The Great Alaskan Mystery

The Great Alaskan Mystery isn't the greatest of serials, but it is certainly far from the worst. The animated title card at the beginning is a nice touch by Universal, which did the same for The Mystery of the Riverboat.

Milburn Stone has to be the most beat-up, bruised, drowned, shot and has been in the most near-death truck plunges of any action hero in any serial. The story notes that to begin with his character is a wounded soldier returning home. Martin Kosleck makes a great scientist/bad guy, though he does not quite yet have the evil glee that he threw into those roles in later years (such as in The Flesh Eaters). Edgar Kennedy is almost unrecognizable, but provides some nice comic touches. The rest of the cast is pretty unremarkable, except for Anthony Warde, who delivers his usual solid performance as the main henchman.

There are a lot of nice visuals in this serial, though many are obviously stock footage. There are also a number of really bad cliffhangers...the kind in which you know there is no bloody way the hero is going to survive. That doesn't necessarily detract from the chapterplay as a whole, since by the time the worst one happens (involving a falling mine elevator and a crate of dynamite) you already know that Milburn Stone's character can really take the punishment.

This is not the greatest serial I've ever seen.

People are dying all the time, of course, only bad people and never the others. There is a lot of action but without a real story with good dialogs and great characters.

At the end of every chapter there is a sort of suspense but we know that the hero can't die and the beginning of the next chapter is not very convincing so it's a kind of artificial suspense. So we laugh at it.

I can't understand when I see that how people in this time could enjoy it... But it's funny!

THE GREAT ALASKAN MYSTERY (1944) Universal has a few things to recommend it. First thing is the cast, the film is loaded with quality character actors. Many who appeared in the previous decade for the major studios, M.G.M, Paramount, Warner Brothers etc. Second, much documentary footage of the 'Great White North' was used for back-round plates. Third, the musical score, though a Hodge-Podge collection from previous film scores it is fun too pick them out. From THE SPOILERS (1942) too most of the Universal Horror Films.

Why the low rating? For it fails like most Universal Serials do except for BUCK ROGERS and the FLASH GORDON Trilogy, too much talk not enough action or decent SFX. Universal Serials were dialogue and plot driven and except for the previously mentioned, lacked the action of their competition from REPUBLIC Studios. Though a middle tier Studio, Universal had a excellent SFX department, but its head John Fulton did not work on Serials. REPUBLIC devoted original musical scores to support the action and the Lydecker Brothers SFX, not so Universal. Stunt work was sub-par also with the Fight scenes so-so.

The serial is about as entertaining as most of those from COLUMBIA and made with the same level of competence. The plot is centered around the 'PARATRON', at first, a matter transmitter, but with a energy boost a super Death-Ray and our Axis enemies want it, nuff-said! Our two (2) disc copy came courtesy of ALPHA VIDEO via our local Flee-Market. It appears to be from a 16mm dupe print. Night scenes are a little too dark, but the sound is quite clear.

As a member of that age group known as the Front Row Kids, who recall Saturday matinees which ran all day for .15 cents, I get a kick out of these armchair critics who want to look at the cliffhanger serials as something that the movie going public saw and accepted as real in the Thirties, Forties and Fifties. You people are looking at an art form that was directed at children from a more innocent, more naive and certainly less street smart than today's youngsters. These serials were meant only to entertain, not instruct. We kids realize that it was only a movie, but nevertheless it was fun to speculate how the hero was going to going to get out of a certain situation. They were not shown before the main feature, as is commonly stated, but were the last item on the matinée bill. They were the dessert after the meal. Theaters usually ran them to bring the youngsters back particularly if they were in competition with the theater down the street. They were entertainment pure and simple, with plenty of action to hold the kids attention. After all, the kids had had a full week of education shoved down their throats. How many kids would have come to see a movie about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, or the Pilgrims or some other historical event. Saturday afternoons were made for fun. Even now, this old Front Row Kid gets a boot out of seeing a film that he saw as a youngster and gets a kick out of being young again. Why don't you armchair critics get off your pedestal and enjoy the film for what it is, not what you want it to be.

Okay Universal serial is interesting for casting, such as "slow burn" 2nd banana Edgar Kennedy as the sidekick, Milburn Stone (Doc on Gunsmoke) as the action lead, and dependable Nazi Martin Kosleck as one of the baddies. Anthony Warde is his usual menacing self, and Marjorie Weaver is lovely, as is the uncredited blonde secretary. An abundance of stock footage and cheezy special effects, but hey---you've gotta suspend your disbelief for most serials anyway. Just the thing for a long winter evening.