Reviews

In the 30's and the 40's,universal(like republic pictures)produced many serials(action films viewed in chapters)dealing with superheroes,outer space,mad scientists and war, In this 12 chapter serial released by universal in 1939, bela lugosi(famous for playing vampires,mad doctors and monsters)plays doctor zorka,a mad doctor who has discovered an atomic meteorite,he harnesses its power,he then decides to sell it to spies,when a reporter(dorothy arnold) and a government agent(robert kent)set out to stop doctor zorka from destroying the world with the meteorite,they must battle spies,doctor zorka's explosive mechanical spiders and a giant robot through 12 chapters to save the world!an impressive serial,an incredible performance from lugosi and the supporting cast,and plenty of special effects,also seen in this serial is edward van sloan(who plays jarvis the spy chief) who starred along with bela lugosi in universals dracula(1931)!

it's worth watching

In this republic serial,a mad doctor called doctor satan(edward cianelli) plot's to dominate the world with an army of huge robots!,but only one man can stop this mad plot,the copperhead(robert wilcox(david sharp as the copperhead stunt double)!.when a governer is murdered,the copperhead protects a scientist(c. montague shaw) and his daughter(ella neal) as doctor satan attempts to obtain the scientist's remote control invention to use to operate his monstrous robot!,this is a great example of a classic serial,it's got everything,secret hideouts armed with deadly death traps!,a mad doctor named satan who is bent on world domination,a big tin can robot with big vaccum hose arms,heroic hero,and a mysterious and thrilling music(by cy feuer) score!.this serial is worth seeing!

This was the first flash gordon movie i saw on video,i later learned that this was a edited version of the second flash gordon movie"trip to mars",in this feature film,flash gordon (Larry(buster) Crabbe), dr zarkov (frank shannon) and dale arden (jean rogers), along with a bumbling reporter named happy hapgood (donald kerr) fly in their rocket ship to mars to stop ming the merciless (charles middleton) who has built a huge death ray called a nitron lamp to suck earths atmosphere and leave the earth a dead world!, throughout this film flash and his friends meet the clay people who help them defeat ming,and the meet the martian witch queen azura(beatrice roberts)!, another great performance by buster crabbe and charles middleton,but the only thing is you miss out on what the serial version has to offer,in this version you only see the forest people once,and you miss a lot of the great thrills the serial version has to offer,my advice is,see the serial version first so you can see what i'm telling you about!

The year after universal released the controversial film 'THE BLACK CAT"in 1934,universal released another film dealing with one of edgar allan poe's chilling tales,"THE RAVEN"(1935).In this horror classic,Bela Lugosi(known for playing the famous vampire count dracula in"dracula")plays a brilliant surgeon who loves poe's chilling tales of horror!,when a young woman(irene ware) is injured in a car accident,her father(samuel s. hinds) asks him to save his daughter from death,he operates on her and saves her,but soon he falls madly in love with her,but she is frightened of it and her father says he can never see her again!.when an escaped murderer(Boris Karloff) asks him to perform plastic surgery on him,the doctor disfigures his face and forces him to help him with his plan to torture them!,this film also stars lester matthews and ian wolfe(who can be seen in a few of the basil rathbone sherlock holmes films),this is a great universal horror film!what was good about it was,lugosi and karloff's performances,the house and torture room props and sets,heinz roemheld's recycled score from the black cat(which was made up of varations of classical music composed by lizst,schubert,brahms,and tshchaikovsky),and its intense pit and the pendelum/torture scenes which made the film creepy and shocking(like the black cat,this film was also banned in some parts of the world at that time)don't get me wrong,this film is not like the other poe film from universal pictures,which got away with a lot of things at that time!

During the 30's,40's,and 50's,republic pictures was known and remembered as the studio that produced some of the greatest action serials of all time!.In the"crimson ghost",a scientific maniac wearing a skull mask and a red robe steals an atomic device called the cyclotrode,which can stop cars,planes,and any electrical device,after it's inventor(kenne duncan) is kiddnapped and killed,a criminologist(charles quigley) and his female assistant(linda sterling) risk their lives through 12 chapters of action packed thrills to stop this maniac from building a larger cyclotrode and bring him to justice!there are many fight scenes and the music score is great too!(for the serial buffs,most of the music in this film is used from republic pictures mysterious doctor satan and dick tracy's g men)this film also stars clayton moore who is later known for playing the lone ranger. this is a great serial to watch for the serial buffs and for anyone who enjoys action,