I've been watching a lot of serials lately, but I don't think any of the others I've seen come close to approaching "The Lost City" in terms of sheer oddity. It feels like the troubled fever dream of some kid in 1935 who went to a Tarzan and Flash Gordon double feature at the movies on Halloween afternoon, binged on candy till they passed out that night, and dreamt this up in a fit of Tootsie-Roll-fueled delirium. It feels like what an imaginative Depression-era kid's idea of Africa probably looked like... just... weirder.
The ostensible premise (more on that qualifier in a second) is that a series of inexplicable weather events are wrecking the globe, and a team of scientists led by electrical engineer Bruce Gordon and his friend Jerry discover that the disturbance is somehow coming from the center of Africa, and appears to be man-made. When their safari arrives there, they discover that a lost, technologically-advanced city led by a dictator named Zolok is behind the threat, thanks largely to the slave labor of a brilliant scientist named Manyus. But WAIT, there's MORE! It turns out that the bigger local concern is the fact that he can somehow turn regular African natives into "giants" (NBA player sized at most, but tall nonetheless), and everyone wants their hands on that power. From local white guy head honcho Butterfield to Arabian slave trader Ben Ali to Amazon temptress Queen Rama to a crew of "Spider-People", everyone seems to want a giant, and there's only one Dr. Manyus to go around. Accordingly, better than 80% of the serial doesn't have much of anything to do with the Lost City or the weather events, and is all about who's kidnapped Dr. Manyus and his daughter Nachya most recently.
The lack of focus and constantly-shifting threat makes this serial a very hard one to follow, though it is helped somewhat by the fact that each "arc" feels pretty self-contained. Sadly, upon reading more about this serial's history on IMDB, I suspect that another key word related to its production may have been "troubled", which may explain a lot of the rest of its general craziness. The actor who played Zolok, William "Stage" Boyd, was apparently so deep into drugs and alcohol that he was court-ordered to add his "Stage" nickname so as to not slander an identically-named actor at the time with his misbehavior. Boyd died from his drug habit later this same year, and what I initially thought might be hammy acting in the final episode was actually him being as high as a kite. Apparently none of the other actors wanted to be around him while he was like this, and the reason that almost none of "The Lost City" takes place in the Lost City might be so they could have as little interaction with him as possible, and minimal responsibility for the production placed on him. If all he did was bark into a microphone for a scene each episode for most of the serial, they could muddle through, and that's apparently just what they did. If this required an on-the-spot rewrite of the script, that might also explain some of the other plot weirdness.
The general weirdness of this serial is its main draw, and the reason anyone today would want to watch it. The plot is nuts, the costuming is even more nuts, the old-fashioned exoticism is kind of appealing, and the very in-your-face old fashioned racism dips into feeling more comedic than offensive because it (and the production as a whole) is so impossible to take seriously. Surprisingly, two characters receive some character development during the serial, which I thought was refreshing. One other odd trait of the film is that despite being in the mid-30s when "talkies" were well underway, the production and several of the actors have a very 1920s silent-film vibe to them. The actor who played Manyus was apparently a silent era veteran... Nachya feels and looks that way, but doesn't have the same excuse.
The middle of the road rating I'm giving "Lost City" reflects an appreciation for its camp, but an honest appraisal that it's hard to deem it "good" by most objective measures. Recommended for die-hard serial fans, fans of camp with a lot of patience, and people with an appreciation for the West's exotic, thoroughly unrealistic, yet somehow intriguing fictional image of Africa in the early 20th Century. Everyone else, stick to better serials like "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" or "The Whispering Shadow".
As Hugo might say, this gets six "OOOAAAOOH!!!"s out of ten!
The ostensible premise (more on that qualifier in a second) is that a series of inexplicable weather events are wrecking the globe, and a team of scientists led by electrical engineer Bruce Gordon and his friend Jerry discover that the disturbance is somehow coming from the center of Africa, and appears to be man-made. When their safari arrives there, they discover that a lost, technologically-advanced city led by a dictator named Zolok is behind the threat, thanks largely to the slave labor of a brilliant scientist named Manyus. But WAIT, there's MORE! It turns out that the bigger local concern is the fact that he can somehow turn regular African natives into "giants" (NBA player sized at most, but tall nonetheless), and everyone wants their hands on that power. From local white guy head honcho Butterfield to Arabian slave trader Ben Ali to Amazon temptress Queen Rama to a crew of "Spider-People", everyone seems to want a giant, and there's only one Dr. Manyus to go around. Accordingly, better than 80% of the serial doesn't have much of anything to do with the Lost City or the weather events, and is all about who's kidnapped Dr. Manyus and his daughter Nachya most recently.
The lack of focus and constantly-shifting threat makes this serial a very hard one to follow, though it is helped somewhat by the fact that each "arc" feels pretty self-contained. Sadly, upon reading more about this serial's history on IMDB, I suspect that another key word related to its production may have been "troubled", which may explain a lot of the rest of its general craziness. The actor who played Zolok, William "Stage" Boyd, was apparently so deep into drugs and alcohol that he was court-ordered to add his "Stage" nickname so as to not slander an identically-named actor at the time with his misbehavior. Boyd died from his drug habit later this same year, and what I initially thought might be hammy acting in the final episode was actually him being as high as a kite. Apparently none of the other actors wanted to be around him while he was like this, and the reason that almost none of "The Lost City" takes place in the Lost City might be so they could have as little interaction with him as possible, and minimal responsibility for the production placed on him. If all he did was bark into a microphone for a scene each episode for most of the serial, they could muddle through, and that's apparently just what they did. If this required an on-the-spot rewrite of the script, that might also explain some of the other plot weirdness.
The general weirdness of this serial is its main draw, and the reason anyone today would want to watch it. The plot is nuts, the costuming is even more nuts, the old-fashioned exoticism is kind of appealing, and the very in-your-face old fashioned racism dips into feeling more comedic than offensive because it (and the production as a whole) is so impossible to take seriously. Surprisingly, two characters receive some character development during the serial, which I thought was refreshing. One other odd trait of the film is that despite being in the mid-30s when "talkies" were well underway, the production and several of the actors have a very 1920s silent-film vibe to them. The actor who played Manyus was apparently a silent era veteran... Nachya feels and looks that way, but doesn't have the same excuse.
The middle of the road rating I'm giving "Lost City" reflects an appreciation for its camp, but an honest appraisal that it's hard to deem it "good" by most objective measures. Recommended for die-hard serial fans, fans of camp with a lot of patience, and people with an appreciation for the West's exotic, thoroughly unrealistic, yet somehow intriguing fictional image of Africa in the early 20th Century. Everyone else, stick to better serials like "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" or "The Whispering Shadow".
As Hugo might say, this gets six "OOOAAAOOH!!!"s out of ten!