waiting anxiously for this third installment of my fictional look at “what if this serial had been made”. Well maybe not that anxiously, but allow a guy his dreams. As promised this time it is a Republic style serial, and it is an adaptation of the pulp favorite, Conan. And now some behind the scenes info on how it came to be……
Not widely known about Republic head Herbert J. Yates was he was a die hard fan of Weird Tales magazine, and especially of Robert E. Howard’s Conan. In late 1937, Yates had his lawyers negotiate with Howard’s estate to bring his most popular character Conan to the serial screen. An agreement was quickly reached that would allow Republic to use Conan and many other of Howard’s characters in a serial. A script was hammered out to make use of footage, props and costumes from Undersea Kingdom. Ray “Crash” Corrigan was immediately cast as the lead to more easily match the earlier footage, and his filming days were done around his Three Mesquiteers shooting schedule. Julie Thayer was quickly cast as the female lead since she and Corrigan had proved popular together in The Painted Stallion. The rest of the cast was quickly solidified with Charles Middleton stepping into the role of Thulsa Doom, and Raymond Hatton and Guinn “Big Boy” Williams signing on as Conan’s companions. The rest of the cast was rounded out with such serial regulars as John Merton, Jack Ingram, Edmond Cobb and C. Montague Shaw.
William Witney and John English were set to direct, though both voiced their dislike of the script and the cheapness of the production due to the excessive stock footage listed in the script. Professionals that they were, they went ahead and put out as a good a serial as they could, wrapping up the shooting in just over three weeks from Jan 2 to January 25th, editing went quickly and the finished product was ready for preview by mid-February, when they hit a snag. Howard’s estate was not happy with the changes Republic made to Conan and the other characters used in the serial. Lawyers were brought in, but no court battle was needed. Republic’s contract had not stipulated how the characters could be used and Republic was not going to go to the added expense of reshooting the serial.
The delay caused the serial to be bumped from it’s initial release time and was moved to following The Lone Ranger on the schedule, another serial Republic would have legal problems with over their adaptation style. Conan proved to be a popular serial and sparked a renewed interest in the character, prompting Howard’s stories to be reprinted in book form. But due to the legal problems over the handling of the material, the serial was pulled out of circulation after it’s initial run and has become one of Republic’s most sought after “lost serials”. Without the serial being re-released, interest in Conan by the public dropped off and publishing of his work ceased. It would be another twenty years until Conan would again appear on book shelves.
Republic was happy, as the cheaper production had proved profitable for the company and used the same technique for their next serial an original story titled Fighting Devil Dogs.
Be here next week for the first exciting episode of Conan, The Royal Prisoner!
