DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (1939 serial)

Convict 39013 (Charles Middleton) has escaped from prison and has begun a criminal reign of terror against Granville Industries because he blames the owner (Miles Mander) for his imprisonment. One evening at an amusement park that Granville owns, the three Daredevils of the Red Circle are performing their act: Gene (Charles Quigley) is an acrobat and diver, Tiny (Herman Brix) is a muscleman, and Bert (David Sharpe) is an escape artist. But their act is sabotaged by 39013's goons and a huge fire breaks out. The three Daredevils manage to save themselves, but Gene's kid brother dies in the hospital the next day due to injuries from the fire, and the three (accompanied by the kid's smart dog Tuffie) go to Granville and his daughter Blanche (Carole Landis) and offer their services in stopping 39013. What they don't know is that kindly, elderly Granville is actually 39013 in disguise, and he and his henchmen are keeping the real Granville locked up in a basement room. 39013 wants Granville alive to see the collapse of his companies, but has a device at the ready that will release poison gas in the room if 39013 ever fails to make his daily visit. Among the villain's plots: to blow up a gas plant, to wreck a chemical plant, to use a death ray, to flood a highway tunnel, etc. The Daredevils (and Tuffie) manage to foil most of the plans, getting help from an unknown person who knows 39013's plans and leaks them to the men via handwritten notes with a red circle on them—the identity of this person is played up with much mystery, though you'll figure it out long before the final chapter. But can they stop 39013's final coup—the poisoning of Granville?

I have detailed my problematic relationship with movie serials before, and this one doesn't completely escape the problem of repetition inherent in the genre (short 15-minute chapters with little room for character development and predictable cliffhangers at the end of each—in this one, the heroes usually wind up locked in a room). But this is easily the best serial I've ever seen. First of all, the Kino Lorber DVD contains a beautiful print, which always helps—the serials released on VHS back in the early days of home video were almost always spliced up and murky. The three leads are youngish, handsome and energetic, especially David Sharpe who made a living for four decades as a stunt man—he's the guy in the suit who's dragged through the dirt in Blazing Saddles. The Daredevils, though not exactly fleshed-out characters, are individualized enough so each one stands on his own. The fisticuffs scenes, one or two per episode, are very well staged, even if the cliffhanger escapes are just average. Because the death of the kid in the first chapter goes against expectations, we're kept on guard a bit for other possible surprises. The low-budget effects are pulled off well, though none can compare with the flooding tunnel at the end of the first chapter.

Charles Middleton (39013) is better known as Ming the Merciless in the 1930's Flash Gordon serials so you might expect him to be at his evil best here, but actually it's the normally unflashy Miles Mander who takes the acting honors, as he has to play essentially three roles: the frail Granville who 39013 is disguised as, the less frail real Granville who is kept imprisoned, and the conniving 39013 when he still in disguise as Granville—and he is sometimes seen onscreen in both parts at once, though each episode has a shot of Mander ducking down to take off his disguise and Middleton appearing so we don't forget who's who. Landis, as is par for the course for these serials, has little to do besides worry, though she does shine briefly in the final chapter. Though I found Sharpe the best-looking of the Daredevils, all three are appealing as characters and as dashing fellows. Brix, who played Tarzan in a 1935 serial, later changed his name to Bruce Bennett. This is possibly the only serial I've seen that I might make a point of watching a second time, and that's pretty high praise. In the photo at top left are, in order Sharpe, Brix and Quigley. [DVD]