Adventures of the Flying Cadets (1943) is an ironic serial to me. It is the final teen gang serial Universal put out, I don’t count The Master Key (1945) as the gang are supporting characters in that one, and outside of Lash Larue’s Migsy there aren’t any stand out faces or personalities. Looking at the makeup of the gang in Cadets it is obvious that this was originally intended to be another Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys serial for Hallop, Hall, Dell and Punsley But as everyone knows that group had broken up by ‘43 with Hall and Dell joining Gorcey and Jordon in The East Side Kids films, Hallop moving onto a solo career and Punsley leaving acting to become a doctor.
But hey, you already have a script, might as well recast and make the serial. Which is what I thing Universal did, casting East Side Kid regulars Bobby Jordan and William Benedict, as well as Former Our Gang performer Johnny Downs and newcomer Ward Wood in the roles. The irony for me is that it is best Little Tough Guys serial the studio made and doesn’t even have any of the original actors in it. For me the main reason is that the street gang antics in the other three serials is dropped in favor of a tighter espionage oriented plot that moves from America to Africa during the course of the story.
Street kids Danny (Johnny Downs), Scrapper (Ward Wood), Jinx (Bobby Jordan) and Zombie (William Benedict) are taken in by Col George Bolton (Joseph Crehan) who eventually gets them admitted to the Army Air Force Academy run by his friend major William Elliott (Charles Trowbridge) While on a test flight Scrapper spots a paratrooper who’s chute is caught in the tail of the troop plane and pulls a spectacular mid air rescue for which is given a commendation by Maj. Elliott.
Meanwhile over at Hill Aeronautics, A. J. Hill (Addison Richards) is visited by his old friend Arthur Galt (Robert Armstrong), ostinsbly for Galt to use his engineering expertise to solve a design problem, but they really spend most of the time talking about the murders being perpetrated by a mysterious Nazi spy called The Black Hangman (or Shwatzer Hanker as he likes to call himself) who has been targeting the heads of companies needed for the war effort.
This is cut short by a visit from Army investigator Capt. Carson (Regis Toomey). Galt goes off to a free office to work on the design problem while Carson talks with Hill. Carson has investigated an found that all of the murdered men along with Hill, Galt, Bolton and Elliott were part of an African expedition led by Prof Mason (Selmer Jackson). Hill explains that they were looking for the fabled city of Ankaban. They never found it and returned home after Prof. Mason and his daughter Andre (Jennifer Holt) went missing. They were never found.
After Carson leaves, Hill is next visited by the masked Black Hangman, who demands the chart for Ankaban Mason mailed before the Hangman captured him. Hill says he knows nothing of any chart. A quick search of the office shows Hill is telling the truth. The Hangman records a taunting message for the police on the office dictaphone and then shoots Hill. He quickly makes his escape well before Carson and Galt show up to investigate the gunshot.
Back at the academy Danny is sure he flunked his math test and won’t be able to graduate and become a pilot. Deciding he needs to show what a great pilot he is, Danny grabs a plane and takes it up, not knowing it was was grounded for repairs to it’s landing gear. Danny does some hot dogging, but then wrecks the plane while bringing it in for a landing.
Danny is repremanded by Maj. Elliott. Danny mouths off to the Major and decides to quit. Later Col. Bolton visits and tells Danny that he can’t just quit. He has had a talk with Elliott and squared things. Danny needs to go and apologize for his outburst and accept the punishment for taking the plane up. Danny reluctantly agrees and Bolton heads back home to the city.
Danny and Scrapper go to Elliott’s office where they find the assistant unconscious and the phone dead. The Black Hangman leaves Elliott’s inner office and runs into the two cadets. The engage in a fight but the slippery Hangman manages to get away. Danny and Scrapper find Maj. Elliott is still alive. He tells them the Hangman is after a chart to Ankaban and then orders the boys to take a plane and warn Bolton that he is next on the Hangman’s list. Elliott dies in their arms.
Danny and Scrapper rush from the office where they are seen by the reviving assistant. Running to the field, Danny knocks down a mechanic who tries to prevent them from grabbing a plane, and they take off. Danny’s luck is running true to form as the plane they grabbed runs out of gas almost immediately and the only clear space to land on are train tracks. The motor has barely quit before a train comes around the bend and smashes the plane to smithereens……….
This on of the more twisty turny plots Universal put out. In subsequent episodes you meet The Hangman’s henchmen, led by Edward Cianelli, who aren’t really his henchmen but Gestapo agents using the Hangman for thier own puposes. Surprisingly Galt is revealled to be the masked assassin in Chapter Three, but it is necessary to the rest of the plot as everyone ends up heading to Africa in search of the secret of Ankaban, with Galt playing both sides against each other to come out on top.
Once in Africa the boys engage in several commando raids on some Nazi camps while also trying to rescue Andre Mason who has escaped from Ankaban and is held by a Nazi group disguised as a Dutch mining company. Eventually they all make it to Ankaban, where Galt reveals the big secret that makes it so valuable.
Unlike previous teen gang serials, where there was an adult government agent who would constantly bail out the boys when things got tense, that character, Capt. Carson, is kept off screen for most of the serial. He disappears after Chapter Four when the serial shifts overseas, and doesn’t reappear until Chapter Eleven where he is promptly captured and then shot during an escape attempt the following week. This allows the gang to handle things themselves for most of the serial, though sadly they don’t get to be involved in a climactic shootout like in Junior G-Men of the Air (1942). As would became common with Universal’s late era serials, the heroes sit around helpless while it looks like the villain is going to win till the very last second. Which would have been an excitingly suspenseful final episode if it had been edited better. But thanks to one inserted shot of two soldiers watching what is going on with Galt, the final confrontation between Galt and the Cadets is a weak wrap up that dulls the surprise reveal of Captain Carson turning alive.
The acting is what you expect from Universal at this time, excellent. But how could it not be when you have Robert Armstrong and Edward Cianelli trading quips as they go back and forth getting the drop on each other. Both are smooth and oily villains that ooze menace. Armstrong gets the showier role as the duplicitous Galt who befriends the Cadets while framing them for his own crimes, but Cianelli gets several scenes where he is allowed to dominate, especially when he reveals his own duplicitous identity and proceeds to torture Galt for the secret of Ankaban.
The good guys are a diverse group. Downs is believably earnest as Danny, though it is a little hard to take him seriously as a street punk, he just seems too nice. Wood is more acceptable as a streetwise teen, but he and Downs are blown away by Jordan and Benedict, who are a good compliment to each other with Jordon being the smart one exasperated by Benedict’s amusing tendency to wisecrack at the worst moments. Unfortunately they are underused in favor of Downs and Wood.
Holt is one of the best heroines to appear in a serial. Tough and fearless, she eagerly engages in trading bullets with Nazis along with the men. Though tricked into believing her captors are really her saviors, she doesn’t come off as stupid or naive. Her best scene is when she shoots at a live torpedo, preferring to blow herself up than be recaptured. Toomey is one of the better obligatory adult heroes for this type of serial, smart and cooly confident he gives a lot of his dialog an amused sardonic spin when confronting the bad guys. Another irony, he is on screen less than the other adult heroes in previous serials and he’s the one you wished was around more.
One of the best things about this serial is the economy of the Hangman’s outfit. While most serial villains have to figure out how to hide their distinctively designed robes and take them with everyhere so they can continually pop up to bedevil the heroes, all the Hangman has to do is take off his sport coat and reverse the sleeves, the gloves and mask are in side pockets. Simple and effective. Which is a good thing as he ends having to use it a couple of times in the latter part of the serial to keep his identity safe.
Though not blessed with Billy Hallop and Huntz Hall, Adventures of the Flying Cadets has it’s own charms.
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