Adventures of the Flying Cadets

The Black Hangman, a Nazi spy, is murdering members of an expedition that the Hangman (in his civilian identity of Arthur Galt- engineering consultant) undertook in Africa and uncovered a supply of helium in the caves of An-Ker-Ban. A group of four young Flying Cadets (Danny, Jinx, Scrapper, and Zombie) are the primary suspects for two of the Hangman's murders and they fly to Africa (with Galt) to clear themselves and break up the Nazi sabotage plan. Decent serial at the beginning with the Cadets going after the Black Hangman while he commits his sabotage acts, but after the he's revealed as Galt in chapter 3 and then heads towards Africa, the serial becomes mostly non stop talking scenes with the Hangman and all the Nazi agents just suspecting double crosses and shooting each other. Downs, Jordan, Wood & Benedict are very good as the young fliers (an improvement over the Dead End Kids in their 3 serials), while Ciannelli and Armstrong, make for good villains. I wish though the Black Hangman had more to do with the story later on in the serial. Holt is beautiful to look at, but she's not even seen until chapter 6, and she doesn't interact well with the story. A bunch of implausible cliffhangers, but decent dialogue. Rating, based on serials, 6.

Wartime Serial from Universal, ADVENTURES OF THE FLYING CADETS (1943) was clearly aimed solely at the youth market. The plot is particularly predictable, most of it given away in Chapter One! Even a six (6) year old back then would have figured out that THE BLACK HANGMAN or 'Schwarze Henker' was Arthur Galt, Robert Armstrong with a bad German accent. This was pointed out by Kurt Von Heiger/Corby played by perennial bad-man Eduardo Ciannelli. The objective of our hero's is prevent those NAZI's from obtaining the precious HELIUM from a mine in Africa. This is accomplished in 13, somewhat thrilling chapters.

Each chapter though gets you moving with the jaunty song 'Here Comes The Air Cadets'. Air Cadets being a better rhythm for the lyrics then 'Flying Cadets'. There is no prologue recap between chapters, just a repeat, then on to the next adventure. Though not in the League with the FLASH GORDON franchise or BUCK ROGERS it is still a enjoyable ride. The young leads all former 'Child Stars' on the minor league level perform as expected. They are backed up by quality character actors. Most who would be appearing in 'A' or 'B' efforts at the major studios. Though half seemed to get killed off in the first chapter.

Our copy from ALPHA VIDEO came via the local flee market for $02.00. Which we feel was a good deal and what it is worth. There copy seems to come from a combination of transfers from film and video, but you can hear it and see it clearly. Remember 'digitally remastered' does not mean 'digitally restored'. Universal during the War years invested less and less in its Serial output and there would be only ten (10) more before it was discontinued. There efforts at this time were no way equal to those of REPUBLIC, but were way ahead of COLUMBIA. Now those were really bad!

Group of young men at a private flying school are angling toward a career in the army as fliers (Its during WW2). Into the mix comes the Black Hangman a Nazi agent who is killing industrialists and looking for the map to Ankaban a lost city in Africa. Moving from the airfield to the jungle this is a neat little movie that sucks you in and carries you along. Clearly Universal actually cared about this serial, something not always evident in some of their wartime chapter plays.To be certain it doesn't stand out as as one of the great serials of all time, it is however compulsively watchable as I found out when I put this on to watch a chapter or two and found myself five or six chapters in with out a thought. I really liked it. Plot wise I'm not sure if its a good thing that we know who the Black Hangman is in the second chapter (or first if you recognize the voice), I would have thought they could have used the masked villain to grater effect, but at the same time it is interesting that his Nazi masters clearly hold him in contempt and are planning on using him to their own ends.One doesn't usually get this many layers of good and bad guys. Definitely worth a look