Todd’s Serial Blog

If he had done nothing else but make Perils of Pauline  (1914),  Paul Panzer would still be an important fixture in movie history.  A German immigrant, Panzer first came to Hollywood as a set builder in 1903.  He made his film debut in Escape From Sing Sing (1905).  Though he would play a variety of roles in the early days of Hollywood, It was as the villainous Kroener in Pauliine that would cement his reputation as a premier movie villain.  He would rack up an impressive 75 bad guy roles in both features and serials over a short fifteen year period.

Other serials included Jimmy Dale Alias the Grey Seal (1917), The Masked Rider (1919), The Mystery Mind (1920), Hawk of the Hills (1927), The Chinatown Mystery (1928), The Black Book (1928) and Tarzan the Tiger (1929). Unfortunately, with the coming of sound his accent instantly sank his career.  Though he would continue to work in film through the 1940’s, accruing over two hundred films appearances, they were for the most part uncredited bit roles, ironically one of them would be in the Pearl White biopic, The Perils of Pauline (1947).

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Little is known about Virginia Herrick.  She made many appearances in westerns both film and TV in the fifties, but disappeared before the end of the decade.  Her feature film work includes Vigilante Hideout (1950), Montana Desperado (1951) and The Frontier Phantom (1952).  She also made appearances on The Gene Autry Show, The Cisco Kid and Cowboy G-Men.

Her one serial was Columbia’s Roar of the Iron Horse (1951), helping hero Jock Mahoney complete a railroad through a territory ruled by a self styled land baron who has discovered diamonds in the area.

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Though most familiar to serial fans today as a popular supporting player, William Desmond was actually one of the biggest serial stars in the latter part of the silent era, surpassed in popularity only by Walter Miller.  Originally a vaudeville and stage actor, Desmond made his screen debut in Kilmeny (1915), and was first known for his dramatic roles in films like Peer Gynt (1915) and Flying Colors (1917).

But it was his staring role in Universal’s Call of the Yukon (1922) that would start his prolific serial career at that studio.  He next starred in Around the World in Eighteen Days (1923) playing the great grandson of the original Phineas Fogg.  Then came his most identified role, The Riddle Rider (1924), a masked rider who rode the plains for justice.  He  followed this up with the sequel The Return of the Riddle Rider  (1927), and two similar style of heroes in The Vanishing Rider (1928) and The Mystery Rider) (1928).

With the coming of sound, the 50 year old actor found himself moved to character parts and continued to make serials for his home studio well  into the forties.  He appeared in Battling with Buffalo Bill (1931), Gordon of Ghost City (1933), The Rustlers of Red Dog (1935), Winners of the West (1940), Overland Mail (1942) and The Scarlet Horseman (1946) to name a few.

With more and more silent serials being discovered, who knows, maybe the mustached Riddle Rider will ride again.

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