The Lost City

As I saw it as it was intended to be seen at the Delta Cinema,in my home town of Hamilton.They showed a lot of older films as the Gentleman who ran the Cinema was money challenged. So they showed Serials Chapter by Chapter and the Lost City ws one that I saw Three or Four Times when I was young. This is a Serial that throws in everything but the Kitchen Sink,with Africans being turned into Giants,Slave Traders and a Tribe Of Spider Men. There are interesting people like Gabby Hayes,and Gino Corrado who was the Singer in the Three Stooges Microphonies.And Billy Bletcher as Gorzo,who was the voice of the Big Bad Wolf in the Three Little Pigs. And a young Kane Richmond,later on Spy Smasher. The acting is so over the top its enjoyable. I recommend this to anyone who loves that sort of off the wall lunacy in their films.

A bizarre, demented, utterly berserk multi-chapter hoot that's a pure delight for camp enthusiasts, sci-fi movie freaks, and fans of the demented in any form. Wild, woolly adventures in a lost city in Africa which seems to have only three inhabitants. The story, if one can call it that, concerns an elderly captive scientist who elongates and lobotomizes natives (and can also make black people white), his beautiful daughter, the evil dictator who holds them captive, his assorted flunkies, a fiendish jungle priestess of some sort, a painfully earnest hero and his doltish, bumbling sidekick, and God knows what else. Weirdly acted, scripted by someone who must have been drunk out of his mind (or SOMETHING), and, oddly, has impressive special effects, given the time. Derivative, racist, whacked out, and utterly delightful.

"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.

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.

All the other comments are really right on the mark about THE LOST CITY. For some of us it is a guilty pleasure, mainly because it is so outlandish. Trying to rate it is difficult, because on the one hand the acting is so atrocious and the racial attitudes are beyond belief, and the other hand, it is never boring, and has imaginative sets and Kenneth Strickfadden's electrical devices. Recently Jerry Frank's, nephew wrote about this film. Frank and Sam Baker, who played the 7 foot zombie Hugo became best of friends. It was heartwarming to read how in those days, the two actors, one Black and the other Jewish bonded. Baker referred to the film as "That old dog" but neither would disavow the film.