Sea Raiders

Universal's 52nd sound-era serial (and the second of three with the Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys billed above the title) with its biggest drawback being that the "adult" hero is played by William Hall, a Universal contractee that the studio had long ago given up on as a lead player. (See 1938's "The Spy Ring" for reasons why. The film, not the site listing.)

This one kicks right of when the Sea Raiders, a band of foreign agents, led by Carl Tonjes (Reed Hadley) and Elliott Carlton (Edward Keane), blow up a freighter on which Billy Adams (Billy Halop) and Toby Nelson (Huntz Hall) are stowaways, seeking to avoid Brack Warren (William Hall), a harbor patrol officer assigned to guard a new type of torpedo boat built by Billy's brother, Tom Adams (John McGuire.) Intended targets or not, getting blown up does not set well with Billy and Toby and, together with their gang coupled with the who-dat members of the Little Tough Guys, they find the Sea Raiders' island hideout, investigate the seacoast underground arsenal of these saboteurs, get blasted from the air, dragged to their doom, become victims of the storm, entombed in a tunnel and even periled by a panther (in various chapters titled as such) before they don the uniforms of some captured Sea Raiders and board a yacht that serves as headquarters for the Raiders. Edward Keane was the most-at-home-on-a-yacht player in Hollywood's history.

Reed Hadley should have played Brack Warren and Hall one of the Henchies. Otherwise it is what it is and serves the purpose for which it was intended, and the producers and the intended audience thought it served that purpose very well (and it did), and neither gave a thought to what critics in the next century might think about it.

Some good action sequences in this otherwise routine Universal serial. Fans of the "Dead End Kids" will get a kick out of it, especially all the ad-libbing. The Rossini classical music tracks heard periodically are wildly inappropriate.

Second of three serials made by a variation of the Dead End Kids, East Side Kids, Little Tough Guys and Bowery Boys is a step up from the previous Junior G-Men. Here the boys are once more fighting bad guys but this time in and around the docks, so instead of being land locked and stuck in and around the city we have water based dangers and adventures. To be certain the thrills are purely by the numbers but the waterside setting adds a point or two to the interest factor. As with the first serial the effects are less then special with many shot clearly using mattes, rear screen or models (one need only watch the opening credits to see model work). Made with slightly more care than the first serial its still clear that there is a certain amount of disinterest on the part of the cast and crew who seem to be going through the motions. Certainly watchable, this is something that I'd suggest for a slow undemanding afternoon when your other viewing choices are limited.

Foreign "Sea Raiders" are bombing US freighters, a fact stumbled upon by "The Dead End Kids and The Little Tough Guys" in the second of their three "Universal" serials. They eventually help track down dastardly Reed Hadley (as Carl Tonjes) and the culprits. The billing implies two groups, but they are one. The studio probably did not call the group by their "Warner Bros." name due to potential legal problems, and then apparently discovered they could. Not affectionately called "wharf rats" herein, the waterfront gang consists of: Billy Halop (as Billy Adams), Huntz Hall (as Toby Nelson), Gabriel Dell (as Bilge), Bernard Punsly (as Butch), Hall E. "Hally" Chester (as Swab) and Joe Recht (as Lug)...

This was the last appearance of Mr. Chester in any of the related films (he had also been appearing as one of the "East Side Kids"). Chester gets a lot of screen time during the second half. The first episodes of this serial are sloppy and confusing, but things pick up by Chapter 8, when Mr. Halop rescues Chester from a runaway whale. The Chapter 10 highlight has Halop in his boxer shorts, fending off a hungry octopus, then wrestling with a black panther. Huntz Hall (who learns to swim herein) and Chester help Halop out. At times, it appears as if the studio was inter-cutting any available footage into the adventure. With more focus in scripting, this might have been the best of the three "Dead End" serials.

**** Sea Raiders (1941) Ford Beebe, John Rawlins ~ Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Hall E. Chester, Gabriel Dell

I am a long time fan of the Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and Bowery Boys flicks. When I decided to watch Sea Raiders, I had high hopes that it was an enjoyable and well made serial. Well, all I can say is that this a twelve chapter serial that felt like it was fifteen episodes long.

The main plot deals with a group of axis agents (the Sea Raiders) that operate in the US who sink munitions ships and attempt to steal an experimental torpedo boat. In addition to the primary plot, this move contains six subplots, two sets of young lovers a courting. William Hall and Mary Field form one of these couples while John McGuire and Marcia Ralston comprise the other. Additionally, the early chapters, contain comic shticks about about a bumbling cop (Hall) and an Italian immigrant grocer. There are thirteen different actors who have substantial speaking parts. Really, the script for Sea Raiders can best be described as overstuffed.

Keeping track of all these characters and subplots slows the pace of Sea Raiders to the point of sluggishness. Consequently, the serial is never really very exciting. Nonetheless, the acting is competent and appealing. Reed Haley is quite effective as the slick and menacing lead villain. However, the cast is so large that some of the actors (Bernard Punsley, Joe Recht, Gabriel Dell and Ralston) have little to do. Had these five characters been edited out of the script, the film could have proceeded at brisk pace. The idea of having rough around the edges teenagers ( Punsley, Huntz Hall, Dell, Hally Chester, Recht and Billy Hallop)) serve as the main heroes (instead of the usual bland leading man in his twenty or thirties common to serials) is a refreshing change.

I like this serial but I think this is due in large part to my fondness for the Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys/etc. Consequently, I recommend Sea Raiders only to fans of Halop and company. Non-fans will probably find this serial dull viewing.