Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) ch07 – The Prisoner of Mongo

The Prisoner of Mongo title suggests, well, whoever was titling the chapters wasn’t paying attention to the actual script–much like last chapter’s title, calling the Forest People the Tree-Men–but it does indeed turn out Buster Crabbe and company will end up prisoners of Mongo. At least, of Ming (Charles Middleton). He’s commanding the Tree-Men–sorry, Forest People–something he neglects to mention to Martian queen Beatrice Roberts, presumably because he’s eventually going to turn on her.

The chapter has Crabbe, Frank Shannon, Jean Rogers, and Donald Kerr on the run from the Forest People–temporarily imprisoned before Richard Alexander (from the previous serial) arrives to save them. It’s nice having Alexander back, though for a while it seems like Rogers and Kerr are once again going to be second or third fiddle. The chapter leaves it unresolved.

After their escape, Crabbe and company plans an assault on a Forest People temple–they’ve got a magic stone to counter Roberts’s magic stone–while Middleton’s forces are on the way. It’d be an awesome chapter if it weren’t for a couple big problems. First, the stock music is an ill-fit for the action. It doesn’t build tension, it often isn’t even action music, it’s distracting in its dullness.

Second–and bigger problem–the Forest People. Well, Forest Men (at least Tree-Men accurately addresses the lack of females). They’re terrible villains. The acting ranges from silly to inept to terrible. Really drags the chapter down. Combined with the bad stock music, it’s far from dramatic.

Still, the forest sets are decent and all the leads are good. Crabbe and Alexander are an affable team as well.

The cliffhanger is simultaneously lacking in drama but well-plotted–but it’s lacking in drama because the plotting is so dang good. Hopefully the next chapter gets them away from the Forest People. The Forest People are really annoying.

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) ch06 – Tree-Men of Mars

Oh sure, the title is Tree-Men of Mars, but they’re actually called the “forest-people (of Mars)” or even the “fire-men (of Mars). They live in a forest (in the trees) and shoot fire at their enemies. Who, by the end of the chapter, are after Crabbe and company. Crabbe and Shannon have just convinced Clay King C. Montague Shaw they’re allies (though Crabbe and Shannon hold up the place to do so and give Shaw no further proof) and he sends them to meet his pals the forest-people. Unfortunately, evil queen Beatrice Roberts can see them on her view screen and sabotages their attempts at peaceful meeting.

All that action takes place in the last five minutes (or less) of Tree-Men. The rest of the chapter involves Crabbe and Shannon once again outwitting Roberts’s troops, heading back to her palace (again), getting into it with Charles Middleton (again), then taking the underground tram back to the Clay Kingdom. Once they get there–pursued by a couple soldiers Roberts willy-nilly turns into Clay Men–they bond with Shaw over flashbacks to the previous Flash Gordon serial. It’s only the sixth chapter, which seems early for a clip chapter, but I suppose since it’s to the original serial, it’s different.

There’s a little creativity in Crabbe and Shannon trying to glide (on their capes) to the palace, but there are only a couple effects shots. Then it’s more of the same once they’re back. Roberts talks about the history of the conflict with the Clay People, so it makes no sense she’s the only way to make people into clay. Unless she’s immortal or something. Trip to Mars avoids giving enough detail.

But at least Jean Rogers and Donald Kerr have rejoined the main action. Hopefully they manage not to become hostages again in the very next chapter.

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) ch05 – The Boomerang

It’s unclear what the chapter title, The Boomerang, has to do with any of the content. Unless it’s something about Buster Crabbe and Frank Shannon continually returning to Beatrice Roberts’s palace from the Clay Men’s kingdom. Crabbe and Shannon start the chapter saving Jean Rogers and Donald Kerr, who promptly disappear from the action, because Crabbe and Shannon can’t rescue them yet. But they’ve discovered an underground tram from the Clay kingdom to the palace–which probably would’ve helped them infiltrate it a chapter or two ago–and head back to the palace, not to kidnap evil queen Roberts to deliver to the Clay King, but to get some weapons to free Rogers and Kerr.

At least the tram sequence is cool.

Once back at the palace, Shannon makes a freeze ray–you zap someone motionless–but Roberts and Charles B. Middleton are on to the Earthlings. Luckily Middleton’s still a doofus and Crabbe and Shannon get away. Only to get stuck again in the cliffhanger, as they go back to the Clay Men’s kingdom.

Besides the chapter being a bunch of running around for no real purpose, it’s all pretty solid. It’s hard to believe Roberts puts up with condescending Middleton though, especially as he orders her own soldiers around.

As always, having Crabbe in the lead is an immeasurable plus for the serial. He’s not just good at the action–though Boomerang has some real obvious stuntmen during fisticuffs–but at making Shannon’s expository dumps more palatable.

The chapter does open with a cliffhanger resolve cheat, which hopefully won’t kick off too obvious ones in subsequent chapters.

And it’d be nice for Rogers to have something to do.

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) ch04 – Ancient Enemies

The cliffhanger resolution from last chapter should be this awesome sequence where Buster Crabbe–faced with a collapsing structure–swings down on a line, risking his life to save his prisoner (Beatrice Roberts), in a scene George Lucas would “borrow” for Star Wars. Unfortunately, the whole thing is played on a view screen for Charles B. Middleton to witness. Sure, it’s obvious Middleton doesn’t like how Crabbe’s a hero first, but there’s this great action sequence and it’s in this (relatively) tiny window.

Roberts thanks Crabbe and Frank Shannon for saving her by imprisoning them again and giving them to Middleton to execute. Except Middleton, despite having been capable and evil enough to become an intergalactic evil emperor, sees red when it comes to Crabbe and sets up some dumb way of executing them. Crabbe and Shannon get out of it, capturing Middleton, who then outwits them.

The chapter title, Ancient Enemies, seems to refer to Roberts’s Martian queen and the Clay Men (who still have Jean Rogers and Donald Kerr hostage–waiting for Crabbe to deliver Roberts to them), only they’re not really ancient enemies. The Clay Men are just political outcasts Roberts has changed–magically–into clay people. And Crabbe and Middleton, despite really hating one another, haven’t been enemies for too long either.

Title confusion aside, once Crabbe and Shannon are trying to save the Clay Men from an attack by one of Roberts’s bombers–just one, she only sent one bomber to utterly destroy a settlement–Enemies picks up, tension-wise. There’s an airship chase, there’s Rogers and Kerr chained up to be bombed (Clay King C. Montague Shaw doesn’t trust Crabbe anymore). It’s an exciting finish.

There’s some decent effects work, some decent composites, some not decent effects work, some not decent composites. The decent stuff is real effect and the not decent stuff isn’t too damaging. Doesn’t hurt the stock music isn’t bad this time.

Plus there’s another Clay Men coming out of the wall shot, which is neat.

There’s enough content it could’ve been two chapters–especially since no one really gets enough material. Crabbe and Roberts needed more at the start (when she realizes he’ll stand for everyone) and Rogers needed more at the end. Roger’s way underutilized in Trip to Mars so far.

Anyway. Ancient Enemies is pretty good.

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) ch03 – Queen of Magic

Queen of Magic has a lot going on. After the perfunctory cliffhanger resolution, there’s another chase sequence (of sorts) through the Clay Men’s caves. It takes a while–and has Buster Crabbe and company duking it out with the actual bad guys (Beatrice Roberts’s human thugs)–but eventually the Clay Men get them. The good guys. The leader of the Clay Men, C. Montague Shaw, wants Roberts brought to the caves so she can make the Clay Men human again. He’s going to hold on to Jean Rogers to motivate Crabbe to do it.

Shaw and the Clay Men also strip and redress all the Earthlings… just because.

And it isn’t a particularly difficult task for Crabbe–who brings Frank Shannon along–because Roberts’s troops are a bunch of morons who walk Crabbe into her throne room where he’s able to grab her. The only one who figures out maybe it’s not a great idea to be trusting is Charles B. Middleton (who’s got a major obsession with killing Crabbe, though not enough to stop doing his work around the palace, which appears to be to slowly turn Roberts’s people against her… maybe).

There’s a lot of great production design. Maybe not production values, but the design of the city and the palace–as far as the backdrops and mattes and such–is phenomenal. They’ve got to walk across a “light bridge” at one point, which is a simple effect with a matte backdrop, but it really does bring some scale to the goings on. The miniature sets of the Martian city leave a lot to be desired–the miniature sets of the Martian landscape aren’t exceptional or anything, but they’re at least competent and thoughtfully rendered. Not so with the Martian city. It’s real lazy. So it’s nice to see the backdrops fill it out.

Solid acting all around. Crabbe’s a great lead–though he gets a lengthy exposition dump explaining Roberts and Middleton’s plan to Shaw and it’s a tad much–Shannon’s good, Rogers’s perfectly likable (though she’s way too literally the damsel here). Donald Kerr isn’t annoying this time. Roberts is good. Unfortunately, with the possible scheming subplot thrown in, Middleton is starting to disappoint.

Still, it’s a more than adequate entry. Lots of excitement. And maybe a couple sequences George Lucas borrowed obviously for Star Wars.

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) ch02 – The Living Dead

If only The Living Dead had some better stock music choices, because the actual content of the chapter is fantastic. Unfortunately, it’s got this passive, tranquil score without any energy or excitement. Meanwhile the onscreen action is all energy, all excitement.

While Buster Crabbe, Frank Shannon, and Jean Rogers are crashing on Mars, their ship has enough time to shed parts so Charles Middleton can recognize their rocket ship as the one they stole from him last serial. For some reason the shed parts fall to Mars faster than their space ship otherwise crashes. Something with that Martian gravity no doubt.

Middleton and evil Martian Queen Beatrice Roberts go to intercept the Earthlings, who manage to outsmart Middleton–which doesn’t seem hard this time around–and steal Roberts’s own ship. The hijacking is a strong sequence, though the music does it no favors; Crabbe’s comfortably back in action hero mode.

Then there’s a sky battle between space ships. Some good miniature effects–though Crabbe having to shoot at ships through with a porthole with a revolver is decidedly lacking–even if some of the miniature ground sets are wanting.

But there’s even more action, with Crabbe and company encountering the dreaded clay people–who Roberts wants to annihilate. They come to life out of cave walls, which is conceptually cooler than visually, but still a rather successful sequence. Except, of course, for the stock music choices.

Crabbe’s great in Living Dead, Shannon and Rogers is good, Middleton’s annoying for a bit but then a good buffoon. Roberts seems like she’s going to be a decent villain. Donald Kerr, as Crabbe and company’s reporter sidekick–who seemed fine last chapter–doesn’t do so hot in Living Dead.

But it doesn’t matter because everything else is so good. Except that dang music.

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) ch01 – New Worlds to Conquer

Until about three-quarters of the way into New Worlds to Conquer, I thought Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars was going to be one of those mistitled movies. Like the studio changed it for some reason. Because when adventurers Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, and Frank Shannon take off, they’re headed right back to Mongo.

Then it turns out Shannon’s bad at reading astronomical photographs and they should’ve been going to Mars.

The chapter opens with Crabbe and company returning to Earth (from the previous serial). There’s no ticker tape parade scene because budget. Instead, some swirling newspaper montages announce their return and lionization… only for a new problem to arise for Planet Earth. Natural disasters. Scientists are flummoxed. Little do they know (previous serial) villain Charles Middleton has teamed up with Beatrice Roberts (a cruel megalomaniac queen of Mars) to zap the Earth with a ray. They’re sucking the Nitron out of the Earth’s atmosphere. Roberts wants it so she can wage war on some of people on Mars; Middleton just wants to suffocate all the Earthlings.

Good thing while in flight to Mongo, Rogers sees the ray and they change course to Mars. Also good thing Crabbe and company’s rocket ship is fast enough for such maneuvers.

After their introduction and landing on Earth, there’s not a lot for Crabbe, Rogers, or Shannon to do in the chapter. Shannon gets the most–he’s got an interview after their homecoming–but then they disappear during the natural disaster response and Middleton plotting. It’s up to reporter Donald Kerr to bring them into the story. He tracks them down–Crabbe’s become Shannon’s assistant, Rogers is presumably hanging around because Crabbe. Kerr stows away on the rocket ship, so he’ll be a sidekick or something.

The acting is all fine. Kerr’s funny. Roberts is truly disturbing in her cruelty. Middleton’s… maybe better than last time. And the three heroes are all solid, of course. Crabbe and Rogers are earnest, Shannon’s scientist-y; they’re all good.

Technically, however, New Worlds starts Mars on ominous footing. Anytime there’s a cut to close-up, it’s a bad one (the serial’s got four credited editors so who knows whose fault it is… could just be lack of coverage from directors Beebe and Hill); the special effects are shaky too. The model work is fine… but most of the effects so far are composite shots. One has at least three layers (maybe four) and it’s far from effective. And Mars, so far, looks a whole lot like Mongo from the last serial.

Still, given Crabbe, Rogers, and Shannon–not to mention Kerr–Mars at least has got a lot of likability going for it. Hopefully it finds some narrative momentum soon.

The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind)

For the first few chapters, Bela Lugosi can carry The Phantom Creeps. He’s hamming it up as a mad scientist surrounded by actors who can’t even ham. Creeps has some truly terrible performances, particularly from its other leads, Robert Kent and Dorothy Arnold. He’s the military intelligence officer out to discover what’s happened to Lugosi’s missing research–Lugosi fakes his death because he wants to sell his secrets to foreign agents. Arnold’s the reporter who’s after the story. Kent’s got a negative amount of charm. Arnold’s charm level is extraordinarily low, but it’s not negative. But when the two of them have a scene and banter… the chemistry is toxic.

And then Lugosi’s got this palooka ex-con sidekick, Jack C. Smith. Smith is awful too. Edwin Stanley and Regis Toomey–as other good guys–they’re terrible. Edward Van Sloan–who could be reuniting with Lugosi post-Dracula here–is the leader of the spy ring. He’s terrible. Anthony Averill, as the lead henchman who does all the action scenes, goes from bad to okay. Mostly because by the end of the serial, Lugosi’s nowhere to be seen–literally–and Averill’s just not as patently unlikable as everyone else.

Lugosi’s missing from the second half because he’s mostly being The Phantom, which is what he calls himself when he’s using his invisibility belt. Lugosi has four inventions. He has the invisibility belt, he has an iron robot (remote controlled), he has these discs and mechanical spiders–when the spider crawls to the disc, it explodes and puts anyone nearby in suspended animation–and then he has another suspended animation device, a ray-gun. If there is anything else, he doesn’t use it often. I may have blocked too much of Creeps from my memory already–for example, I can’t remember if it’s a flub when the bad guys know Lugosi’s alias because no one sees him in the half chapter he uses that alias or if someone does see him. It’s not worth remembering.

The serial starts with Lugosi faking his death. But the spies want what he was going to sell them so they go to his house to try to get it. But the federal agents also want what Lugosi was going to sell because his old friend, Stanley, ratted him out for, you know, wanting to commit treason. Stanley’s a square from the start.

Anyway, the first half of the serial–so, you know, six twenty-minute chapters–is the good guys and bad guys goofing off around the house while Lugosi and Smith try to escape. They have to keep coming back to the house because their secret base is underneath it. In the second half of the serial, Lugosi’s secret element–from a meteor, I think–gets traded back and forth between good guys, bad guys, and Lugosi for five chapters. Sure, there are different locations, but rarely any original big action footage. Lots of stock footage instead. Lots of not matching at all stock footage.

And some things about Creeps are just relentlessly bad. Kent’s investigatory reasoning is nil. The way the good guys and bad guys meet is when one of them sees the other driving on the highway, so they then follow them. It happens over and over and over and over again. Even when it’s a different shooting location, it’s just how the screenwriters make these things happen.

There are no gems in the script. There’s no funny bit part. There are no diamonds in the rough, acting-wise. There is some charm to the special effects, but only in the first half really. By the second half it’s all invisiblity stuff (sometimes reusing the same footage) and it’s not particularly creative. It seems creative the first time Lugosi vanishes, not the rest. Mostly because he doesn’t interact with anyone. Occasionally an inanimate object, but it’s not like he’s pantsing the good guys while invisible.

The music is a bunch material of thirties Universal horror scores. It’s kind of cool to hear the music. Not really alongside anything going on onscreen, of course.

The direction’s not good. It’s not atrocious, unless somehow Beebe and Goodkind could’ve gotten better performances out of the cast. It doesn’t seem possible. Technically, nothing stands out.

The cliffhangers in The Phantom Creeps are particularly bad. Usually people just survive disasters. There’s something like one death in the thing; no one’s in much danger, if any. Though at least Arnold never gets used as damsel. She does get used as Toomey’s doormat, which is a particularly tiring affair. She’s going to steal boss Kent away with her feminine wiles or something. Or maybe there’s no reason for it. There’s no reason for anything in Creeps. It just goes on and on and on.

ⓏⒺⓇⓄ

CREDITS

Directed by Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind; screenplay by George H. Plympton, Basil Dickey, and Mildred Barish, based on a story by Wyllis Cooper; directors of photography, Jerome Ash and William A. Sickner; edited by Irving Birnbaum, Joseph Gluck, and Alvin Todd; music by Charles Previn; released by Universal Pictures.

Starring Bela Lugosi (Dr. Alex Zorka), Robert Kent (Capt. Bob West), Dorothy Arnold (Jean Drew), Jack C. Smith (Monk), Regis Toomey (Jim Daly), Edwin Stanley (Dr. Fred Mallory), Anthony Averill (Rankin), Dora Clement (Ann Zorka), Hugh Huntley (Perkins), and Edward Van Sloan (Jarvis).


RELATED

PHANTOM CREEPS SERIAL CHAPTERS
OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY FORD BEEBE
OTHER 1939 RELEASES

The Phantom Creeps (1939) ch11 – The Blast

The Blast features some of Phantom Creeps’s most prevalent tropes. Good guys following bad guys because they happened to drive and pass one another. Jack C. Smith’s henchman (to Bela Lugosi’s mad scientist) getting shot and dazed. Smith’s been shot at least three times (and dazed) in the serial. Sometimes even with multiple shots.

Guns work different in Phantom Creeps.

But as the penultimate chapter, it’s got nothing going for it. The cliffhanger resolution at the open is another where there isn’t a cliffhanger. Disaster occurs, people just get through it unharmed. Nothing hurts in Phantom Creeps. I don’t think anyone’s died since they killed off Lugosi’s wife in the second chapter.

The story’s the same as it has been for what seems like half the serial. Spies have the meteorite, good guys want the meteorite, Lugosi wants the meteorite. Oh, and there’s more scenes at Lugosi’s house, which he packed up to leave in the first chapter. But he keeps coming back.

Just like Smith keeps getting shot.

Some particularly bad acting from Regis Toomey and Edward Van Sloan this chapter, enough to overshadow even Robert Kent and Dorothy Arnold.

The Phantom Creeps (1939) ch01 – The Menacing Power

The Menacing Power does all right setting up the hook of The Phantom Creeps–Bela Lugosi is a mad scientist with various technological inventions he’s going to use for nefarious purposes–and even manages to gracefully segue between the expository setup and the chapter’s cliffhanger.

So far Lugosi’s made an invisibility wearable, an eight-foot plus tall robot, and discovered a new element. That new element lets him blow things up and put people in comas. Lugosi puts the positive part of the element somewhere, then puts the negative part on a spider. The spider crawls over, somehow attracted to the positive, and boom. It’s ludicrous and the pull-string spider is probably Power’s worst effect. Some of the composite shots are iffy, but the jerky movement of the spider wins. The composite shots appear to be reused footage. Spider is for Creeps.

Lugosi’s kind of terrible but only until the other cast members get more to do. Leading man Robert Kent is fairly atrocious, ditto leading lady Dorothy Arnold. He’s an Army captain out to get Lugosi’s technology for the U.S.A. (Lugosi wants to sell to a foreign power because money) and Arnold is a reporter. Undoubtedly some sparks will fly later on.

This chapter also introduces Edwin Stanley as Lugosi’s former science partner, Dora Clement as Lugosi’s suffering wife, and Jack C. Smith as his monosyllabic sidekick and lab assistant. Directors Beebe and Goodkind don’t seem like they spend much time on actors’ performances; both Stanley and Clement disappoint, but Smith’s solid. He finds Lugosi obnoxious. It makes him immediately sympathetic.

Phantom Creeps isn’t off to a great start, but it’s also not off to an intolerable one. The title refers to Lugosi. When invisible, he calls himself the Phantom.