KING OF THE MOUNTIES (1942)
Serial
Article 2446 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-13-2007
Posting Date: 4-23-2008
Directed by William Witney
Featuring Allan Lane, Gilbert Emery, Russell Hicks
Sergeant King of the mounties must do battle with axis forces in Canada who are trying to soften up North America for an upcoming invasion. Towards that end, the axis powers have come up with a super airplane that cannot be detected by radar.

It’s easy to confuse this one with KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED , partially because of the extreme similarity of the titles, and partially because this one borrows a hefty amount of footage from that one. Still, this one wasn’t immune from having footage stolen from it as well; FLYING DISC MEN OF MARS borrowed its share of footage from this one. This is in actuality a sequel to KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED, and it seems decent enough; on the plus side, the fights wreck a decent amount of furniture in the great Republic style, and, on the minus side, it uses horses less so we get a greater share of bail-out cliffhanger resolutions. Still, I wouldn’t recommend this one to any but the hardiest and most dedicated of serial fans. This is because the serial is in pretty bizarre shape; about two-thirds of the soundtrack is missing, and one episode (number two) has the complete soundtrack, but no visuals. Most of the other episodes are completely silent, except for some poorly grafted music and sound effects culled from another part of the serial; whenever you hear gunshots but don’t see anyone shooting, you’ll know you’ve hit one of these stretches. Sure, following it is a bit of a mess, but I’m not sure it really matters with a serial as much; it’s certainly easier to piece together than UNA AVENTURA EN LA NOCHE .