Todd’s Serial Blog

September is here and time to shove the the kids or grand kids out the door and lock it so that you can enjoy some good old fashion cliffhanging excitement while they’re at school, or skipping school and hanging out downtown. In honor of this momentous time of year I decided to highlight an equally momentous serial, Tailspin Tommy in the Great Air Mystery (1935).

Tailspin Tommy Tomkins (Clark Williams) and his BFF Skeeter (Noah Berry, Jr.) are filming Navy maneuvers for the Government. Afterwards they make a quick stop over in their old home town, Littleville, to visit their folks and have fried chicken for lunch. After lunch on the wway to deliver the film, Skeeter accidentally drops the film canister and Tommy has to land so they can find it.

Back at their home base, Three Point Airport, Ned Curtis (Bryant Washburn) has contracted the company to do a survey on Nazil Island for an oil pipeline for Inez Casmetto (Delphine Drew), who owns the island. When Tommy and Skeeter fail to show up on time, Curtis and Inez, along with Betty Lou (Jean Rogers), leave with out them.

Tommy and Skeeter finally arrive to deliver the film cannister to Milte Howe (Pat O’Brien). Discovering the dirigible left without them, the two daredevil pilots take off without refueling in hopes of catching up to the dirigible. When they do, the dirigible’s captain won’t let them hook up their plane even though they don’t have enough fuel to get back to Three Point.

Suddenly out of the sky appears a mysterious plane piloted by a masked man calling himself The Eagle. He sends a message demanding the dirigible allow the boys to board. When the captain again refuses, The Eagle strafes the dirigible until the captain changes his mind. Once Tommy and Skeeter are aboard, The Eagle’s plane releases a cloud of smoke and he disappears.

Once aboard, the boys are introduced to everyone and start to plan the survey. That night a huge tropical storm hits the area and the dirigible is in trouble. Their radio gets knocked out as the dirigible is buffeted mercilessly by the storm. Tommy thinks that they might be able to radio for help with the radio in the plane. He climbs down into the cockpit, when suddenly a bolt of lightning strikes the dirigible and it crashes into the ocean…….

Though mostly overlooked in most reference books in favor of it’s predecessor serial, Tailspin Tommy (1934), the sequel is equally important.  For one thing it is the first serial sequel in the sound era, secondly it is the first serial to highlight a masked mystery hero in the sound era, and most importantly it is the first modern serial of the sound era.

What I mean by that last statement is that up to this point most serials in the sound era were plot wise throwbacks to the silent era, with complicated melodramatic subplots shoehorned into the action.  But this serial got rid of that, showcasing a streamlined plot with plenty of action and comedy relief  becoming character based instead of physical slapstick. Tailspin Tommy in the Great Air Mystery laid the groundwork for the great serials like Flash Gordon (1936), The Green Hornet (1939) and Gangbusters (1942) to follow.

The unusual plot contains a volcano on the verge of erupting, savage natives under control of the villains (who get introduced in Chapter Two), a costumed hero with high tech gadgets at his disposal, aerial dogfights, flooded dungeons and hidden time bombs.  From this one serial came many of the standard serial plot elements that would be used to the point of becoming cliches by the mid-fifties, but here they feel fresh and original.

The action is all excellent with even better flying stunt work than in the original.  Though some of it is footage reused from the first serial, much of the flying footage is original and performed by ace aviator Frank Clark, who even gets billing in the opening credits.  The highlight being several dogfights between the Eagle and the villain’s mystery pilot XX, who’s identity is, ironically, known by the audience.  Without a doubt this serial contains the best flying action stunt work of any serial ever made, with much of it actually shot from the planes’ cockpits.

The mystery of The Eagle’s identity isn’t very difficult to figure out.  Most of the heroes are always together  when he appears and as the only suspect is a comedy relief character, it becomes obvious early on it isn’t him, and equally obvious who it really is from the credits. But at least it plays fair with the reveal, unlike most of rival studio Mascot’s mystery serials.
The acting is all fairly good. Clark Williams plays a more serious and energetic version of Tommy.  The only problem is he can’t quite pull off the youthful naivete he tries to project, he just seems smarter than that.  Noah Berry, Jr. easily slides back in the “Aw shucks ” personae from the first serial, and though he seems more mature himself, he better displays a retention of naivete from his earlier performance.

Jean Rogers is energetic and charming in her first serial.  Unlike in Flash Gordon, there is no screaming and fainting here, instead she cheerfully throws herself into danger at every opportunity. Delphine Drew gives a similar performance. If the last serial was an Archie and Jughead dramedy, this one comes off as a Hardy Boys/ Nancy Drew adventure with the four of them constantly grinning enthusiastically through the whole thing, loving every pulse pounding, death defying moment.

The main villains are played by Herbert Heywood and Matthew Betz as Drew’s uncle and his business partner out to steal the oil field from her.  Heywood is a comical villain, clearly subordinate to Betz.  He spends most of his time eating and complaining about their setbacks. Betz, with his sharply pressed suit and snap brim hat is a big city gangster transplanted to the tropics.  He is a thugish villain barking out orders with a Edward G. Robinson inspired snarl.  Everyone acts afraid of him and for good reason.

Harry Worth plays XX and does a good job in a dual performance, being a suave dilettante lady’s man around the heroes (and sparking Berry’s jealousy with the attention he pays Drew), while coming off like a cocky weasel when among the bad guys.  A highlight being when he passes himself off as The Eagle with the heroes in the later chapters when he captures the mystery hero and steals his mask and plane.

Jim Burtis is also good in a dual performance as comedy relief character, undercover reporter McGuire.  While among the bad guys he comes off as a bumbling simpleton who can’t cook anything but hot dogs. The hopeful smile he projects when revealing his latest concoction, which is always the same and the disgusted look of “Not again” on everyone else’s face is hilarious.  But when the heroes get in trouble, he drops the pose immediately and sneaks off unnoticed to help. A lot of footage is shown making it seem like he is the masked hero, with Burtis continually rushing into a field and then a quick cut to The Eagle’s plane taking off.

Pat O’Brien doesn’t get a lot to do in the serial.  After a brief appearance in the first chapter, he disappears until Chapter Ten, and is then in on the action with the heroes for the rest of the serial.  Unfortunately he comes off pretty bland and uninteresting, unlike his later performance as a bent on revenge safari leader in Tim Tyler’s Luck (1937).

Bryant Washburn is sorely underused throughout.  His entire performance looks like it was filmed in one day, as it mostly consists of him sitting around with the rest of the heroes as they discuss their plans while eating either lunch or dinner.

Though Tailspin Tommy is the more justly praised serial, I find that I prefer the sequel, due to it’s more standard plot and dynamic action scenes.

Tags: Reviews //