This serial seems like it's going to be a real trip back in time to see how the Old West was portrayed during the mid 1930s. It's long and has a huge cast of leading and supporting characters and goes on for 15 chapters! The first chapter alone is 30 minutes! So this is a bargain if you find it in the $5.00 remainder bin. But don't watch it all at one time! I watched about 2-3 chapters a night, like a TV show with a wide story arc, in order to follow all the characters.
It has what we think of as the running element connecting serial chapters--in this case, securing the Sacred Medicine Arrow, which has secret markings to lead the possessor to a Cave of Gold. We get the back and forth stealing of it by the bad and good guys. For most of the serials in the forties and fifties where this 'back n forth' activity constitutes the whole content of every chapter, like 'Holt of the Secret Service' (1941) it gets deadly boring fast. But not here. There are too many other stories going on, though only a couple of them are fully developed.
Many of the serials in the teens, twenties and early thirties were episodic with large casts. Here we have the stories of Kit Cardigan, the Gary Sinise lookalike Rex Lease -- so wonderfully handsome and bad in 'Cavalcade in the West' (1936) being chased by three women-- a blonde, the dark haired saloon owner, and the beautiful Indian girl, Red Fawn (how she portrays her unrequited love for Kit is the best part of the serial). There's the pursuit of the Sacred Medicine Arrow by the evil "Blade" of Blackpool. There's the evil Indian, Chief Thundercloud, trying to continually lead 'uprisings' against the whites; Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, and Wild Bill Hickock pass through quickly in a couple of chapters; there's the disgraced army officer who finally redeems himself at the Little Big Horn; and, oh, there's something about General Custer in the last chapter.
When I first saw this serial on TV when I was 8 or 9 (1953), I loved the main title theme music, was scared by the buffalo, and hated the evil Chief Thundercloud. Well, unlike the timeless, great Flash Gordon serials, this one doesn't look as good when you're not 8 years old. Nothing much really happens, and several of the cliff hangers are cheats. You can even hear the director yelling to Rex Lease, "Get the gun!" Although Blade killed Kit Cardigan's father to get the Sacred Arrow, and seemingly wants to possess it, we never see the entry or plundering of the Cave of Gold -- it's protected by the Great Spirit who kills Chief Thundercloud. Red Fawn becomes the guardian of the Arrow. But as far as an action denouement is concerned, it's not there-- just the final shootout between Kit and Blade.
So if you've got nothing better to do, and want to sit on the couch and eat popcorn, this one will take you back to the thirties' vision of the Old West Indian tepees, 'Tonto talk,' buffaloes and covered wagons. But afterwards you'll wonder why you went. I can only give it a 3.
It has what we think of as the running element connecting serial chapters--in this case, securing the Sacred Medicine Arrow, which has secret markings to lead the possessor to a Cave of Gold. We get the back and forth stealing of it by the bad and good guys. For most of the serials in the forties and fifties where this 'back n forth' activity constitutes the whole content of every chapter, like 'Holt of the Secret Service' (1941) it gets deadly boring fast. But not here. There are too many other stories going on, though only a couple of them are fully developed.
Many of the serials in the teens, twenties and early thirties were episodic with large casts. Here we have the stories of Kit Cardigan, the Gary Sinise lookalike Rex Lease -- so wonderfully handsome and bad in 'Cavalcade in the West' (1936) being chased by three women-- a blonde, the dark haired saloon owner, and the beautiful Indian girl, Red Fawn (how she portrays her unrequited love for Kit is the best part of the serial). There's the pursuit of the Sacred Medicine Arrow by the evil "Blade" of Blackpool. There's the evil Indian, Chief Thundercloud, trying to continually lead 'uprisings' against the whites; Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, and Wild Bill Hickock pass through quickly in a couple of chapters; there's the disgraced army officer who finally redeems himself at the Little Big Horn; and, oh, there's something about General Custer in the last chapter.
When I first saw this serial on TV when I was 8 or 9 (1953), I loved the main title theme music, was scared by the buffalo, and hated the evil Chief Thundercloud. Well, unlike the timeless, great Flash Gordon serials, this one doesn't look as good when you're not 8 years old. Nothing much really happens, and several of the cliff hangers are cheats. You can even hear the director yelling to Rex Lease, "Get the gun!" Although Blade killed Kit Cardigan's father to get the Sacred Arrow, and seemingly wants to possess it, we never see the entry or plundering of the Cave of Gold -- it's protected by the Great Spirit who kills Chief Thundercloud. Red Fawn becomes the guardian of the Arrow. But as far as an action denouement is concerned, it's not there-- just the final shootout between Kit and Blade.
So if you've got nothing better to do, and want to sit on the couch and eat popcorn, this one will take you back to the thirties' vision of the Old West Indian tepees, 'Tonto talk,' buffaloes and covered wagons. But afterwards you'll wonder why you went. I can only give it a 3.