Todd’s Serial Blog

One of the most familiar faces in serials, Al Taylor usually never received billing in the credits.  It didn’t matter, serial fans could spot always spot him among the henchman every time.  Getting started as an actor in the late twenties he easily made the transition to sound and became a mainstay at Republic.

His first serials were Mascot’s The Phantom of the West (1931), The Vanishing Legion (1931), The Devil Horse (1932) and The Mystery Squadron (1933).  When Republic was formed Taylor appeared in a long string of serial; including all four Dick Tracy serials, both Lone Ranger  serials, the first two Zorro serials, as well as The Vigilantes Are Coming (1936), Fighting Devil Dogs (1938), Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940), The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), Daredevils of the West (1943) and Dangers of the Canadian Mounties (1948).

Other serials he appeared in are White Eagle (1941) and The Valley of Vanishing Men (1942) at Columbia and  Overland Mail (1942) for Universal.  Taylor quit acting after Republic’s Desperadoes of the West (1950) and worked as a steam engineer.

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Much like our Hero of the Month for June, Joanne Rio did not really have a big career in films.  Working mostly as a stand in for Liz Taylor, her only notable film work was as one of the dancers in the Beautiful Girl number in Singing in the Rain (1952) and as a Native American in Seminole Uprising (1955).

Her biggest role was in one the last serials Columbia made, Riding with Buffalo Bill (1954). She played a Hispanic who comes to the aid of Marshall Reed, Rick Vallin, and Shirley Whitney in their quest to end the dictitorial machinations of perrenial 50’s villain Michael Fox.

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At first glance , you can be forgiven for thinking Marten Lamont was a forties version of Timothy Farrell ( an LA County Deputy Marshall who acted on his off time in fifties B Movies, most notably for Ed Wood).  The British born but American educated Lamont was a writer for Time Magazine, editor for Arts & Architecture Magazine, producer for NBC, and an Army Air Corps flight instructor, all the while appearing in films for close to fifteen years.

Most of his films were small appearances like playing Sir Guys’ squire in Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) or the captain of the crashed clipper ship in Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (1940), this footage would appear as a cliffhanger in several Universal serials.  Other film appearances included Pride and Prejudice (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Of Human Bondage (1946) and Sword in the Desert (1949). Which is not quite the level of Farrell’s Glen or Glenda (1953), Jailbait (1954), or Blonde Pickup (1956).

Lamont’s serial work mirrored his feature film work at first with bit parts in Republic’s nMysterious Doctor Satan (1940) and Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941).  But it was the serials that gave him his only leading role, relentlesly dogged G-Man Jerry Blake in Republic’s Federal Operator 99, tracking down serial regular George J. Lewis’ pseudo sophisticated gangster.  With a voice reminiscent of Cary Grant and features that resembled Errol Flynn, he was an unique presence in serials.

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