The Flying Serpent

Of all the horror films cranked by the poverty row studio's in the 1940's, those made by PRC were the most outrageous. THE FLYING SERPENT is a case in point. George Zucco, who was always entertaining as the villain in these films, plays a mad archaeologist who discovers a hidden Aztec treasure and living Archaeopterx. Zucco is convinced the prehistoric bird he has found is the actual feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl of the Aztecs. Zucco discovers the bird is very jealous of its feathers and will kill anyone who possess one and uses the bird to knock off his enemies.

A lot of people have mercilessly trashed this minor little thriller. I must confess, I have a lot of affection for it. Its actually very entertaining if viewed in the right frame of mind. Scenes of the big bird flying stiffly through the air and landing on the people, border on the surreal. George Zucco was always entertaining in these pictures and he is very entertaining here. I don't think one could say Zucco ever walked through a part.

PRC Pictures, the cheapest of the B studios in the '30s and '40s, specialized in "horror" movies, few of which were "horrible" and most of which were barely movies. British actor George Zucco starred in many of them, and Sam Newfield--the brother of PRC president Sigmund Neufeld--directed many of them; neither Zucco nor Newfield had reason to be proud of any of them. The one thing they all had in common was shoddy production, technical ineptness and fifth-rate storytelling. This one is no different. The "story" concerns a mad doctor who has captured Quetzlcoatl, a mythical Mexican bird god of death, and uses it to kill his enemies. The bird model is laughable, with the strings used to move it clearly visible in almost every shot. Flubbed lines, pauses where actors forgot their lines for a second are all left in; in fact, there is one scene where the camera follows someone walking down a city street, and as the person walks by a plate glass store window, the reflection of the entire crew is clearly visible! Director Larry Cohen used the basic idea for his film "Q" in the 1980s, but with far better results. The fact that Cohen remade the film is astounding enough; the realization that he actually must have sat through to the end of this movie in order to do so is absolutely mind-boggling.

Archaeologist George Zucco has discovered an ancient Aztec treasure along with the mythical bird that guards it. He's mad, quite mad….He keeps the treasure hidden in a cave and visits it secretly.

Back in town, his step-daughter has noticed that he's been acting strangely—disappearing for days on end, talking about some great imminent discovery. She shares her concern with an ornithologist friend….who soon thereafter is found savagely murdered, his throat cut and all of the blood drained from his body. What is up? Did the ornithologist's death have anything to do with the mysterious feather that Zucco had dropped at his house?

Cut to New York: a radio station is sending (handsome young) mystery writer Dick Thorpe to New Mexico to investigate the strange crime and to broadcast daily reports from the field. As the plot thickens and bodies begin to pile up, Dick's daily remote broadcasts get better and better: "Ladies and gentlemen, there's been a murder at the studio. Professor Louis Havener was struck down by the feathered serpent as he stood at the window examining the feather we had just found....We'll be back on the air again tomorrow morning at the same time."

The radio writer and the step-daughter (Ralph Lewis and Hope Kramer – not household names for me, I'm afraid) eventually team up on the investigation; however, while the young couple are ostensibly the protagonists in the story, it is unquestionably Zucco who has the meaty role in the picture.

For example, why does he keep the treasure hidden? "Because it's mine. Mine, do you hear? All mine. I'm the richest man in the world!"

Oh, the bird is good, too. Special flying effects combined with a dramatic music score actually combine well enough to make the attack scenes just a bit spooky.

It's very silly, really not very good…but great fun nevertheless.

I'd been after The Flying Serpent for some time and finally obtained it at the beginning of this year (2006) when a mate ordered it for me from Amazon. Despite reading some bad reviews, I quite enjoyed it.

A mad Professor, Andrew Forbes discovers a living example of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec flying reptile/bird god. He then gets feathers off it and gives them to people he doesn't like and sends the creature to these people and it kills them. Police are baffled by these deaths and towards the end, Forbes ends up with a feather himself...

A rather unconvincing model on strings was used for Quetzalcoatl and you can see these at times.

The cast is lead by B-horror regular George Zucco (Fog Island, Scared To Death) as Forbes. I've haven't heard of anybody else in this.

The Flying Serpent is a good way to spend an hour. Very enjoyable.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

What's the only reason to watch this besides George Zucco's scenery chewing? Why it's watching a pathetic feathery prop on a string cause fear and death in its search all of its feathers. Basically this is a loose remake of DEVIL BAT with Zucco replacing Bela Lugosi as the madman.