The Fighting Devil Dogs
The Fighting Devil Dogs | |
---|---|
Cinematography | William Nobles |
Music by | Alberto Colombo |
Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
Release dates | |
Running time | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $94,656 (negative cost: $92,569)[1] |
The Fighting Devil Dogs (1938) is a 12-chapter
Plot
In Singapore, two Marine Lieutenants, Tom Grayson and Frank Corby, uncover the threat of a masked terrorist called the Lightning, who uses an arsenal of powerful lightning-based weaponry in his bid for world conquest. However, the battle becomes personal when the Lightning annihilates the officers' unit and later kills Lt. Grayson's father as he was helping the investigation of the weapon. Now, the marines have dedicated themselves to stopping the Lightning and bringing him to justice.[5]
Cast
- Lee Powell as Lt Tom Grayson
- Herman Brix as Lt Frank Corby
- Eleanor Stewart as Janet Warfield
- Montagu Love as General White
- Hugh Sothernas Ben Warfield
- Sam Flint as Col Grayson
- Perry Ivins as Crenshaw
- Forrest Taylor as Benson
- John Picorri as Prof Gould
Production
The Fighting Devil Dogs was budgeted at $94,656 although the final
It was filmed between 10 March and 29 March 1938.[1] The serial's production number was 793.[1]
One of the directors, William Witney, believed this to be one of the worst of the serials he ever made.[7]
The Lightning's Flying wing was taken from the earlier Dick Tracy serial.[8] Aviation was one of the most popular serial genres of the early 1930s, along with Westerns and Jungle serials. Aviation films were even expected to displace Westerns as the most popular genre but science fiction took over instead. Writer Raymond William Stedman claims that the science fiction Flying Wing in this serial was the beginning of the process that killed interest in ordinary aviation.[9][10]
Release
Theatrical
The Fighting Devil Dogs' official release date is May 28, 1938, although this is actually the date the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.[1]
A 69-minute feature film version, created by editing portions of the serial footage together, was released on January 29, 1943.[1]
Television
In the early 1950s, The Fighting Devil Dogs was one of fourteen Republic serials edited to six 26½-minute episodes for TV syndication.[1] Subsequently, it became one of twenty-six Republic serials edited into a TV-movie in 1966, each of which features ran 100 minutes. The title of this version was Torpedo of Doom.[1]
Critical reception
The Fighting Devil Dogs is, in Cline's opinion, one of the best mystery serials ever released, with a "colourful"
Chapter titles
- The Lightning Strikes (29 min 28s)
- The Mill of Disaster (15 min 56s)
- The Silenced Witness (15 min 50s)
- Cargo of Mystery (15 min 47s)
- Undersea Bandits (16 min 17s)
- The Torpedo of Doom (16 min 24s)
- The Phantom Killer (14 min 47s) - Recap chapter
- Tides of Trickery (14 min 34s)
- Attack from the Skies (15 min 07s)
- In the Camp of the Enemy (14 min 29s)
- The Baited Trap (17 min 24s) - Recap chapter
- Killer at Bay (17 min 39s)
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 0-9632878-1-8.
- ISBN 978-0786437450.
- ^ "World's First Supervillain at The longest list of the longest stuff at the longest domain name at long last". Thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com. Retrieved January 22, 2010.
- ^ "The Visual Development of Darth Vader". secrethistoryofstarwars.com. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
- ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
- ^ "Images Journal". Images Journal. Retrieved January 22, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2258-6.
- ^ ISBN 0-7864-0471-X.
- ISBN 978-0-8061-0927-5.
- ISBN 978-0-7130-0097-9.
- ISBN 0-7864-0471-X.
- ISBN 0-7864-0471-X.
External links
- The Fighting Devil Dogs at the American Film Institute Catalog
- The Fighting Devil Dogs at IMDb
- The Fighting Devil Dogs at IMDb(1943 feature version)