Terry & The Pirates (1940 serial/VCI set)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C Chapters: B-
The long
popular Terry & The Pirates
comic strip was already a hit radio show when Columbia decided to make it into a movie
serial. Milton Caniff’s heroes were
suddenly thrust into battling Axis powers, even if it was only implicitly in
this 1940 production. As is the case
with many of these serials, the heroes are in a foreign land/jungle battling
evil invaders form the first world, while dodging easily influenced “natives”
of the third world. This time, the
“spider woman/dragon lady” is an aside to a Fu Manchu carbon copy.
Terry is
with scientists who are not there to be thieves and a gold robbery is
afoot. At the time, it was illegal top
own gold, but the villains intend to steal a ton of it and sell it in Macao, where the prices are high in a
“sin city” where anything can be bought or sold. The program runs for 15 chapters, including a
cheat chapter that repeats an earlier one.
William Tracy is Terry and Granville Owen is best friend Pat Ryan. James W. Horne, who also directed Columbia
Serials like The Shadow and the much better Captain Midnight around the same time, fares well enough here. This is just wacky and different enough to be
more entertaining than the norm.
The full
screen, black and white image comes from an old analog master from 1994 that
VCI has had stored for a while. It is
not awful, but has video shimmering throughout, but was remastered to be on DVD
just the same. The Video Black is a
touch off and on the green side. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono has background hiss and some noise, but is passable. Some sound effects and like enhancements were
added to cover up sound damage. Extras
are split between the two DVDs, with the first offering of the first ten
chapters are four biographies and three trailers, while DVD 2 offers the pilot
(no pun intended) episode of the 1952 TV series version.
That does
not offer any cliffhangers, but boasts Keye Luke (Charlie Chan, TV’s original Kung-Fu)
in a supporting role and is in better shape than any of the chapters. So politically incorrect as to be laughable, Terry & The Pirates is worth a
look.
- Nicholas Sheffo
