Todd’s Serial Blog

Boris Karloff once said being typecast is the best thing that can ever happen to an actor, because it means continual work in films.  This was certainly true of character actor Fred Kohler, one of those rare actors who effortlessly made the transition from Silents to Talkies.  A hulking, barrel chested man with hands the size of a gorilla and less than matinee idol looks, Kohler perfectly epitomized the western villain.  From his screen debut in Polly of the Storm Country (1920) until his untimely death after making The Painted Desert (1938) Kohler was almost always cast as a carpetbagger style western bad guy out to sell whiskey to Indians and cheat widows out of her mortgages.  If there were any dogs around, he could be counted on to kick them.

A quick look at his resume shows an impressive list of films that include Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage (1925), Roadhouse Nights (1930), Frisco Kid (1935) and Gangs of New York (1938).  Serial fans will always remember him as the ruthless Aaron Burr who makes a deal with Russia for California to become one of their colonies with himself as Governor in exchange for gold from a mine he discovered on another man’s property. After killing the landowner and taking over the territory, Burr is constantly thwarted by the Zorro inspired masked Eagle, who is actually the son of the man he murdered and passes himself off as a peaceful church organist until the Eagle is needed to ride in Republic’s first western serial, The Vigilantes Are Coming (1936).

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Carole Wayne is an unknown actress from the Golden Age of Hollywood.  The only credit I can find for her is Columbia’s The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickock (1938).  She plays the daughter of Monte Blue, a rancher who is targeted  by an outlaw gang called The Phantom Raiders when he tries to combine his herd with that of his neighbors’ and drive them all down the Chisholm Trail to Abilene for market, which threatens the gang’s control of the territory.  Though listed prominently in the credits, her part is small and except for a rousing speech she gives that motivates the ranchers to fight back after her father is killed, she is given little to do in the serial.

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An invaluable asset of any film studio was the bit player.  A unique member of the acting profession, they had to be someone who could come into one scene for a specific purpose, make an impression but not overshadow the stars and supporting players, and then exit.  Donald Kerr was one such luminary of the art.  Whether he was playing one of Fred Astaire’s gambling buddies at the beginning of Swing Time (1936) or popping up on Petticoat Junction in the sixties as a door to door salesmen, Kerr could be counted on to deliver a quick and amusing performance that would be remembered after he left.

Occasionally, like playing Dave O’Brien’s cameraman sidekick in The Devil Bat (1941), Kerr would get to be a supporting player with a substantial comedy relief role.  But for the most part his career was a one scene bit in films like  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Murder, My Sweet (1944) and Jailhouse Rock (1957).

Most classic science fiction fans know him as Happy Hapgood, a go getting and slightly pushy reporter who stows aboard Dr. Zarkov’s spacehip where he ends up on Mars and helps Flash Gordon stop Ming the Merciless from draining all the Nitron from the Earth’s atmosphere and destroying the planet in Universal’s Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938).  It was his biggest part and he definately made the most of it with a winning performance.

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