Les trois diables rouges

Now this serial had a lot of hype to live up to...I had heard or read that it was one of the best serials ever made from every source I encountered. It was spoken of in the same awed tones as The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Zorro's Fighting Legion, Fighting Devil Dogs, and Drums of Fu Manchu. And it lived up to all the hype.

Charles Quigley, David Sharpe and Bruce Bennett are great as the three circus daredevils who join the police in their efforts to stop the escaped convict who is known by the name 39013. The action and thrills are easily on a par with most of the SFX blockbusters today...and these old time SFX are pretty believable too. Just watch the motorcycle racing ahead of the water in the flooding tunnel!

This chapter play doesn't really fall into the ruts of many of the genre. The cliffhanger resolutions are all very believable, and there is only about a half a chapter of recap. The acting, beyond the three principals, is excellent. Carole Landis has a minor though pivotal role that really doesn't use her comic talents, but Charles Middleton plays the archtypical villain role that he became known for...especially after he took on the role of Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon.

There are few serials that I can recommend wholeheartedly. But Daredevils of the Red Circle has definitely joined that list!

39013, an escaped convict, carries out his revenge on the man who put him in prison, by imprisoning Granville and impersonating him, with the aid of Granville's traitorous aides. When destroying all of Granville's holdings in order to ruin him, he burns down the Granville Amusement Center, which claims the life of the younger brother of one of three circus daredevils. The three daredevils then swear vengeance against 39013, and are hired by Granville to hunt him down, even though the impersonation is in effect. Brilliant plot, with the best chapter endings caught on film, especially one and eight, and one is probably the greatest of all, with Gene trying to outrace on motorcycle a torrent of water quickly filling up a tunnel. 12 chapters. In terms of serials, 10 out of 10.

As a kid in the early TV era of the 1950s, I had the opportunity to view several serials from the late '30s and the 1940s. Apparently these were syndicated to TV stations to use as "fillers" since the network feeds weren't available (or the station didn't want to pay) during certain hours, including the after-school--i.e. late afternoon--time frame. In retrospect, it seems that our local station (WSBT in South Bend, Indiana) had a very astute--or very lucky--program director who chose the best serials out there. "Zorro's Fighting Legion," "The Mysterious Dr. Satan," "Fighting Devildogs," "The Black Widow"...they were all there. But the best of the best, in my opinion, was "Daredevils of the Red Circle." Drama, suspense, action, and a morality play (the best revenge is not to destroy one's opponent, as 39013 attempted to do, but to outdo him legally and ethically, as 39013 possibly could have done were his superior mind not warped and twisted)...these were the most memorable features of this 6-day, 15 minutes per episode odyssey that trumped sandlot baseball and other boyhood pursuits typical of the early baby boom generation. Some 45 years later, the opportunity to purchase this touchstone of my youth on VHS presented itself. Viewed with the more critical, possibly even jaded, eye of a middle-aged adult, the production does not disappoint. The plot, acting, special effects, and musical score may seem primitive by today's high-tech standards, but in the context of the times in which this serial was created, it "raised the bar," as we like to say today, for all that followed. So check it out. Imagine yourself in the late Art Deco era of engineering feats (the tunnel), sexy vehicles (the "Heritage Softtail" precursor motorcycle and '37 Buick Century straight 8 convertible, among others), and beautiful people (the impeccably coiffed and dressed "Blanche;" the trio of heroes in their flawlessly ironed suits, shirts, and ties; the elegant Granville; and even the villain 39013 as played so convincingly by Charles Middleton in first-class clothing that we seldom see today outside of a corporate boardroom), and enjoy. Maybe the subtitle of this serial should be: "the Lost World, Never to Return"...

In looking over previous comments of Daredevils of the Red Circle, many of you comment on the ending of Chapter One where Charles Quigley is trying to outrace a torrent of water riding on a motorcyle. I had the privilege of knowing Barry Shipman, the scriptwriter for "Daredevils." He would pen many of the famous Republic serials, including the Lone Ranger, before going over to Columbia to write the Durango Kid features. Bill Witney relays the story of how the chapter came to be written in his autobiography. First, they found a real tunnel in downtown Los Angeles. At that time, the L.A. traffic had not grown to the proportion it is today and Republic got permission from the city to block traffic while they shot footage inside the tunnel. A miniature replica of the tunnel was designed and a process screen was used to show the water seemingly coming from behind Quigley. It was Barry's suggestion that the hero narrowly escapes downing by getting to the end of the tunnel where he turns the wheel to close the watertight doors. This conclusion was known as the take-out or the solution to the cliffhanger.

This is a serial that has it all! The leads,Herman Brix[Bruce Bennett],Charles Quigley,and David Sharpe are top notch.Carole Landis is fine as the herione,and Charles Middleton does his usual fne work as the master villian.Sharpe shows that he can act as well as perform those great stunts!Location filming adds to the scenic values,good story line,music score,and special effects from the Lydecker brothers. It all adds up to 12 chapters of non-stop action.One of my top ten serials from Republic.