The Saturday Serials - The Spider!

Despite being the rambunctious cousin of the more refined Shadow, the Spider rated twice as many movie serials as did the Street and Smith powerhouse. Whatever the reasons, while the Shadow ruled the newsstands, the Spider was king of the serials with two rousing adventures in which he shot down a lot of hoodlums. 

The Spider's Web from 1938 stars Warren Hull as the Spider. Hull was a serial fixture who also played famous characters such as Mandrake the Magician and the Green Hornet. Hull presents a warm and jovial presence as Richard Wentworth, the rich playboy criminologist who becomes the Spider when thugs need some whittling down. He's assisted by Ram Singh played by Kenne Duncan who looks great, but has a wee bit of trouble with a believable accent. Also on hand is Iris Meredith as Nita Van Sloan and she is properly slinky when she needs to be to get the part over. Richard Fiske is Jackson, Wentworth's driver. He also has a butler named Jenkins who shows up from time to time played by Don Douglas. 

The Spider has a lot of help as he struggles to defeat the Octopus, a hooded villain who uses his assembled criminal allies to bring down the necessary public services in the city such as water, travel and such. It's assumed he's also one of the magnates who operate these outfits, but the film is less concerned with that mystery and much more interested in getting the Spider into some outrageous gunfights, and assorted mayhem. Truth told some of the middle chapters don't make all that much sense, but they do deliver on some slam bang action. The Spider uses twin automatics and mows down baddies with great frequency and relative elan. The costume isn't true to the novels but works for the movie much better than I'd expected from the few stills I've seen over the years. 

The original serial did so well that a sequel called The Spider Returns was made in 1941. This time the villain is called the Gargoyle, but he's just one more in a long line of serial hooded baddies who organizes hoods to do his bidding. There is a patriotic element to this one as some of the things pilfered have consequences for the war effort. Hull is back as Wentworth and the Spider and Duncan returns as Sam Singh. But all the other roles have been recast for this one. Dave O'Brien is an upgrade as Jackson but Mary Ainslee is less effective as Nita, a bit too all-American for the part I think. 

The budget looks to have a been a bit smaller for this one, but the pace is just unrelenting. Also, the design of the Spider seems a bit more ham-fisted than in the first flick. The biggest departure though is the lack of deadly violence, at least as regards the Spider who trades in his two automatics for two revolvers, and usually just one of those at a time. He almost never shoots anyone despite discharging a lot of bullets. The preferred method to subdue bad guys is to resort to wild fisticuffs, often three or four on one. The lighter tone lends itself to some comedic elements as well such a ludicrous machine built by the Gargoyle's mad scientist which jiggles and bobbles as it operates. The henchmen also seem to be played for laughs in some moments of the film, such as the time they reprimanded by the Gargoyle when they bring in some women to dance with. They look and act like the Dead End Kids at times. 

The second movie is not as good as the first, but still it's a diverting bit of entertainment. Both of the Spider serials stand up to the test of time. Now if only a high-quality DVD or Blu-Ray of the two serials existed. I watched both of them this time thanks to YouTube. 

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The Saturday Serials - Return Of The Jedi!

I'm not going to lie -- I'm not a big fan of this movie. Star Wars burned out my old-fashioned eyes when it debuted and rewired my boyhood brain with fresh understandings of both movies and science fiction. Loved it fiercely and still do! The Empire Strikes Back added to the saga effectively, picking up the hints and suggestions from the first and fleshing them out and setting the stage for a stunning finale. Tragically Return of the Jedi had the least mustard of any other original trilogy and while they are not the only problem by any means, I mostly blame those damned Ewoks.

Now I don't hate the Ewoks. Wait..let me correct that statement...I do hate the Ewoks. They are the antithesis of what I'd come to expect from the Star Wars universe, a romanticized good guy-bad guy situation, but one with a sometimes grimy appearance and sometimes a gleaming appearance. Aliens were weird, really weird, but one thing they never ever were was...cute. The Ewoks brought "cute" to the franchise much to its detriment and the ersatz teddy bears proceeded to demolish not just those Imperial walkers but my trust in George Lucas.

Now that doesn't mean that the movie doesn't have its charms. And for that I'll point to every Star Wars fanboy's wet dream, the ravishing Princess Leia in her slave bikini. Now in the previous flicks Leia had been more tomboy than vixen, a damsel well capable of getting herself out of distress in the first one, and a no-nonsense warrior in the second. She does give in to her love for Han in the first sequel, thus cracking her tough skin just a wee bit, but it's not until she's chained at the...uh...ahem..."feet" of Jabba the Hut that classic sci-fi sexuality is allowed to sizzle forth from Carrie Fisher's portrayal. She soon strangles the nasty Jabba with is own chain showing her mettle (no pun intended) has not slackened. But make no doubt about it,s slavegirl Leia she's occupying new territory in the fanboy imagination.

Another thing I didn't care for in Return of the Jedi was the quick dispatch of Boba-Fett, a character I thought was worthy of a better send-off. We get his origin decades later and that helped soothe my woes, but it was a prickly point at the time. On the plus side, I did very much enjoy seeing a confident Luke Skywalker taking it to the Emperor as well as arguably the most delinquent father in film history. He's gone from white to gray to black and with each shift in color his skills have developed. Now the swiftness of the training is a bit of a nag, but that's not uncommon in these stories and give Lucas a pass on that one. The relationship between Leia and Han Solo is really nicely done as they can now get on with the lovemaking since we now broken off the Luke angle on the triangle. (That was a tad icky by the way.)

The ending is a little too overgrown for my tastes, a fan of westerns in which the hero just saunters away into the sun when the work is done, but I can handle celebration in moderation. (I generally hate applause by characters inside the narrative of a movie -- it almost always seems contrived to elicit a similar reaction from the audience.) The misty trio from the source -- Obi Wan, Anakin and Yoda -- was a bit over the top, but I'll suck it up for the kiddies. It sounds like I hate Return of the Jedi and I don't. If it had been the only one of the three, it would've been a triumph for science fiction fantasy on film. But given the expectations and the opportunity it presented, it falls short of what was anticipated for several years. And that can leave a mark. 

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The Saturday Serials - The Empire Strikes Back!

There are many folks who consider The Empire Strikes Back the best of the Star Wars movies. I am not one of those people. The movie is a dandy for certain with a barely discernible harder edge than its predecessor, though for all of the vaunted differences in tone it's supposed to have from Star Wars (now call "A New Hope"), I detect very little change save that they don't win  at the end. (Sorry if that's a spoiler.)

All the stars return to reprise the roles that came to define their careers and in many instances their lives. The story is set several years after its predecessor and gives us a good inside look at the Rebel Alliance which is supposed to stand up the overpowering Empire that dominates space. Its' also a war movie, at least at first. The tale beginning with a huge battle as it does evokes more of a doughty WWII feel in the way soldiers take on devastating machines in the form of the "Walkers", one of my favorite Star Wars inventions. There is outstanding stop-motion filming done in this flick and in these days of digital overload a delightfully simple solution. After the fighting the movie settles down into a light drama with extensive comedy thrown to lighten the blend.

The love triangle sorts itself out as Princess Leia shows her feeling for Han Solo and poor little Luke is left to hang and train with the offbeat Yoda.  Whereas the first story was set pretty much on Tatooine and in space, this one wants to play up different worlds and takes the watcher to the ice world of Hoth, the swamp world of Dagobah, and the cloud world of Bespin, as well as a little time on an asteroid which is home to an enormous worm. We also get a ginormous space battle cruiser, all black and sleek controlled by Darth Vader himself. The canvas is much larger, and that's no doubt because the producers of the film were pretty much guaranteed a success given the hunger for a sequel created by the enormous success of Star Wars.

As for the big reveal of Darth Vader as Luke's father, it all seems a little quaint these days. But I can remember wondering about it and the impact it would have on the outcome of the story. Darth Vader was an amazing composite character, physically performed by David Prowse and vocally by James Earl Jones. His mystery and menace lurks all over this movie, more than the others even because he's the center of attention as much as anyone is. The first movie was about the droids and told from their perspective and while we don't get that access to Vader, we do get a much greater sense of his power and limitations such as the time he kneels to his Emperor and speaks so confidently of his plans.

The Empire Strikes Back was a remarkable thing, a sequel nearly as compelling as the film that inspired it. To my mind not as strong or complete an experience, but that was all intentional and I cannot fault the creators for the necessary problems. The story would be resolved in the next movie, but for that I'd have to wait several more years. And when the time finally came, I got to meet Ewoks. More on that encounter next week.

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The Saturday Serials - Buck Rogers 1939!

There's little doubt that Buck Rogers came to the screen in 1939 as a serial because of the success of Flash Gordon. I like a lot of people I suspect just sort of consider this a variation on the Flash saga, though when you take a peek into the details there are some significant differences.

Now not unlike the comic strip itself the notion of suspended animation thrusting a man into the distant future five hundred years from his own is dispensed with almost as soon as it's mentioned. Buck just jumps into this new era with aplomb, bravery and an uncanny knack on the technology of this new era.

The anti-gravity belts are the neatest gimmick in this serial as they are distinctive and a neat twist on the classic rocket pack. The characters move in ways not exactly like any other movie I've seen of this kind. The spaceships on the other hand are just more flat and angular versions of the classic Mongo type. They all look like little darts, but they function pretty identically.  The "Hidden City" is a pretty nifty thing and seeing those ginormous rock doors open and close is good stuff.

One of the weakest parts of the story is its insistence on flying back and forth to Saturn to get allies. Maybe there's some point being made about the events of the day, 1939 being a crucial year for people of good will to lock horns with a deadly enemy. The Saturnians are a fickle lot and without the constant badgering of Buck would have gone the way of appeasement for sure.

The cliffhangers are a bit weak, with more than a few being of the just shake it off variety. Deadly crashes are just ignored and at least one instance the story was changed to solve the dilemma. But I don't really watch them for that, but for the characterizations and Buster Crabbe is in fine form. He's a more mature go-getter in this one, less awkward on screen in the action sequences and his pal Buddy is fine and appears just the right number of minutes. Wilma Deering seems to have a good role early, but diminishes as the story tumbles along. 

A really good serial and at twelve chapters not too long. Only a few partial repeat elements. Buck Rogers is a good addition to the Larry "Buster" Crabbe filmography, neatly tucked in with his Flash Gordon work. 

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