The Lost City

This is quite a project. There is every conceivable kind of plot development. The bad guys turn good; the good guys turn bad; they turn back again. It's about scientists messing with the realm of electricity; it's about Arab slave traders; it's about zombie black men being made bigger, their brains being canceled out. There's Gabby Hayes. The sidekick. When I was a child I sold enough subscriptions to the St. Paul Pioneer Press to go to the Minnesota State Fair and meet Gabby Hayes, along with several other boys. He was there with the late singer, Johnny Horton, and called us all a bunch of young whippersnappers. It was a high point in my life. Anyway, it was kind of cool to see the old guy, with his scruffy beard, playing a pretty significant role. I'm not going to take this apart. It wouldn't be fair. It had to have been made up from one day to the next. I wondered how long that old scientist would survive being picked up and carted around. Everything is so hammy. Still it's a bit much, even for a serial. By the end you feel like you've been on a roller coaster and need a program to figure the whole thing out. I did enjoy William "Stage" Boyd and his manic throwing orders around. Also, the strong man in the sparkly suit (who was continuously incompetent) was real kick. It certainly was an interesting few hours.

"The Lost City" is another of those "mad scientist wanting to rule the world" serials. This one was independently produced by Sherman S. Krellberg and Directed by Harry Revier. The set pieces especially the laboratory equipment I thought, were quite impressive by poverty row standards.

The story has electrical engineer Bruce Gordon (Kane Richmond) tracking the source of global electrical disturbances, which he discovers to be originating from central Africa. He mounts an expedition which includes fellow scientists Reynolds (Ralph Lewis) and Colton (William Millman) and his pal Jerry (Eddie Fetherstone). Arriving in Africa, they go to a trading post run by the slave trader Butterfield (George F. Hayes). Gordon soon discovers that the disturbances are coming from a nearby mountain.

Inside the mountain are evil scientist Zolok (William "Stage Boyd") who along with his assistants the hunchback Gorzo (William Bletcher) and muscleman Appolyn (Jerry Frank), plan to rule the world with the help of an army of zombie like giants created by Dr. Manyus (Josef Swickard). Manyus and his daughter Natcha (Claudia Dell) are being held prisoner by Zolok and forced to do his will.

Soon Gordon's party is lured to the lost city. Once there Reynolds and Colton see the possibilities of the giants and kidnap Manyus and take him into the jungle where they meet up with evil slave trader Ben Ali (Gino Corrado) who also sees the possibilities. Meanwhile Butterfield through his cohort Andrews (Milburn Moranti) also learns of the giants. All wish to capture Manyus and force him to do their evil deeds. Then later on there enters the evil slave trader, Queen Rama (Margot D'use) who also has designs on the giant maker and on Bruce Gordon as well.

Gordon and Jerry do all they can to prevent Manyus' capture and ward off the assorted villains. Finally they defeat the villains and save the world from a fate worse than death.

There's an interesting sequence where we learn that Manyus also has the power to turn black men into white. Wonder how that made it pass the censors. Also there is a "death ray" which looks a lot like a laser beam several decades before such a beam was invented. The advanced television system also foretold of similar such systems in the future.

Willam "Stage" Boyd had been in films since 1913. He used the name "Stage" to avoid confusion with the "other" William Boyd who was playing Hopalong Cassidy at the time. Sadly, this was Boyd's final film for he passed away shortly after its completion.

George F. Hayes is of course the infamous "Gabby" Hayes who would enjoy a long career in "B" westerns playing the crusty old sidekick. Oddly enough, Hayes worked with both William Boyds.

In the mid Fifties, Famous Monsters of Filmland published photos and stories about early horror and sci-fi serials. The Lost City serial was reviewed by Forrest Ackerman, FM's publisher, in which he told a story about the serial being run on early television in New York City. This was at a time when the networks were using old movies to fill up daytime schedules. As the story goes, the kids were so frightened at seeing black natives being turned into giant zombies with wide-eyed expressions and menacing grins, that protests were made to the station running the serial. The station discontinued the serial viewings. This story found its way into a couple of movie reference books. A serial historian checked out the story and found no mention anywhere that it either ran or was discontinued due to criticism. The serial has become a classic among fans because of its outdated racism and because it featured George Hayes, who became "Gabby Hayes" in Roy Rogers westerns. It also featured familiar B actors Kane Richmond, Claudia Dell and William "Stage" Boyd. Boyd was a B actor whose infamous claim to fame was that he once arrested for having illegal liquor at a party in his house during Prohibition. When the story was published in the paper, a photo of another William Boyd, whose stardom was on the rise. The studio where Boyd was working released him on the morals clause, even though he was not guilty. It may have been at this time that the William Boyd who was arrested took the name "Stage" to differentiate from the other Boyd. In any case, the innocent Boyd toiled in the B picture sweatshops until he was cast in a A western as Hopalong Cassidy.

This supremely silly (but still kinda fun), 12-chapter serial/adventure tale (from 1935) had just about everything in it, but the kitchen sink.

Set in the fictitious region of Central Africa called the Magnetic Mountains, our dashing, young, American hero & researcher, Buck Gordon, travels to the Dark Continent in hopes of tracking down the brilliant yet decidedly crazed mad scientist Dr. Zolok who's definitely up to no good in a really big way.

As the story goes - It seems that somewhere within a hidden city (situated below Magnetic Mountain) Zolok has built a truly remarkable machine which can, in fact, be programed to create serious electrical disturbances at great distances.

And, as expected, Zolok plans to use this wondrous invention in his diabolical plans to (guess what?) take over the world. (Oh! My!)

Can our courageous hero and his trusty comrades save the day and stop zany Zolok before he carries things too far?

Well, you'll just have to check out The Lost City for yourself to find out the answer to that and much-much more, too!

How bizarre is this serial? Very.

It was made fairly cheaply but does have some impressive sets and occasionally decent effects. But the writing and the acting are all terrible.

Kane Richmond is bland as the square-jawed hero. Claudia Dell seems miscast as the love interest; although she was only 26 she looks 40ish and plain. She has an overall prim, quavering, schoolmarmish air that's rather off putting. Jerry Frank as Apollyn is easy on the eyes in his gold lame shorts and little else. He helps rise this serial to a certain level of homo erotic camp.

The serial belongs to William "Stage" Boyd as mad scientist Zolok. He camps it up hilariously, although obviously meant to be serious. His final scenes are strangely effective; I'm told he was actually roaring drunk during the filming of those scenes which makes his final madness seem more effective. He died not long after completing this serial, making this an odd obituary.

The story? Well, Zolok is menacing the world from a lost city in Africa, once inhabited by a highly advanced race of which Zolok is the last member. He has hunky Apollyn and a twisted hunchback as assistants, and also has a captive scientist who has the requisite "lovely" daughter (Dell). Richmond goes to stop him and runs afoul of one trap after another, as well as Zolok's army of mindless black giants, and the queen of an African tribe who a) falls for Richmond and b) wants to be white.

Yup, this serial is morbidly racist. Quite a bit of plot hinges on the scientists' ability to turn black people white; at one point it's done and the subject jumps and leaps about with glee. When the Queen proposes marriage to Richmond, he smiles smugly and says, "Oh, I'm afraid that's out of the question."

Some audiences may find THE LOST CITY unpalatable, but it must be bourne in mind that it's a product of less-enlightened times (MUCH less enlightened). I view it not as a serious racial statement but just a reflection of the limited psyches of those involved.

It's actually pretty fun if you make the campiness of it part of the deal. I understand this was actually considered quite old-fashioned and out-of-date when it was released in 1935, making it a true oddity. See it and enjoy, but you were warned...