Today I'm going to talk about a serial. Back in the day (before my time), you could go to the movies for, like, a nickel, and get to see a movie and two or three short features. Short features included cartoons, news reels, various short movies, and chapter plays.
See, there was no TV yet, so people went to the movies every week. And every week there was a new episode of the newest serial. These were various adventure stories, sometimes based on comic strip characters like Flash Gordon or Dick Tracy. Sometimes they were based on pulp heroes like the Shadow or the Spider. And sometimes they were based on adventure stories.
Republic Pictures was famous for its serials. In 1941 they made a serial called "Jungle Girl" and it was based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the same one who created Tarzan, John Carter, and Pellucidar. Well, the serial took several "artistic" changes from the original story, and centered on a Jungle Girl in Africa named Nyoka, who did not appear in the original story.
Apparently this serial proved popular in the theaters, a comic book spin-off was made by Fawcett Comics and in 1942 Republic decided to make a sequel. However, since they didn't want to pay any royalties to Burroughs, they could not use the term "Jungle Girl" anywhere in the production. So they used the name Nyoka, which they had created for the first production, changed the character's last name, moved the story to the "deserts of Africa" (which mostly consisted of Southern California woods and scrubland), and came up with their own story, which they called "The Perils of Nyoka", and later re-released as "Nyoka and the Tiger-Men". ...You know, I'm really not sure why they renamed it that. The "Jungle Girl" serial actually had natives who worshipped a Lion Goddess. The best suggestion I've heard about this name is that some of the bad guys where striped robes.
Kay Aldridge plays Nyoka, who wants to find her father, who disappeared on an expedition into the African Jungle. She joins up with a new expedition, which hopes to find the Golden Tablets of Hippocrates, since they hold the secret to curing cancer (and presumably other diseases). Part of this expedition is our male lead, Dr. Larry Grayson played by Clayton Moore, who would later be best remembered as the Lone Ranger.
However, the Golden Tablets are also coveted by the wicked Vultura, evil ruler of the Arabs. You see, the Tablets also reveal the location of a long-lost treasure, and Vulura wants it for herself. To this end, she enlists the aid of Cassib, a tribal chief loyal to her, and played by Charles Middleton--who is probably best remembered as Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials.
It's an action-packed production full of fistfights, gunfire, running, riding, climbing up rocks and cliff-faces, being thrown off cliffs to the water below, killer gorillas, avalanches, explosions, cave-ins, bubbling geysers, and mechanical sacrificial pendulums! Primal caverns! Ancient temples! Deadly booby-traps! And tons and tons of exterior locations!
It's good stuff, and I totally recommend it. You can watch it for free on YouTube if you're interested, but it's also available on DVD and Blue Ray from Amazon and assortment of specialty sites.
Have you ever seen it? What did you think about it, leave a comment to let me know! Have you seen any other serials? Again, tell me below in the comments!
Until then, I wish you all...
Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell
Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell
No comments:
Post a Comment