SOS Coast Guard

"S.O.S. Coast Guard" benefits from the casting of Bela Lugosi as the chief villain. He adds a certain menace that only he can provide, what with that thick Hungarian accent and his patented menacing stare.

Coast Guard Lt. Terry Kent (Ralph Byrd) discovers that the evil Boroff (Lugosi) has developed a deadly disintegrating gas which he hopes to sell to a foreign power (in this case, "Morovania"). The key component of the gas, an element known as "arnatite" is being smuggled aboard the freighter "Carfax" to Boroff's hideout. En route the ship runs into a storm and runs aground.

News reporter Jean Norman (Maxine Doyle) and her photographer Snapper McGee (Lee Ford) recognize the fleeing Boroff. While escaping, Boroff is pursued by Terry's brother Jim (Thomas Carr) who is murdered by Boroff. Terry vows to avenge his brother.

Meanwhile, in order to hide the evidence of the arnadite, Boroff sends his hulking mute henchman, Thorg (Richard Alexander) to cut the cables securing the distressed vessel. The ship then sinks. Boroff enlists scientist Rickerby (John Picorri) to manufacture the deadly gas.

Boroff has Thorg dive to the sunken ship to recover the arnadite. This leads to several death defying encounters between Terry and Thorg. Eventually Boroff is able to manufacture his gas and moves to ship it. Again and again Terry thwarts his efforts. Finally Terry and the Coast Guard bring the villains to justice in the final chapter, as we knew he would.

I believe that this was the first time Republic Pictures used that "melting/disintegration" special effect. You can see variations of this effect in several of their subsequent serials.

Others in the cast include Herbert Rawlinson as Terry's commanding officer, George Chesboro, Carleton Young and in an early serial villain role, Roy Barcroft as Boroff's henchmen.

It's interesting to note that the name "Boroff" is a contraction of the name BORis KarlOFF. The name of the ship, "Carfax" is the same as the name of the abbey Lugosi as Dracula rented (i.e. "Carfax Abbey")in "Dracula" (1931). Coincidence? Who knows?

Ralph Byrd would go on to portray comic strip detective "Dick Tracy" in three Republic serials, a role with which he would be identified for the rest of his career.

Typically exciting Republic serial, with Ralph Byrd, who went on to a career as Dick Tracy, in stalwart form with an unlimited supply of dress uniforms: in every chapter he's either dirtied, soaked, or blown up, but he always comes back conforming to regulations. Lugosi is evil scientist with a gas that disintegrates almost everything. Some great (and some laughable) special effects from the Lydecker brothers, gaining experience that would make them tops in the field in coming years.

Boroff, a munitions expert, has just perfected a disintegrating gas which he plans to sell to any nation that will meet his price. Despite being a wanted man across the world, Boroff smuggles himself aboard the SS Carfax to ship a load of arnotite to Morovania, who plans to use the disintegrating gas. The Carfax is wrecked at sea and is rescued by the Coast Guard led by Lieutenant Terry Kent. Boroff is recognized but manages to escape the Coast Guard, while killing Kent's younger brother Jim. Boroff disguises himself and plans to manufacture the disintegrating gas while evading the watch of Kent and the Coast Guard, who go piece clues together to find Boroff and stop the gas from being made, which also means battling Boroff's lobotomized, hulking servant Thorg. The serial had a great first two chapters and well done ending, but the middle part of the serial was very routine since all of the atmosphere, villainous characterizations, and action packed encounters seemed to be lessened. Richard Alexander must have had a great agent for getting him these memorable serial roles, since Thorg is among his best, where he evokes a lot of sympathy from the audience. Lugosi is fine here as well, but as I said before, he loses his evil touch as the serial progresses. Byrd is somewhat disappointing comparing this to his Dick Tracy roles since his reading of lines doesn't always sound too heroic. Doyle is cute, but no actress, and Ford is annoying as he was in Dick Tracy Returns. Rating, based on serials, 6.

In Republic's third year of existence they certainly hit their action serial stride in this very well made exciting coast guard serial thriller. Still following the format well designed by Mascot Pictures from 1930-34 until Republic bought them, the opening recalls of each chapter are entertaining and brief and concise. The titles are exciting and the sturdy sets and model work exciting and good to look at. Also of extra interest is the amount of vacant suburban and seaside Los Angeles on show and viewers familiar with locales around LA will enjoy the sight of bare streets, dilapidated buildings and empty beaches no doubt crammed with modern buildings today. Each chapter has an extraordinary amount of location shooting in LA streets and ocean/beach locales. The DVD I have does not have a Republic logo and the chapter endings have original plain text which may have been the style for the time, but I believe from seeing serials from about 1940 there was a more stylised look for the in and out titles. The ocean model work is very well done and a treat to follow, given the Lydecker reputation.

When this serial was made, there was a moratorium on horror films, brought on by Joseph Breen of the Hays Office. Consequently, Boris Karloff did thrillers at Warner Bros. (but not really any horror films), and Lugosi did poverty row movies and serials. Of the latter, this one I think is his best, but his having the name "Boroff" plus his using a ship called the "Cairfax" (as in Cairfax Abbey, where Dracula stays in London) are obvious in-jokes, though I doubt they were of Lugosi's doing.