THE MYSTERY SQUADRON (1933 serial)

Fred Cromwell and 'Jellybean' Cook (named for his prodigious appetite for jellybeans) are two ace air show pilots who are contacted by old friend Hank Davis to take on a big job. Davis is working as an engineer for Stephen Gray who is building a dam in New Mexico and is facing opposition in the form of a villain who calls himself the Black Ace. He leads a band of fliers known as the Mystery Squadron who attack the site with planes decked out with flamethrowers. They have thrown construction into chaos and Davis wants Cromwell and Cook to investigate and fight back. When the two arrive at the dam, they are mistaken for members of the Mystery Squadron by Gray's feisty daughter Dorothy, but soon she joins the two in their pursuit of the Black Ace. We find out the rationale for the attacks: the Ace operates a secret gold mine that would be destroyed by the building of the dam. But there are plenty of suspects who might be the Black Ace. The most obvious are Johnson, a rival contractor, and Collins, a foreman who is actively working with the Squadron. But things are a bit fishy at the local hotel. The owner, Martin, seems unfriendly to Cromwell and Cook, and Flint, the local doctor, is allied with Martin. Or might the Ace be someone closer to Gray’s construction team? The prime era of the serial is generally considered to be from the late 1930s into the early 1950s. This one, from 1933, is fairly primitive even compared to the low-budget production limitations of most of the later serials, but in terms of narrative, it stands up with the best of the genre. Considering the narrow focus and settings of the plot (one threatened dam, one hotel, one mountain hideout for the bad guys), the chapter-ending cliffhangers are varied, including fisticuffs (though the fact that flesh punch noises aren't dubbed in is disappointing), planes set on fire, gunfights, and a car crash. (A little cheating goes on from time to time in terms of the escapes.) As is par for the course, the heroine (Lucile Browne) is often stuck on the sidelines, but she does take center stage a couple of times to perform heroics. Eventually, it seems that practically every secondary character is plotting against Gray, even those who may have no direct connection with the Black Ace, and that got a little confusing for me. 

But the two leads, Bob Steel (Cromwell) and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams (Cook) are excellent, and Williams' occasional comic relief, mostly involving jellybeans, never gets too irritating. I like the fact that, at the hotel, the two rarely take the stairs, opting instead to leap over the railing to the first landing. The supporting actors are fine, though the biggest name in the cast, J. Carroll Naish, is largely wasted as Collins. Considering the title organization, there are not as many dogfights in the air as you might imagine. The special effects are definitely cheesy—most of the plane sequences involve obvious miniatures, and one scene involving mass destruction of planes is especially unconvincing—but frankly that added to the serial's appeal to me. I will say that the repetitive trips up and down the secret passage at the hotel got tedious, but the identity of the Black Ace, which I figured out just before we're told, is a good reveal. Recommended for serials fans. Pictured are Steele, Williams, and Bob Kortman. [DVD]