The Fighting Marines

One of the best Mascot serials concerns a couple of marines taking on the Tiger Shark a masked criminal who is trying to steal a gyro compass and prevent his hide out island from being turned into a military base. This is an action packed serial that is better in the chapters then it is in the cliffhangers. The cast is good (with great chemistry between the two leads), the action better. This is as good as Mascot gets, and in its way it might have rivaled some of Republics best work had it had a music track. Its a minor thing but the lack of music (something Mascot didn't really splurge for at any point) makes a little slow at times. That flaw aside this is one to watch. Its actually very good.

The Marines, out of their San Diego base, are working on construction of a landing strip for their planes on Halfway Island in the pacific. Their efforts are being sabotaged on the island by a group headed by a masked criminal calling himself the Tiger Shark. Sgt. Schiller invents a gyrocompass which would pinpoint the where on the San Diego-Halfway Island route the planes are being brought down, but is kidnapped by the Tiger Shark's men in order to learn the secrets of the instrument. Cpl. Lawrence and Sgt. McGowan go after to rescue Schiller and stop the sabotage on the island, while trying to avoid the danger set by the Tiger Shark. It seemed like a decent serial on paper, but this serial drags on for long periods, with many time consuming chapter replays. Withers and Morris have great teamwork together which gives these characters personality. Ann Rutherford is absent for long spells, which doesn't give this serial a good heroine. The Tiger Shark is unfortunately an unmenacing villain, who is basically seen only in the last couple of chapters and given an identity easy to figure out (true to the Mascot formula in this regard), since Mascot didn't work much on the red herrings. Plenty of action and fights, but not enough. Rating, based on serials, 4.5