Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Tuesday, October 24, 2006


Three Cheers For The Vanishing Legion!


Endurance levels vary where it comes to movie serials, usually depending on who produced them. There is Republic, a slickest outfit of the lot, certainly a most efficient for its day. Their serials call to mind precise movements of a fine watch. Stuntwork, music, special effects --- all out of the top drawer. If anything, Republic chapter plays are too polished. Then there is Universal and Columbia. These were not companies dedicated to serials, but kept units for manufacturing them, most of output slick and reasonably efficient. Beneath this level, there are the independents and what came of poverty row, a benighted category for those of very little resource, but much resolve. There are those, mere dilettantes, who but casually watch serials, and then ones who dig deepest for what came out of Mascot Pictures, a cheapest, if not a most adventurous, of serial makers. Mascot would not last past the mid-thirties, but they left an imprint that is to this day unmistakable. Their chapter plays exemplify primitivism in movies at least the equal of twelve Edison silent shorts watched end-to-end. I like Mascot serials. I enjoy the sound of horse hooves as they race past prehistoric recording equipment. Scuffling noises during fight scenes have a raw and realistic flavor. Sound effects and dialogue are seldom, if ever, dubbed in. You often hear things clearly not meant to be heard. Lines are muffed or let go altogether. Actors stand and wait for cues not forthcoming. Sometimes stunts go wrong, or else guys don’t mind crashing open roadsters and having wreckage flip over on top of them. You always get the feeling there were people killed on these shows and nobody said anything because these were, after all, fringe productions. Nat Levine was the mastermind behind Mascot serials. He shot The Vanishing Legion in 18 days for three thousand dollars a chapter (with the exception of a lavish opening installment at five thousand). If you can get through all twelve, there’s a G.M.B. (Greenbriar Merit Badge) waiting for you in our lobby …







Mascots are the only serials that look as though they were shot in my Grandmother’s backyard. Austere is the operative word here. Harry Carey chases miscreants down streets and through buildings that appear as though they’re still waiting to be wired for electricity. There are no paved roads in this serial, even in the face of its "modern" setting. The town where much of action takes place is devoid of extras. It’s like everyone either died or cleared out. Backgrounds have a look of utter desolation. Object or advantage being fought over has little monetary or spiritual value against such a bleak void. As with so many serials, you lose track of who’s pursuing who, let alone why. The chase becomes an end in itself. Men exist to fall out of windows or be shot at. The alternate Mascot universe never acknowledges ordinary concerns of life. To maintain the pace of a Harry Carey in this show (53 when he made it), you must submit to bullet wounds (Only a scratch, Jimmy), topple off rockbound cliffs (I’ll be all right, Jimmy), or plunge from atop oil derricks (That was a close one, Jimmy!). You can do this sort of thing in the cartoon world of Republic because their serials offered  comforting remove from any sort of recognizable reality, while Mascot serials unsettle all the more for suggesting, by obvious lack of studied preparation, that much of this is actually happening to harassed and underpaid cast members. Good God, is that poor Harry being thrown backward down a flight of stairs? Will someone among the threadbare crew drive him to a hospital in the event he really got hurt? The tension these cliffhangers create is too real for comfort. You imagine a secret burial on location for some luckless stuntman with a family back in Oshkosh that hasn’t seen him in eighteen years. Who would ever be the wiser?






Nat Levine used faded names and anxious beginners. Harry Carey had been around since Biograph days, his kind of westerner having gone out with William S. Hart, and despite a recent success with MGM’s Trader Horn, he couldn’t be choosy. Edwina Booth was another Trader Horn veteran, though her inept dialogue delivery must have given even producer Levine pause. Twelve-year-old Frankie Darro served as audience identification figure and got one thousand dollars for doing this serial, while Rex, King Of The Wild Horses was coming off a series of silent westerns for Hal Roach. Stunt pioneer Yakima Canutt supervised the riskier action, with much footage purloined from features going back ten years. The Vanishing Legion was enlivened by a mystery villain known as The Voice, so-called because we never glimpse his face, at least not before the unmasking in Chapter Twelve. Pre-stardom Boris Karloff supplies the unseen, but oft-heard, presence throughout, a credit sometimes omitted from the actor’s filmography. The Voice commands the titular legion. We’re never briefed as to how he imposes his will upon such a large body of men. Perhaps his sinister intonations are enough to assure loyalty. I’m abashed to admit failure at guessing the identity of Mister Big prior to his reveal (not Karloff, who was used only for spoken passages). Maybe it was inattention on my part, numbing effect of a glacial narrative over twelve seemingly identical chapters. Then why seek more of Mascot? Reasons are variable, few I can sensibly explain, yet something in me longs for The Devil Horse, Mystery Mountain, The Lightning Warrior (Rin-Tin-Tin’s final film!), and all the rest. The only problem, a major one, is the lack of quality DVD’s available. Insofar as that goes, The Vanishing Legion is a remarkable exception. There is a concern known as The Serial Squadron that offers restorations of many chapter play favorites. Their transfer of The Vanishing Legion has by far the best quality of any Mascot serial I’ve seen. Here's hoping they’ll continue mining these obscure treasures.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

A slicker Mascot serial to check out would be "Burn 'Em Up Barnes" with Frankie Darro and Jack Mulhall as Barnes. This title features some incredible action scenes that corresponds with your thoughts about the stuntmen and their safety. Also..."The Galloping Ghost", an earlier title with Red Grange is a real hoot with some bizarre sequences and performances

6:53 AM  
Blogger Kevin K. said...

That actually sounds like fun! I've always enjoyed the low-rent programmers from studios (if you could consider them studios) like PRC, Monogram and the rest. Anyone can shoot a movie when you've got a Metro budget. It takes a real talent to do the same thing for a few thousand.

8:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You may well be right about the odds of some luckless stuntmen going the way of all flesh on these serials. I notice the director is B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason, who was famous for his amazing action scenes...and notorious for not much caring what he had to do to get them. Old-timers told Kevin Brownlow about all the horses that had to be put down while shooting the silent Ben-Hur chariot race, and in the 1936 The Charge of the Light Brigade the carnage is right there on screen, so appalling that it led to legislation to protect animals on the set. (Errol Flynn also wrote in My Wicked, Wicked Ways of a stuntman friend who was killed by his own sword in a horse fall.) And those were at MGM and Warners; what corners might Eason have cut at Mascot?

11:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Didn't Edwina Booth get sleeping sickness filming TRADER HORN?. So how did she make another film right after? Maybe she was ill during the filming of this serial, and that is why her line readings are so bad.

3:23 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024