A tribe loses its sacred Medicine Arrow, which supposedly holds the key to the location of a cave of gold. Major Trent, a retired Confederate doctor, is in possession of the arrow and is heading west with his daughter & grandson. Keen Blade, co-owner of the local gambling house, has killed 3 other people who he thought had the arrow and teams up w/ renegade Indian Young Wolf, who is trying to recover the arrow to become leader of his tribe. Kit Cardigan, a scout for General Custer, is brought into the fracas trying to protect Trent, his daughter, Red Fawn (Young Wolf's brother) from the ramifications of the missing arrow, before these events lead to the infamous battle. The serial is actually better than its reputation has given it. There are very good performances by Cheseboro (as a disgraced soldier), Chief Thundercloud, and Mulhall, as well as an inspiring battle at the end of the serial. However the serial just drags on with too many story lines for so many characters, and when we get to the middle of the serial it becomes a back and forth story of "Who's Got the Arrow?" This is most likely the best of the 3 Stage & Screen serials. Rating, based on serials, 5.
4 Reviews
A Lengthy Trip Back in Time to the Thirties View of the Old West
Chance2000esl31 January 2008
Warning: Spoilers
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.
Uniquely Complex Serial
campfire4 February 2006
Movie serials generally have pretty simple, single-minded stories. There's a series of skirmishes between the good guy and the bad guy over some treasure or doomsday weapon, and that's pretty much it. But Custer's Last Stand is unique among all the serials I've seen. It has many more principal characters, each with their own story thread. It's all tied together by a quest for a ceremonial Indian arrow with coded directions to a cave of gold, but that's strictly a continuity device. The cave is never even found. Along the way there's a hero searching for his father's killer, a disgraced soldier battling alcoholism, a renegade Indian trying to foment a battle with the white settlers, an Indian girl with divided loyalties, an equally conflicted saloon owner, shoot-outs, fist-fights and large-scale battles, cameo appearances by Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock, and of course the climatic massacre at Little Big Horn. This is one brim-full serial! There are always at least two or three separate story threads playing out simultaneously, with the action cutting back and forth among them. We're used to this kind of story construction today--it's standard television soap opera technique--but in a mid-1930s serial it was pretty revolutionary.
The cast is full of veterans of the silent era, including former serial queen Helen Gibson. Performances tend toward the florid and aren't helped by the serial's rapid shooting schedule. There are shots in which actors stumble over lines or the director can be heard barking directions, and no time was wasted re-shooting them. For me the most interesting performance was by Marty Joyce, playing the teen character's sidekick. Joyce is clearly having a good old time embellishing and ad-libbing all his dialog. It's too bad he was killed in an auto accident shortly after making this film. It would be interesting to see how he handled other roles.
I highly recommend Custer's Last Stand to fans of pre-Republic serials. It's as rich and panoramic an epic as you're likely to find.
The cast is full of veterans of the silent era, including former serial queen Helen Gibson. Performances tend toward the florid and aren't helped by the serial's rapid shooting schedule. There are shots in which actors stumble over lines or the director can be heard barking directions, and no time was wasted re-shooting them. For me the most interesting performance was by Marty Joyce, playing the teen character's sidekick. Joyce is clearly having a good old time embellishing and ad-libbing all his dialog. It's too bad he was killed in an auto accident shortly after making this film. It would be interesting to see how he handled other roles.
I highly recommend Custer's Last Stand to fans of pre-Republic serials. It's as rich and panoramic an epic as you're likely to find.
Panorama of the Wild West (including Little Big Horn)
guidon718 December 2006
Warning: Spoilers
For those old enough to remember Saturday matinée serials at your local movie theater this potboiler just might be for you. On the one hand, a fast moving and melodramatic tale, on the other, a dated film, surely considered "hokey" by today's younger set. The fictional hero is a scout for Gen. Custer and the main plot(also fictional)deals with a sacred medicine arrow coveted by both Red and White men. Custer himself remains primarily a background figure in the storyline until he ultimately achieves immortality surrounded by the dead at Little Big Horn. Popping in an out of the film are so many Western icons that the film is rather more like a Wild West show than "Custer's Last Stand" which is just one part of the film. Chief Thundercloud, a popular film actor of the 1930's, a Cherokee with Scots, Irish and German ancestry is a major player and at 6' he has a commanding presence. Custer exceeds him however, played by Frank McGlynn, Jr., at 6'4" or 6'5", with walrus-like mustachios and towers over the rest of the cast. What impressed me most was the authentic use of black powder in the guns, something we just do not see in today's westerns, and also the expert horsemanship by both Indians and Whites, which we also do not see in today's westerns. Much ongoing action. I can see why our pre-TV youngsters went back Saturday after Saturday for such as this. At the end, Custer's Indian scout Curley offers Custer an Indian blanket to disguise himself and escape, disdainfully refused by the general. We would expect nothing less from George Armstrong Custer, now would we?
A good film for old movie buffs (like me), or those who would just like to sit back, dim the lights, nibble on popcorn, and be transported back to that old movie theater and the Wild West as it was seen to be by the viewing audience so many years ago.
A good film for old movie buffs (like me), or those who would just like to sit back, dim the lights, nibble on popcorn, and be transported back to that old movie theater and the Wild West as it was seen to be by the viewing audience so many years ago.
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