Mike-764

Phil Daley muscles in on his own boss taking over the NYC's number's racket and is enjoying the high life. His younger brother Danny quits college when he sees how his brother lives and becomes one of his agents. Danny decides to get into the fight racket by telling Chuck Hardy, championship contender, to take a dive. When Hardy loses the fight, rival gang leader Mike Luger loses a fortune and decides to get revenge on the Daleys.

This is a film without much purpose or reasoning. Barton MacLane's character is a jerk but at the same time, he is really given the blame and anger of everyone he encounters due to his brother's idiotic actions. The characters just seem to be going through the motions and the audience is just left thinking that there are a lot better stories that drive home the point that crime doesn't pay.

Munitions magnate Winthrop Waldon names his daughter Pearl as heir to his empire disappointing his brother Ezra, nephew Haynes and niece Naomi. Soon after, Waldon is murdered by the Hooded Terror who the police confirm must be a member of the household, also including Pearl's sweetheart and Waldon chemist Harry Gresham. With her standing as head of her father's company (remember this is still WWI), Pearl stands to be next in line for murder and spends the remainder of the serial dodging accidents and a near prison execution.

The version I saw was a condensation shown to USSR audiences in 1925, so a lot of the plot was removed but very little of the action which this serial had aplenty. The Hooded Terror now ranks as my all time serial villain due to his persistence and strength. It is also nice to see a lot of Fort Lee location shooting here. I really hope this becomes available to a larger audience in the near future.

Young man decides to get a job as a riding boss on a ranch run by rough tough Hardshell Beckett (played by 1000 year old Lafe McKee) but the real boss of the ranch seems to be Beckett's adopted daughter Alice, who the kid tries to romance. When the kid arrives, so does Beckett's ex- wife and long lost son, whom Beckett suspects of trying to take over the ranch. Finding out that the kid might be a wanted outlaw, Beckett's son (along w/ two ranch hands that don't approve of their new riding boss) frames the kid for robbing Beckett's safe and stabbing the old man. How can the kid save himself and what secret is Beckett's ex hiding?

Custer, who has little acting ability to begin with, tries to go the Hoot Gibson route and play the likable kid in the modern west. Unfortunately, he is still not believable in the role. Lillian Rich seems to highbrow to appear in this below the barrel affair, but she does give some effort and is probably the only good thing in the film. Action is kept to a minimum and everything wraps up just as you would expect it to. Funny thing is that every B-western Lafe McKee played the father of a young girl, she was always in her late teens, here we believe that his son in George Cheseboro, who was in his mid 40's at this point.

Rating, 2 out of 10.