L'Aigle de la mort

Unless you consider Gene Autry a major mainstream film star, I can't think of another major star besides John Wayne who did movie serials. The Duke did three of them and back then I'm sure he was grateful for the work. The first of them was The Shadow of the Eagle.

Wayne is a stunt flier for a carnival owned by former World War I ace Edward Hearn and daughter Dorothy Gulliver. Back in the war he was shot down and presumed killed. His fellow squadron members where Hearn was known as the Eagle, took the plans for something called an Aero Stabilizer and are building a factory, wouldn't you know it across the street.

But one of these dudes is looking to cut the others out and starts sending threatening messages to the others with sky writing of all things in the name of the Eagle. Talk about telegraphing your punches.

In the manner of serials, Wayne, the daughter, the Eagle, all get in trouble and rescued over and over until the real culprit and the gimmick with the sky writing is unmasked.

I'm told by the way the technology the bad guy uses for his sky writing is certainly available now, but wasn't quite perfected in 1932. What was it, that you have to sit through the serial to find out.

Serials were so frighteningly dumb back in the day. John Wayne must have shuddered if you ever mentioned this one at least.

Well what d'ya know? Just stumbled across this little caper which brings back happy memories of a childhood long long departed. The year was 1950 and I recall SHADOW OF THE EAGLE, the first time I ever clapped eyes on a very young up and coming John Wayne. (He had fully upped and comed by 1950!) Interestingly, this action-fest was considered somewhat of a "relic" even then!

Shown as a weekly 20 minute serial at our local Saturday Morning Flicks...itself, the major regular event in our home town, I recall Wayne as square-jawed pilot Craig McCoy out to discover the truth behind the disappearance of a fairground owner whose livelihood had been threatened by the nefarious "Eagle." Each episode left a young boy barely able to wait for the following Saturday to catch Craig's latest revelations and discoveries in the dastardly plot. Actually, I can't ever recall the concluding episode.....maybe I had a sleepover the previous night? Maybe I'd finally cracked a date in her pedal-car with the five year old blonde tease next door, in which case poor old Duke was never a chance!

A 12-part serial in which a fresh-faced 25-year-old John Wayne runs around and engages in fist fights for what seems like forever. Grows repetitive when watched in one or two sittings, but then that's not how it was intended to be watched. Wayne is very green in this one, showing little of the star presence that was to come. Billy West, who has a small part as a treacherous clown, was the premier Chaplin impersonator back in the teens.

This serial film is fun to watch, if you can put yourself in the mind of a kid in 1932 chomping popcorn & watching this on the big screen in his local theater.

The real value of the film to me is the scene in which an airplane attacks Wayne & his girlfriend as they stand on a deserted road. Compare it to the crop dusting scene in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and there is little doubt in my mind that Hitch stole the scene from Beebe.

Others have mentioned the old movie serials. The cover on my Alpha Video DVD claims that "The Shadow of the Eagle" is "The Complete Serial." But one part is missing in the early series, and it ends with episode 11 -- but not the end of the story. So, I have no idea how it comes out.

"The Shadow of the Eagle" is an early John Wayne series. It was a stunt man's show, with lots of action and running about. The Duke's acting is OK and very good in places. We can't say that for most of the rest of the cast – especially not Dorothy Gulliver. She has several close-ups in which she has hammy glares at the camera. Was she still acting for silent films?

The attempt to show sky-writing is pathetic. An airplane in the sky making 90-degree and 180-degree turns in just a few feet? It looked exactly like what it was – a toy model. I'm sure they could have done something to seem a little more real. By 1932, many people would have seen skywriting at daredevil shows, air shows, county fairs and other events held around the country. So, this probably would have looked just as hokey to audiences then, as it does today.

Although the plot was interesting, with just enough intrigue to keep one watching – hoping to see the end, it soon reached the point of tedium. The action scenes were repeated car chases, repeated climbing up and down outside buildings, and repeated breaking into the same offices. John Wayne must have had a permanent concussion from this one – I think he got conked out at least once in each segment.

The segments were of varied lengths. The shortest was less than 10 minutes and a couple early ones were half an hour or more. Each one ran the full credits at the beginning. But there was very little continuity between episodes. They tended to skip some details where the next episode would open somewhere off from where the previous one ended.

This Mascot production clearly shows its poverty row origins. It has very poor writing, editing and other production values; and the film quality relegates this one to the dust bin.