The Lost City (I) (1935) User Reviews

Routine Serial With Impressive Sets!

[bsmith5552 · 6/10 · 22 September 2004]

"The Lost City" is another of those "mad scientist wanting to rule the world" serials. This one was independently produced by Sherman S. Krellberg and Directed by Harry Revier. The set pieces especially the laboratory equipment I thought, were quite impressive by poverty row standards.

The story has electrical engineer Bruce Gordon (Kane Richmond) tracking the source of global electrical disturbances, which he discovers to be originating from central Africa. He mounts an expedition which includes fellow scientists Reynolds (Ralph Lewis) and Colton (William Millman) and his pal Jerry (Eddie Fetherstone). Arriving in Africa, they go to a trading post run by the slave trader Butterfield (George F. Hayes). Gordon soon discovers that the disturbances are coming from a nearby mountain.

Inside the mountain are evil scientist Zolok (William "Stage Boyd") who along with his assistants the hunchback Gorzo (William Bletcher) and muscleman Appolyn (Jerry Frank), plan to rule the world with the help of an army of zombie like giants created by Dr. Manyus (Josef Swickard). Manyus and his daughter Natcha (Claudia Dell) are being held prisoner by Zolok and forced to do his will.

Soon Gordon's party is lured to the lost city. Once there Reynolds and Colton see the possibilities of the giants and kidnap Manyus and take him into the jungle where they meet up with evil slave trader Ben Ali (Gino Corrado) who also sees the possibilities. Meanwhile Butterfield through his cohort Andrews (Milburn Moranti) also learns of the giants. All wish to capture Manyus and force him to do their evil deeds. Then later on there enters the evil slave trader, Queen Rama (Margot D'use) who also has designs on the giant maker and on Bruce Gordon as well.

Gordon and Jerry do all they can to prevent Manyus' capture and ward off the assorted villains. Finally they defeat the villains and save the world from a fate worse than death.

There's an interesting sequence where we learn that Manyus also has the power to turn black men into white. Wonder how that made it pass the censors. Also there is a "death ray" which looks a lot like a laser beam several decades before such a beam was invented. The advanced television system also foretold of similar such systems in the future.

Willam "Stage" Boyd had been in films since 1913. He used the name "Stage" to avoid confusion with the "other" William Boyd who was playing Hopalong Cassidy at the time. Sadly, this was Boyd's final film for he passed away shortly after its completion.

George F. Hayes is of course the infamous "Gabby" Hayes who would enjoy a long career in "B" westerns playing the crusty old sidekick. Oddly enough, Hayes worked with both William Boyds.

Who's On Whose Side Here?

[strong-122-478885 · 5/10 · 17 November 2014]

This supremely silly (but still kinda fun), 12-chapter serial/adventure tale (from 1935) had just about everything in it, but the kitchen sink.

Set in the fictitious region of Central Africa called the Magnetic Mountains, our dashing, young, American hero & researcher, Buck Gordon, travels to the Dark Continent in hopes of tracking down the brilliant yet decidedly crazed mad scientist Dr. Zolok who's definitely up to no good in a really big way.

As the story goes - It seems that somewhere within a hidden city (situated below Magnetic Mountain) Zolok has built a truly remarkable machine which can, in fact, be programed to create serious electrical disturbances at great distances.

And, as expected, Zolok plans to use this wondrous invention in his diabolical plans to (guess what?) take over the world. (Oh! My!)

Can our courageous hero and his trusty comrades save the day and stop zany Zolok before he carries things too far?

Well, you'll just have to check out The Lost City for yourself to find out the answer to that and much-much more, too!

Never Ending

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 21 March 2007]

This is quite a project. There is every conceivable kind of plot development. The bad guys turn good; the good guys turn bad; they turn back again. It's about scientists messing with the realm of electricity; it's about Arab slave traders; it's about zombie black men being made bigger, their brains being canceled out. There's Gabby Hayes. The sidekick. When I was a child I sold enough subscriptions to the St. Paul Pioneer Press to go to the Minnesota State Fair and meet Gabby Hayes, along with several other boys. He was there with the late singer, Johnny Horton, and called us all a bunch of young whippersnappers. It was a high point in my life. Anyway, it was kind of cool to see the old guy, with his scruffy beard, playing a pretty significant role. I'm not going to take this apart. It wouldn't be fair. It had to have been made up from one day to the next. I wondered how long that old scientist would survive being picked up and carted around. Everything is so hammy. Still it's a bit much, even for a serial. By the end you feel like you've been on a roller coaster and need a program to figure the whole thing out. I did enjoy William "Stage" Boyd and his manic throwing orders around. Also, the strong man in the sparkly suit (who was continuously incompetent) was real kick. It certainly was an interesting few hours.

The Most Deranged Serial Ever Made

[DearJohnny · 31 March 2009]

A bizarre, demented, utterly berserk multi-chapter hoot that's a pure delight for camp enthusiasts, sci-fi movie freaks, and fans of the demented in any form. Wild, woolly adventures in a lost city in Africa which seems to have only three inhabitants. The story, if one can call it that, concerns an elderly captive scientist who elongates and lobotomizes natives (and can also make black people white), his beautiful daughter, the evil dictator who holds them captive, his assorted flunkies, a fiendish jungle priestess of some sort, a painfully earnest hero and his doltish, bumbling sidekick, and God knows what else. Weirdly acted, scripted by someone who must have been drunk out of his mind (or SOMETHING), and, oddly, has impressive special effects, given the time. Derivative, racist, whacked out, and utterly delightful.

Wild, Wild, Wild

[pastark2 · 3/10 · 29 October 2006]

All the other comments are really right on the mark about THE LOST CITY. For some of us it is a guilty pleasure, mainly because it is so outlandish. Trying to rate it is difficult, because on the one hand the acting is so atrocious and the racial attitudes are beyond belief, and the other hand, it is never boring, and has imaginative sets and Kenneth Strickfadden's electrical devices. Recently Jerry Frank's, nephew wrote about this film. Frank and Sam Baker, who played the 7 foot zombie Hugo became best of friends. It was heartwarming to read how in those days, the two actors, one Black and the other Jewish bonded. Baker referred to the film as "That old dog" but neither would disavow the film.

The electrical traditions of the Ligurians

[boblipton · 1/10 · 11 June 2004]

Gloriously awful feature version of the even more gloriously awful serial, concerning Zolok, last of the Ligurians, in his steel-plated city beneath the African jungle. Along with hunchback Billy Bletcher -- doing his 'Pete' voice from Mickey Mouse -- he rules over a land of 'White Giants' and electrically zombified Blacks who communicate by belching!

Apparently Zolok is busy destroying the world, using scientists who can't act and one of their daughters, who has stolen her wardrobe from a wandering gypsy. Up shows a party of befuddled electrical engineers bent on saving the world; and, despite their best efforts, they manage to do so.

Worth see for the amazingly awful plot, script, costuming and set design, as well as Gabby Hays with his teeth in.

Either a hoot or a horror, depending on your mindset

[Steve-171 · 4/10 · 4 August 2000]

Okay, I've seen this thing twice. As a kid, it was totally insane, or at least that's what the grownups kept telling me. Seen through adult eyes, it's a little different. As a serial, it's floating on the muck at the bottom of the barrel. Campy, hammy performances, especially "Stage" Boyd as the maniac ruler, and Claudia Dell, who cringes and flutters like Glinda the Good Witch on crack. Kane Richmond tries hard. But there are points of interest. George Hayes does a fair job of acting before he turned sidekick and was dubbed Gabby. Special effects are pretty good for the time. With a few beers and friends, this could be a fine party tape.

The Lost City

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 28 November 2022]

Kane Richmond went from being a football star at the University of Minnesota as Fred Bowditch to becoming a film salesman before testing and getting the lead in the boxing serial The Leather Pushers and becoming a fixture in serials like Spy Smasher and Brick Bradford as well as playing Lamont Cranston - otherwise known as The Shadow - in The Shadow Returns, Behind the Mask and The Missing Lady. His career moved on to playing supporting roles as well as TV work before retiring in 1966.

In The Lost City, he plays a scientist named Bruce Gordon who climbs the Magnetic Mountain and descends into the secret world of the Lemurians who are led by the evil Zolok. He's played by William "Stage" Boyd, who was tired of being confused with actor William Boyd and added the middle name to somewhat haugtily proclaim that yes, he had stage experience. He also had a major drinking and drug problem that got so bad that - keep in mind this was during Prohibition - he started not only losing roles, but cost the other William Boyd his RKO contract because papers would print photos of the non "Stage" Boyd every time "Stage" Boyd got in trouble. This was his final role. As for his namesake, he changed his name to Bill Boyd and overcame being penniless in 1931 when RKO fired him and got the role that would change his life: Hopalong Cassidy.

When that film series ended up in 1948, Boyd had nearly bankrupted himself again by buying the rights to every film, something few actors did. He sold or mortgaged everything he owned, which didn't pay off until he took one of his older pictures to the local NBC television station and offered it at a low rental cost, hoping that people would start talking. They did. He became one of the first national TV stars with every one of his films sold to NBC, got a new radio show and rebuilt his personal fortune.

Back to Lemuria.

Zolok has gone full Ming and created natural disasters to weaken the human race before his takeover. He's also keeping Dr. Manyus (Josef Swickard) - and his daughter Natcha (Claudia Dell) - and forcing him to transform Lemurians into mindless giants as well as making his enemies, the spider loving Wangas, into weak slaves.

Back to Hopalong Cassidy. One of the other actors in this film, George "Gabby" Hayes, who plays the sidekick of Hopalong named Windy Halliday from 1935 to 1939. He quit that role when he felt he wasn't being paid what he was worth and left for Republic Pictures. He had to change the name of his character to Gabby Whitaker and ended up being even more successful, appearing in 44 Roy Rogers movies, 14 Wild Bill Elliot films and 7 movies with Gene Autry. He also became a TV star once westerns became big on the new medium. While in the movies he was a gnarled up old man who spoke in strange gruff phrases, he was actually an intelligent and well-spoken man.

Gorzo, the dwarf bad guy in this, is played by Billy Bletcher, whose career is filled with nearly a hundred roles. He's best known for playing the Big Bad Wolf and Mickey Mouse's enemy Pete in the early Disney cartoons. He also worked with Pinto Colvig to do the ADR voices of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz.

The Lost City is not all that different from The Phantom Empire, taking that Gene Autry serial and moving it from a cowboy-friendly locale into the jungle. Producer Sherman S. Krellberg would edit the twelve episodes into four movies and added new footage to create new endings for each movie. The character Queen Rama and the Wangas, butthen made another version that had all of those characters and called it City of Lost Men. He also made another version of this in the 70s that is full of continuity issues.

Director Harry Revier made several early Tarzan movies but I know him best for the truly berserk Lash of the Penitentes, an early exploitation film promising women whipping themselves and, yes, delivering while cashing in on a then-well-known controversy.

As for Lemuria, it was a major obsession for occultists at this time. Theosophy founder Madame Helena Blavatsky had written a system of magic that involved Lemuria as the place where humans came from originally. We can also tie the underground world to another popular mid-20th century myth, The Shavers. Checkout films like The Mole People and the sort-of-doc Beyond Lemuria to learn more. Or ask me. I can talk about this kind of weird stuff for days.

The Lost City looks dated today but was state-of-the-art in 1935. Check it out for yourself and see how far movies have come.

A fine film, check it out if you get your hands on it

[valjus96 · 5/10 · 13 June 2013]

The Lost City is not a bad but no good either 30's horror/Sci-fi film serial with twelve chapters, with overall 4 hours of playtime. I watched the whole thing in two days because I kept losing focus after few chapters. But the movie isn't boring, the plot keeps moving quickly and something new appears on every chapter. The dialog is kept simple, and the plot is also kind of simple but fine. Nothing to complain about the special effects either, some was kinda cool for the time actually. Oh, and every chapter ends with the classic "Will he survive? Find out on next chapter!" text! But The Lost City isn't a great film either if compared to other films of that time. Acting isn't the best (especially the giants) and there are some scenes which look like it was filmed with a silent era film camera. Anyways, if you are watching this with a group of friends, then even better! There is everything you need for good laughs; Hilarious giants, special effects of that time, bad action scenes and overall acting... What more could you ask for? So, if you are thinking of setting up a black-and-white film night with your buddies, or if you just are a classic horror movie geek, then consider giving this film a shot. I don't know if many people would enjoy this film as much as I do but it's worth of finding out. But don't finish it on one sitting though, unless you are a extreme marathoner.

Remarkable assortment of villains

[unbrokenmetal · 7/10 · 31 December 2008]

This is a wonderful rediscovery, 12 chapters = 4 hours running time of hilarious entertainment. "The Lost City" begins like a science fiction story when a mad scientist threatens the world from his secret laboratory, but when the hero travels to Africa to find that hiding place, it turns into a jungle adventure with lions, giant spiders and slave raiders. And the inevitable racism of the 1930s, but other reviewers have mentioned that before.

There is a remarkable assortment of villains, not just the ruler of the lost city, Zolok (William 'Stage' Boyd), but also the greedy Butterfield (Gabby Hayes, who is remembered for his westerns mostly), a scantily clad jungle queen who wants to kill the hero's girl, a hunchback with unhealthy ambitions and the clever but merciless leader of the slave raiders. All of them get Bruce Gordon (Kane Richmond) and Natcha (Claudia Dell) into a lot of cliffhanger situations almost impossible to survive. It will give you an idea on how bizarre the whole serial is when I tell you Natcha's father Dr Manyus was forced to develop a machine for Zolok that "enlarges" an average man into a 7 ft giant with a lot more muscles, but less brain than before, so the victims can be used as slaves. Don't let the manager of your local basketball team watch this, but don't hesitate to watch it yourself.

seriously, seriously! bent.

[ptb-8 · 9/10 · 4 July 2005]

Is there a good 35mm print of this thing? If there is and a negative, there is millions to be made from a camp Rocky Horror type reissue in cinemas or on the late-show cine circuit. Never have I seen such a bizarre serial. Imagine a jungle jumble of RED DUST, UNDERSEA KINGDOM, THE GOLEM, TARZAN AND HIS MATE, and FLASH GORDON, KING KONG, and THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME..I know, I know, just insane...but wound up to almost hysteria level acting and with a reasonable budget of deco indoor FRANKENSTEIN looking ray guns and zzzzy things, on steel rivet sets; submarine-airship bits and pieces...and you get sort of a picture of how berserk this serial truly is. Handsome he man Kane Richmond and some silly old professor and screaming daughter end up in darkest Africa being menaced chased, shot at, tied up and scribbled on (yes, scribbled upon!) by a roster of jungle idiots who include: giant oily Nubians who walk like huge stoned babies, a hunchback in a "prince Valiant style" page boy wig (and speaks in Shakespearian English), a tribal queen who clearly is Spanish, wears huge diamonties and talks like Lupe Velez, a gang of what look like flour covered jockeys in feathers and white fright wigs, and a gang of Hawaiian looking cranky cannibals who yell 'oomba goomba' and throw wobbly spears at whoever they are told to. And last but not least, a gay muscle dude who wears the tightest...and I mean SO tight you can see his religion... tightest spangly one piece girls swimming costume this side of the Hayes censorship code of 1934...he is called Appollon just in case you are not sure what he is there for. Once the scene is set between caves, indoor deco lost city with zappy electrical instruments and the usual all seeing television, and the jungle huts, the whole cast then chase each other between each location, throwing things at each other, looking suspiciously at each other or through windows or around corners - and screaming. Sometimes someone gets tied up or lions appear in old circus stock footage, or Kane gets his chest scribbled on (!) or the jockeys flabbboiiiing arrows at someone or the nubians stagger about, OR they run into a bush or get locked up in a grass hut, or tied to a chair, OR slam a door or just plain hit each other from behind in corridors with lead pipes, the action just basically rattles about in circles with ridiculous comments and overacting. I loved all 236 minutes of it. Made at the same hopeless serial factory by someone called Sherman Krellberg who produced THE BLACK COIN and other terrible serials before Republic Studios married Mascot and stopped (and imitated) the competition, THE LOST CITY needs to be concreted in infamy as the most hysterical loony and out of control piece of kids horror pantomime ever committed to celluloid. The 5000 FINGERS OF DR T has nothing on this. BUT I do believe it was made for adults. Exactly what type of adults I can only guess, but in its camp value and howling general beserkness suggests it was either seriously deranged in every part of its production or made by shrewd schlockmeisters who knew that in 2006 we would be waiting.

Flash Gordon meets Tarzan, sort of.

[KennethEagleSpirit · 6/10 · 19 May 2007]

An obvious attempt to capitalize on things that were already popular, this is actually mildly amusing. Acting? Except for Gabby Hayes, who was a natural hoot anyway, and Gino Corrado there's not much in the way of really good talent here. I say that, but its understandable too that the standard was often over the top at that time, which thing often enough covered real talent with unnecessary over acting. And that, I think, is a problem with the director and not the cast. Anyway. Plot? Not much of one really. It comes across like it was made up as they went along. Whatever it takes to keep folks coming back on a weekly basis. Character development? Well, the players jump around kind of like the plot, and probably for the same reason. Special effects? Lets just say they weren't shocking, but Tesla would've been proud. Last analysis? Rainy day, comfort food, don't want to think about what you're doing? Watch this. Its fun enough.

Loony, goofy, surreal

[mcornett · 29 November 2004]

How bizarre is this serial? Very.

It was made fairly cheaply but does have some impressive sets and occasionally decent effects. But the writing and the acting are all terrible.

Kane Richmond is bland as the square-jawed hero. Claudia Dell seems miscast as the love interest; although she was only 26 she looks 40ish and plain. She has an overall prim, quavering, schoolmarmish air that's rather off putting. Jerry Frank as Apollyn is easy on the eyes in his gold lame shorts and little else. He helps rise this serial to a certain level of homo erotic camp.

The serial belongs to William "Stage" Boyd as mad scientist Zolok. He camps it up hilariously, although obviously meant to be serious. His final scenes are strangely effective; I'm told he was actually roaring drunk during the filming of those scenes which makes his final madness seem more effective. He died not long after completing this serial, making this an odd obituary.

The story? Well, Zolok is menacing the world from a lost city in Africa, once inhabited by a highly advanced race of which Zolok is the last member. He has hunky Apollyn and a twisted hunchback as assistants, and also has a captive scientist who has the requisite "lovely" daughter (Dell). Richmond goes to stop him and runs afoul of one trap after another, as well as Zolok's army of mindless black giants, and the queen of an African tribe who a) falls for Richmond and b) wants to be white.

Yup, this serial is morbidly racist. Quite a bit of plot hinges on the scientists' ability to turn black people white; at one point it's done and the subject jumps and leaps about with glee. When the Queen proposes marriage to Richmond, he smiles smugly and says, "Oh, I'm afraid that's out of the question."

Some audiences may find THE LOST CITY unpalatable, but it must be bourne in mind that it's a product of less-enlightened times (MUCH less enlightened). I view it not as a serious racial statement but just a reflection of the limited psyches of those involved.

It's actually pretty fun if you make the campiness of it part of the deal. I understand this was actually considered quite old-fashioned and out-of-date when it was released in 1935, making it a true oddity. See it and enjoy, but you were warned...

Sagging saga continued.

[KennethEagleSpirit · 6/10 · 11 August 2007]

The second half of The Lost City serial is pretty much what you would expect if you've seen part 1. Taken for what it is, and considering the time in which it was made, it's entertaining enough in it's own way. Racist by any standard, the continuous flow of villains turning into good guys and back again ( Ya gotta work in as many gimmicks as ya can to keep 'em comin' back week after week for a serial like this one. ), and the lamest natives and fight scenes ever. Bright spot ... The evil Queen was HOT. But then so is the jungle and I don't want to go there either. This flick is what you do at two a.m. Saturday night to kill time without having to think. Its kinda fun in a goofy sort of way.

Lost City urban legend debunking debunked

[westerfieldalfred · 8/10 · 2 January 2014]

The disappearance of The Lost City from New York television is not an urban legend. Buster Crabbe had a daily show where he showed one episode of a different serial every day. So you had to watch 12 weeks and you saw 5 complete serials. He showed the first episode of The Lost City. It scared the spit out of me. I couldn't wait until next week. But on the appointed day a new serial began. No explanation. Now, for those who know the first chapter, it contains none of the politically incorrect stuff that appeared later. Only Sam Baker's insanely threatening presence. A bunch of mommy complaints must have convinced Crabbe to cancel the showing.

Sam Baker showed a great build but he was past his prime. To see him in The Thief of Bagdad is to see one magnificent body.

Of course as a little kid I didn't remember the name of the serial but always wanted to see more of it. Finally in the book Forgotten Horrors I found the name. Shortly thereafter I obtained a tape of one of the feature versions. I was not disappointed. As a fan of SF serials The Lost City exceeded my expectations. Cheap, yes. But so sincere! The acting was on a par with other serials of the period but the characters, sets and special effects were so much better than average.

Eventually I obtained the complete serial on DVD in an excellent print from Sinister Cinema. Frankly, it wasn't as good as the feature version - too many non-sf sub-plots. But unlike most serials that just keep telling the same stories - plot advancement, fight, plot advancement, fight, cliffhanger - Lost City kept involving more and more characters and stories. As other viewers have said, there's absolutely nothing like it. It's in my top five favorites.

'The electromagnetic traditions of my people'

[Cristi_Ciopron · 7/10 · 24 November 2008]

For me and, let's face it, for you too, the jungle /tropical adventures & eerie lost cities is a thrilling combo, the very definition of high fun—why pretend otherwise? Jungle, safari, tropics, wilderness, mysterious lost cities ….

Now one has the ingredients; and the genre is defined. What are the results? After all, the old DOX novels feature all these things, yet some might consider them as less than perfect.

We might define it as colonial romance; perhaps jungle romance, or tropical romance, might seem rather more politically correct—but it's also somewhat elusive, while colonial romance is the more straight term.

The suspense and the lively fun is naturally connected with some sexiness—as one might see in, e.g., RETURN OF CHANDU, which has both the Lemuria island and the libidinous ,full of desire uncle Lugosi (does anyone know why an American sorcerer has as a niece an Egyptian princess?).

There's The City of the Dead ,in Jungle Man (1941); indeed, wild nature has to be paired with fancy history.

KONG is the masterpiece of this genre—it's my primitive, as Gracq once said about Verne.

The clichés are indisputable; the interest is elsewhere—are they made to work? The mere wilderness may be a bit monotonous—perhaps even slightly boring; the lost cities and empires and hidden kingdoms add immensely, and project everything into fantastic history ….

If you feel like you wish for a strong shot of fun, you might want to consider THE LOST CITY –the perilous exploits of an electrical engineer.

Lost City is one of my Favorites

[lostcatshotel · 17 December 2005]

As I saw it as it was intended to be seen at the Delta Cinema,in my home town of Hamilton.They showed a lot of older films as the Gentleman who ran the Cinema was money challenged. So they showed Serials Chapter by Chapter and the Lost City ws one that I saw Three or Four Times when I was young. This is a Serial that throws in everything but the Kitchen Sink,with Africans being turned into Giants,Slave Traders and a Tribe Of Spider Men. There are interesting people like Gabby Hayes,and Gino Corrado who was the Singer in the Three Stooges Microphonies.And Billy Bletcher as Gorzo,who was the voice of the Big Bad Wolf in the Three Little Pigs. And a young Kane Richmond,later on Spy Smasher. The acting is so over the top its enjoyable. I recommend this to anyone who loves that sort of off the wall lunacy in their films.

Tons of fun for the whole family, if you have the patience for older filmmaking!

[talisencrw · 7/10 · 12 April 2016]

It must have been so gloriously invigorating, making films during the first decade since the inception of sound. It seemed both in the pre-Code era and in serials (which I unabashedly adore) that writers and filmmakers threw everything but the kitchen sink at unsuspecting viewers. Though the cynical among contemporary cinephiles could just as well toss it off as creaky filmmaking, since Lord Almighty, it's in black-and-white with no CGI, it's a load of fun (although it does carry the racial stereotypes that were prevalent in cinema at that time, unfortunately).

The mid-30's weren't too different from 2016, four full generations later, in that current successes=tons of spin-offs (just like the plethora of ultraviolent comedies after 'Pulp Fiction', and gazillions of comic book films in the wake of 'Iron Man'). Since then-recent smash hits like 'King Kong', Johnny Weissmuller's 'Tarzan' films and mad-scientist of James Whale's outstanding 'Frankenstein' movies made those aspects hugely popular, they all get tossed together here in a cinematic ratatouille, with a crazed scientist in an desolate African jungle, of all places, threatening the world with global domination, by destroying hundreds of cities worldwide through electrical storms. An electrical engineering genius, Bruce Gordon, discovers this, and plots an expedition there to find the root cause and destroy it. Along the way, he and his party are continually double-crossed by everyone and their half-brother, as each person with any sense of duplicity whatsoever puts the two-and-two together that kidnapped elderly scientist Dr. Manyus' ability to make zombie-like giant slaves from the African natives could mean a fortune in dubious hands.

One of my favourite character actors of the era, George 'Gabby' Hayes, plays one of those dubious people, the explorer Butterfield, and Claudia Dell is downright deliciously captivating as Dr. Manyus' daughter, the picture's damsel in distress. Yes, there are excruciating plot holes galore, but that's never the point with these delightful films. Just turn your brain off for the 3+ hours, that the 2 parts of the film (edited from the 4-hour, 12-part serial) have to offer. Not everything has to be Hamlet.

Enjoyable in a so bad its good sort of way. In its way its almost the stereotypical serial adventure

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 29 June 2008]

So bad its good serial concerning magnetic disturbances coming from Africa. Kane Richmond leads an expedition to discover the source and runs into the lost city of Liguria and its mad ruler. What can I say this is wild and wacky and so out there that there is no way that you can't help but enjoy it and its unintentional humor. An odd mix of science fiction and jungle adventure that is a concoction that only Hollywood would dare give us. I'm at a loss for words, I mean what can you say about a serial that has people stretched into seven foot giants? Insane. And you should be warned that the portrayal of blacks is racially insensitive, but at the same time its so wrong headed that you feel more sadness at how stupid the people who made the serial are, were they really that stupid?. To be certain its almost compulsively watchable, the silliness and wrong headedness of it all is helped by the use of stereotypical serial dangers (and in its way this is the perfect stereo typical serial). If you miss Mystery Science Theater 3000 you'll want to see this.

Lost City urban legend debunked

[frontrowkid2002 · 10 April 2011]

In the mid Fifties, Famous Monsters of Filmland published photos and stories about early horror and sci-fi serials. The Lost City serial was reviewed by Forrest Ackerman, FM's publisher, in which he told a story about the serial being run on early television in New York City. This was at a time when the networks were using old movies to fill up daytime schedules. As the story goes, the kids were so frightened at seeing black natives being turned into giant zombies with wide-eyed expressions and menacing grins, that protests were made to the station running the serial. The station discontinued the serial viewings. This story found its way into a couple of movie reference books. A serial historian checked out the story and found no mention anywhere that it either ran or was discontinued due to criticism. The serial has become a classic among fans because of its outdated racism and because it featured George Hayes, who became "Gabby Hayes" in Roy Rogers westerns. It also featured familiar B actors Kane Richmond, Claudia Dell and William "Stage" Boyd. Boyd was a B actor whose infamous claim to fame was that he once arrested for having illegal liquor at a party in his house during Prohibition. When the story was published in the paper, a photo of another William Boyd, whose stardom was on the rise. The studio where Boyd was working released him on the morals clause, even though he was not guilty. It may have been at this time that the William Boyd who was arrested took the name "Stage" to differentiate from the other Boyd. In any case, the innocent Boyd toiled in the B picture sweatshops until he was cast in a A western as Hopalong Cassidy.

The Fever Dream of a Depression-Era Seven Year Old

[jhausler3 · 6/10 · 10 June 2022]

I've been watching a lot of serials lately, but I don't think any of the others I've seen come close to approaching "The Lost City" in terms of sheer oddity. It feels like the troubled fever dream of some kid in 1935 who went to a Tarzan and Flash Gordon double feature at the movies on Halloween afternoon, binged on candy till they passed out that night, and dreamt this up in a fit of Tootsie-Roll-fueled delirium. It feels like what an imaginative Depression-era kid's idea of Africa probably looked like... just... weirder.

The ostensible premise (more on that qualifier in a second) is that a series of inexplicable weather events are wrecking the globe, and a team of scientists led by electrical engineer Bruce Gordon and his friend Jerry discover that the disturbance is somehow coming from the center of Africa, and appears to be man-made. When their safari arrives there, they discover that a lost, technologically-advanced city led by a dictator named Zolok is behind the threat, thanks largely to the slave labor of a brilliant scientist named Manyus. But WAIT, there's MORE! It turns out that the bigger local concern is the fact that he can somehow turn regular African natives into "giants" (NBA player sized at most, but tall nonetheless), and everyone wants their hands on that power. From local white guy head honcho Butterfield to Arabian slave trader Ben Ali to Amazon temptress Queen Rama to a crew of "Spider-People", everyone seems to want a giant, and there's only one Dr. Manyus to go around. Accordingly, better than 80% of the serial doesn't have much of anything to do with the Lost City or the weather events, and is all about who's kidnapped Dr. Manyus and his daughter Nachya most recently.

The lack of focus and constantly-shifting threat makes this serial a very hard one to follow, though it is helped somewhat by the fact that each "arc" feels pretty self-contained. Sadly, upon reading more about this serial's history on IMDB, I suspect that another key word related to its production may have been "troubled", which may explain a lot of the rest of its general craziness. The actor who played Zolok, William "Stage" Boyd, was apparently so deep into drugs and alcohol that he was court-ordered to add his "Stage" nickname so as to not slander an identically-named actor at the time with his misbehavior. Boyd died from his drug habit later this same year, and what I initially thought might be hammy acting in the final episode was actually him being as high as a kite. Apparently none of the other actors wanted to be around him while he was like this, and the reason that almost none of "The Lost City" takes place in the Lost City might be so they could have as little interaction with him as possible, and minimal responsibility for the production placed on him. If all he did was bark into a microphone for a scene each episode for most of the serial, they could muddle through, and that's apparently just what they did. If this required an on-the-spot rewrite of the script, that might also explain some of the other plot weirdness.

The general weirdness of this serial is its main draw, and the reason anyone today would want to watch it. The plot is nuts, the costuming is even more nuts, the old-fashioned exoticism is kind of appealing, and the very in-your-face old fashioned racism dips into feeling more comedic than offensive because it (and the production as a whole) is so impossible to take seriously. Surprisingly, two characters receive some character development during the serial, which I thought was refreshing. One other odd trait of the film is that despite being in the mid-30s when "talkies" were well underway, the production and several of the actors have a very 1920s silent-film vibe to them. The actor who played Manyus was apparently a silent era veteran... Nachya feels and looks that way, but doesn't have the same excuse.

The middle of the road rating I'm giving "Lost City" reflects an appreciation for its camp, but an honest appraisal that it's hard to deem it "good" by most objective measures. Recommended for die-hard serial fans, fans of camp with a lot of patience, and people with an appreciation for the West's exotic, thoroughly unrealistic, yet somehow intriguing fictional image of Africa in the early 20th Century. Everyone else, stick to better serials like "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" or "The Whispering Shadow".

As Hugo might say, this gets six "OOOAAAOOH!!!"s out of ten!

Strange Story. Terrible Acting. Racist Elements.

[earlytalkie · 21 January 2012]

Here is a laugh-out-loud epic from 1935 that makes the old Universal and Republic serials (Flash Gordon, Undersea Kingdom) look like Avatar. This show must have seemed racist even in the unenlightened year of 1935. Set in Africa, this show sends the message that if you are black, you can be given a new lease on life by being turned white. You will then run around whooping it up with glee. The only element of good acting may come from the unknown actress who plays the evil queen. A giant black slave named Hugo staggers around the proceedings grunting and leering into the camera, and once-promising actress Claudia Dell (Sweet Kitty Bellairs) contributes to the show by screaming every 30 seconds or so. This serial is the "Plan 9 From Outer Space" of it's genre. So unbelievably bad that it is a hoot to watch.

charming and unsophisticated for Saturday matinee kiddie crowd.

[oscar-35 · 11 August 2020]

*Spoiler/plot- The Lost City, (parts 1 & 2) 1935, Scientist Bruce Gordon develops a machine that track the electrical disturbances causing problems on the Earth. His device leads him to a remote Central African region called the Magnetic Mountains. There is a hidden city with a mad scientist who wishes to use his own electric machine to take over the world with artificially caused disturbances. Gordon and his crew try to stop the madman while also liberating the creator of the electrical machine and his beautiful daughter.

*Special Stars- William 'Stage' Boyd, Kane Richmond, Claudia Dell, Josef Swickard, George "Gabby" Hayes, Billy Bletcher, Eddie Fetherston, Margot D'Use and Jerry Frank.

*Theme- Science can be misused.

*Trivia/location/goofs- Now public domain intellectual property.

*Emotion- Just more of the unbelievable and compromised production values of most theatrical serials of that era. The film is charming and unsophisticated for Saturday matinee kiddie crowd.

*Based On- The early 30's sci-fi theatrical serial. Flash Gordon' rip off.

Jungle Madness...

[azathothpwiggins · 22 May 2022]

This wacky, seemingly endless -the entire serial is 3+ hours in length!- movie is a series of chases through tunnels and jungles, with dozens of fights tossed in. All apparently taking place somewhere on the African continent.

The sinister Zolok (William "Stage" Boyd) is creating an army of giant zombies in his mountain lair. How? By using his brain-obliterating and body-enlarging machine of course.

Enter electrical engineer and adventurer Bruce Gordon (Kane Richmond) who's out to stop Zolok's eeevil plot at all costs.

Meanwhile, Queen Rhama (Margot D'Use), a diabolical slave trader and seductress, wants a giant zombie army of her own. Note: Her scenes only exist in the uncut version.

There's also a fortune-hunter named Butterfield (Gabby Hayes) and an Arabian Sultan with his own army of regular-sized men. Plus, Dr. Manyus (Josef Swickard), who has created a white tribe of natives for reasons unknown. Munyus has a freezer gun and a beautiful daughter.

All this, and there's room left over for a muscleman and a hunchback!

THE LOST CITY is fun in places, but does tend to drag on. This is especially evident in the full, uncensored cut. Queen Rhama is pretty amazing though...