THE LOST CITY, one of the most
fondly remembered and fantastic of all movie cliffhangers, and a box-office
record breaker in its day, is a sweeping panorama of weird events. Originally a
12-chapter serial from 1935, our feature film compilation is the insanely fun
story of a power-mad scientist hell-bent upon destroying the world with man-made
earthquakes and strange electrical weapons. But our hero, a brave, young
scientist, comes to the rescue.
Now here's the amazing part -- take a look at the technical crew on this
baby: cinematography by Edward Linden, who was the cinematographer on 1933's
"King Kong", art direction by Ralph Berger, who went on to do "Flash Gordon" a
couple of years later, and special electrical effects by Ken Strickfaden, who
did both the original "Frankenstein" AND "Bride of Frankenstein". This is GREAT
stuff! Good-guy lead Kane Richmond went on to become 1942's "Spy Smasher", and
played Lamont Cranston ("The Shadow"). But the guy who really sets the tone of
this frantic actioner is William "Stage" Boyd. (He started using "Stage" as a
differentiator from the "other" William Boyd, better known to all as "Hopalong
Cassidy".) Boyd is obviously intoxicated through most of this,
thereby establishing himself as perhaps the maddest scientist of all time. He
can hurl thunderbolts across the planet, sink ships, cause earthquakes, turn
normal men into giants and black men into white. Never a dull moment, endlessly
entertaining, and sets the standard for serials for at least the next decade.
;)
