In it's good days (1937 to 1947), the Republic serials were everything that kids wanted to see in the theaters. A good hero, a dastardly villain, lots of bad guys supporting the second and standing in the way of the first (which means lots of fights) and, eventually, a good or bad girl to show that this was not an all man's territory.
Near the end of the good days, they produced this action-packed feature. In the first scene in which the villain appears, there's a murder. In the first scene the hero appears, he rescue the good girl from the clutches of the bad one and kills (in self defense) a thug. And so it starts the fight between both parties; in the evil corner, plotting schemes to gain money by illicit ways... Jim Belmnont and Rita Parker (played by George J. Lewis and Adrian Booth, both had worked in other serials as members of the good party)! And in the corner of the law, trying to stop their plots... Jerry Blake and Joyce Kingston (pity that was Marten Lamont only serial - he did worked in two others serials years before but his roles were so minor that he was uncredited - while Helen Talbot would be the only female interest in 1946's King of the Forest Rangers)!
Simple like that. But how they did manage to create inventive cliffhangers between each 'Case' (as the episode are named), to have good fights and tie it all in twelve episodes. One of the best they made!
Near the end of the good days, they produced this action-packed feature. In the first scene in which the villain appears, there's a murder. In the first scene the hero appears, he rescue the good girl from the clutches of the bad one and kills (in self defense) a thug. And so it starts the fight between both parties; in the evil corner, plotting schemes to gain money by illicit ways... Jim Belmnont and Rita Parker (played by George J. Lewis and Adrian Booth, both had worked in other serials as members of the good party)! And in the corner of the law, trying to stop their plots... Jerry Blake and Joyce Kingston (pity that was Marten Lamont only serial - he did worked in two others serials years before but his roles were so minor that he was uncredited - while Helen Talbot would be the only female interest in 1946's King of the Forest Rangers)!
Simple like that. But how they did manage to create inventive cliffhangers between each 'Case' (as the episode are named), to have good fights and tie it all in twelve episodes. One of the best they made!