Todd’s Serial Blog

Captain America (1944) Chap 11–Villain Lionel Atwill takes a page from Dr Frankenstein and has the body of his best henchman stolen from the morgue so that he can use a new invention and 10,000 volts of electricity to bring him back to live while the Star Spangled Avenger  battles the rest of the henchmen amidst the sparking generators suppling the voltage.

Return of Chandu (1934) Chap 4–Hero Bela Lugosi, yes that Bela Lugosi, tracks his kidnapped true love to a secret sacrificial ceremony where she is the one being sacrificed.  After breaking it up and dumping the high priest into the fire instead of the intended victim, all seems well, but the  serial ends on a sinister note when a new priest is dispatched to take care of Lugosi and finish the sacrifice.

Batman (1943) Chap 5–One of the creepiest serials Columbia ever put out.  This episode has the war time spy villain receiving a dead body in a casket.  He revives it long enough to get his new orders before it flops over dead again.  The chapter ends with the Dark Knight Detective  battling two of the villain’s electronically created zombies trying to steal a new experimental plane.

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) Chap 2–Flash and group travel to Mars to stop Ming’s latest attack on Earth.  In this chapter Flash confronts the Witch Queen of Mars, who disappears in a puff of smoke, and is then attacked by the Clay Men.  Contains one of the creepiest moments in film when the Clay Men ooze out of the walls of their cave kingdom and then laugh off Flash’s bullets.

Drums of Fu Manchu (1940) Chap 5–One of Republic’s best serials, completely capturing the sinister air of the Fu Manchu novels.  This episode has one of the greatest scary chapter endings.  Fu Manchu’s nemesis Sir Nayland Smith and his youthful assistant on this case are attacked by the villain’s surgically altered henchmen during a massive thunderstorm.  The chapter ends with all of the good guys subdued and the villain standing over them.  He smiles evilly into the camera while his supernaturally created drum beats get louder and louder, then the screen goes black.

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Dick Tracy (1937) Chap 12–I know, I know, what am I doing suggesting a recap chapter for Halloween viewing.  Mainly because the recap shows all of the spookiest scenes from Chapter One when a mad scientist turns the hero’s brother into a sociopathic killer and ends with the good guys hearing the slow steady approach of the mystery villain right before the lights go out and hero Byrd is shot.

Gang Busters (1942) Chap 12–A standard cops and robbers plot enlivened by the addition of all of the villain’s henchmen being reanimated dead men.  This chapter has a truly shocker of an ending when the hero is captured and the villain turns him into one of his reanimated dead men.

The Crimson Ghost (1946) Chap 4–The last great mystery villain serial by Republic.  This episode features a drugged man used as a decoy so that henchman Moore can swipe some heavy water from the hero, Quigley.  When Quigley chases him into the basement of an abandoned
building it turns out to be a trap. The villain taunts Quigley through a mounted skull with glowing eyes before the room is filled with poison gas.

Mysterious Mr. M (1946) Chap 8–Universal’s final serial is a slam bang affair with some of the best action they ever put on screen.  This episode features an assassination attempt with a dart gun hidden in a cigarette lighter, and the hero’s side kick, who is under the villain’s control due to his hypnotic drug, gunning down the hero when he tries to prevent a kidnapping.

Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940) Chap 5–After the title character shows off his robot by having it kill a double crossing henchman, immediately followed by one of villain Cianelli best sinister speeches, the masked hero tracks him down, where he ends up facing the mechanical monstrosity and getting crushed against a post.

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The Lost City (1935) Chap 7–Infamous serial depicting a mad scientist turning African natives into giant mindless slaves, while a “good” scientist turns natives into intelligent albino pygmies.  Anyway, this chapter features star Richmond fighting off another attack by the giant Hugo, escaping Arab slave traders by venturing through a trail lined with human skulls and ends with he and his friends being attacked by a giant spider.

The Green Archer (1940) Chap 4–Probably James Horne’s most consistently funny serial.  A spoof of old dark house mysteries, this chapter features the hero Jory almost getting skewered by an arrow fired from the “ghost” of The Green Archer, which leads him to sneak into the “haunted” castle lair of the villain.  After skulking around dimly lit secret passages, he is captured by mouth frothing villain James Craven. Not wanting to waste a bullet, Craven throws him into a room that has a spiked ceiling that descends toward him.

The Lightning Warrior (1931) Chap 1–An effectively spooky Mascot serial from the early days.  Residents of a valley are receiving threatening messages from unseen Indians demanding they leave the area.  They are led by the cloaked Wolf Man who signals his approach by howling like a wolf. Side kick Frankie Daro comes upon his latest murder in one of the scariest scenes done in the genre.

Haunted Harbor (1944) Chap 5–Though mostly a straight action serial, this chapter takes a turn toward sci-fi horror, when after several fights and shootouts, the hero and heroine discover why eveyrone avoids the local lagoon when they are attacked by a giant, smoke belching sea monster.

Hawk of the Wilderness (1938) Chap 11–A typical Tarzan inspired jungle adventure gets creepy in this episode when after entering a forbidden valley the heroes get stalked through a series of cave tunnels by a wolf headed man.

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