The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: Serial
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Superman Meets Atom Man! has what ought to be a big scene–Lyle Talbot’s Lex Luthor (in his Atom Man disguise) vanquishing Kirk Alyn to oblivion. Only it’s not a big scene, not even in the moment. Obviously Superman’s not going to be vanquished in the fourth chapter, but still. They could have at least tried…
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Ablaze in the Sky! has got a bunch of action. Kirk Alyn is in his tights for some of it, but not all of it. Not even most of it. Instead, he gets to duke it out–twice–as Clark Kent. Alyn’s willingness to put himself in danger makes Noel Neill’s accusations of cowardice incongruous. Especially since…
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Atom Man, complete with his sparkling bucket helmet, does indeed appear in Atom Man Appears!. He and his goons kidnap Tommy Bond (pretty much by accident) and Atom Man gives Bond a villain speech before sending him back to the Daily Planet. The Daily Planet where boss Pierre Watkin doesn’t believe Bond’s story–or he believes…
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Atom Man, complete with his sparkling bucket helmet, does indeed appear in Atom Man Appears!. He and his goons kidnap Tommy Bond (pretty much by accident) and Atom Man gives Bond a villain speech before sending him back to the Daily Planet. The Daily Planet where boss Pierre Watkin doesn’t believe Bond’s story–or he believes…
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Superman Flies Again establishes a few things I’m very curious to see if Atom Man vs. Superman keeps going with over the course of the serial. Firstly, is Pierre Watkin always completely wrong about everything. Playing newspaper editor Perry White, Watkin calls his staff–Kirk Alyn, Noel Neill, Tommy Bond–into the office (they can all hear…
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Superman Flies Again establishes a few things I’m very curious to see if Atom Man vs. Superman keeps going with over the course of the serial. Firstly, is Pierre Watkin always completely wrong about everything. Playing newspaper editor Perry White, Watkin calls his staff–Kirk Alyn, Noel Neill, Tommy Bond–into the office (they can all hear…
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The first chapter of Judex doesn’t get a chapter title; it’s just the prologue. While the action in the prologue leads directly into the action of the first chapter, throwing young, wealthy widow Yvette Andréyor into despair (financial and emotional), the first titled chapter ends up having less to do with where Judex is going…
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Judex’s epilogue further wraps things up for the cast. There’s some definite resolution for young René Poyen as far as his living situation, some humor with Marcel Lévesque, and some humility from Louis Leubas. René Cresté and Yvette Andréyor get a romantic send-off, with Cresté finally able to wear something nicer than his Judex costume.…
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The title of the episode is Love’s Forgiveness so there’s not much in the way of surprises. René Cresté risks it all by reuniting Yvette Andréyor with father Louis Leubas, then discovers mom Yvonne Dario has already told Andréyor all and she–Andréyor–is in love with him–Cresté. The multiple deceptions and whatnot don’t bother her. There’s…
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So while Yvonne Dario is still consoling Yvette Andréyor about deceiving her–again, it’s not clear how much of the blame Dario takes on herself, which should be a lot since she made René Cresté vow to kill Andréyor’s father–Cresté goes off to save Andréyor’s father. On the way, he meets up with his brother, Édouard…
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So while Yvonne Dario is still consoling Yvette Andréyor about deceiving her–again, it’s not clear how much of the blame Dario takes on herself, which should be a lot since she made René Cresté vow to kill Andréyor’s father–Cresté goes off to save Andréyor’s father. On the way, he meets up with his brother, Édouard…
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Jacqueline’s Heart is a very short episode. Nine minutes or so. And nothing much happens except René Cresté plays fast and loose with his multiple identities and Yvette Andréyor finds his make-up kit. Overhearing Andréyor wish his sweet old man persona would show up, Cresté obliges. A note from Andréyor’s father–no longer imprisoned (at least…
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This chapter begins with the principals removed from their problems and living it up on the Mediterranean. Édouard Mathé and mother Yvonne Dario have taken Yvette Andréyor, Olinda Mano, and (of course) René Poyen away from the troubles in Paris to a beautiful seaside estate. Somewhere they can all just relax, safe from Musidora’s evil…
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The Underground Passages of the Chateau-Rouge shows the audience the most of Judex’s base so far. There’s a finished bedroom and some castle interior hallways. Not just the ruins and then laboratory. Some of it is revealed when brothers René Cresté and Édouard Mathé show their mom, Yvonne Dario, around the base. She wants to…
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The Woman in Black introduces the first new character to Judex since the first chapter. There’s the prologue and then the first chapter; The Woman is the first new character since the first chapter. It’s Judex’s mom, played by Yvonne Dario (mostly in some awesome old age makeup–Judex is great with the old age makeup).…
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The Licorice Kid–René Poyen–gets his own chapter. Sort of. Poyen figures into it quite a bit, but it’s not his chapter. He doesn’t even save the day (he does help save the day). While Yvette Andréyor is safe, René Cresté is still very sad she doesn’t like him after he threatened to kill her father…
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The Tragic Mill earns its title. Villains Musidora and Jean Devalde kidnap currently sickly damsel in distress Yvette Andréyor and take her to an old mill. The kidnapping–Andréyor’s second in Judex (so far)–happens only before René Cresté arrives to protect her. While the villains bicker over who has to actually murder Andréyor (it seems like…
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The Tragic Mill earns its title. Villains Musidora and Jean Devalde kidnap currently sickly damsel in distress Yvette Andréyor and take her to an old mill. The kidnapping–Andréyor’s second in Judex (so far)–happens only before René Cresté arrives to protect her. While the villains bicker over who has to actually murder Andréyor (it seems like…
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I was wondering how Judex was going to move forward–the last chapter ended with villains Musidora and Jean Devalde foiled in their kidnapping of Yvette Andréyor. This chapter begins with Musidora suspicious of Judex’s warnings. She convinces Devalde to investigate and they head to the graveyard. Because why wouldn’t you immediately assume there’s something fishy…
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The Fantastic Hounds seems like a silly name for the chapter, but it turns out Judex’s dog pack is rather fantastic. They aren’t just able to sniff out kidnapped Yvette Andréyor, they’re able to rescue her. Sure, a ten or twenty dog pack is intimidating, but they execute their mission perfectly. Kudos to whoever trained…
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The Fantastic Hounds seems like a silly name for the chapter, but it turns out Judex’s dog pack is rather fantastic. They aren’t just able to sniff out kidnapped Yvette Andréyor, they’re able to rescue her. Sure, a ten or twenty dog pack is intimidating, but they execute their mission perfectly. Kudos to whoever trained…
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The Atonement might be a peculiar chapter for Judex; since it’s only the second one, however, maybe it’s going to be the norm. It starts with Judex gently intimidating his captive–Louis Leubas. At first, it seems like Leubas is going to be doing some atoning. It’s also where Feuillade has some continuity issues–which the intertitles…
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The first chapter (proper) immediately follows the prologue, with Yvette Andréyor taking over the lead (possibly for the rest of Judex). Unlike her father, she’s swayed by the mysterious Judex’s demand–half her father’s fortune was to go to charity or he’d be killed. Andréyor, shedding herself of gold-digging fiancé Georges Flateau, gives away the entire…
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The first chapter (proper) immediately follows the prologue, with Yvette Andréyor taking over the lead (possibly for the rest of Judex). Unlike her father, she’s swayed by the mysterious Judex’s demand–half her father’s fortune was to go to charity or he’d be killed. Andréyor, shedding herself of gold-digging fiancé Georges Flateau, gives away the entire…
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The prologue to Judex mostly concerns banker Louis Leubas. He’s rich, he’s French, he’s corrupt. He wants to carry on with a younger woman–Musidora–but he’s got a widowed daughter (Yvette Andréyor) and a grandson living with him. So he decides to marry off Andréyor to a presumably suitable suitor (Georges Flateau) and settle in with…
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The prologue to Judex mostly concerns banker Louis Leubas. He’s rich, he’s French, he’s corrupt. He wants to carry on with a younger woman–Musidora–but he’s got a widowed daughter (Yvette Andréyor) and a grandson living with him. So he decides to marry off Andréyor to a presumably suitable suitor (Georges Flateau) and settle in with…
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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…
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Sadly, there’s not much world destroying in To Destroy the World. Not even when Bela Lugosi, finally reunited with his meteorite and able to escape, decides instead he’s going to steal a biplane and bomb things. Starting with the federal building. Only he drops a bomb on a zeppelin, which does indeed crash and burn,…
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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…
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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…
The Stop Button 