Strong and Moving!

Better Late Then Never

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

George Zucco made numerous small budget horror movies. In this one he is an archaeologist who has found Montezuma's treasure (billions of dollars), but he becomes paranoid and enlists the help of a supposedly mythical bird/reptile to kill the people who may get in his way. With a little bit effort, he could have protected this treasure. After all, no one knows about it. So he finds Quetzacotl, the plumed serpent and keeps him locked up in a cage in a mountain cave. We aren't privy as to how he got hold of this thing. Feathers belonging to old "Q" cause him to root out the poor victims. Eventually, George becomes so arrogant that he tips the apple cart.Oh, one question. Why does the hero of the story feel the need to bring along a nitwit friend to assist him. Just saying.

This disposable cheapie stars George Zucco as an archaeologist who discovers Montezuma's treasure and uses the Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, to kill those he thinks might pose a threat to his secret fortune.This is basically a remake of the 1940 Bela Lugosi picture, 'The Devil Bat'. In other words, there's nothing new here. Nothing particularly memorable either, though Zucco does well enough in his role. The special effects for Quetzalcoatl were better than I expected, but they're still not all that convincing. This is just your typical 40's flick with all the predictability and lousy attempts at humor you'd likely expect. We also get an unappealing hero played by Ralph Lewis. I was rooting for Zucco all the way.It's not a long movie, so at least you won't waste too much time on it. Still, there are far better 40's films out there. I'd suggest seeing one of them and letting this serpent fly right on by.

This is a completely craptastic film with absolutely nothing going for it. Yet, oddly it has an overall score of 5.0 on IMDb currently--and I just can't see why. After all, the film is made by PRC--perhaps the worst of the Poverty Row film studios. And, on top of that, it has perhaps the dumbest plot of any of their films--and that's saying a lot!! A maniac (are there any other types in these films playing lead?!) has discovered a creature--a flying serpent who was apparently THE Quetzelcoatl from Aztec mythology. However, unlike THE Quetzelcoatl of the Aztec tales who was able to devour planets, this flying serpent is more like the size of a flying Dalmatian. How a flying reptile the size of a medium-sized dog is scary is anyone's guess. And, while I think about it, having it take off and land like a motorized plane AND seeing the wires suspending it is amazingly dumb--even for a 4th rate production! Being a maniac, George Zucco is intent on using the beast to both kill off his enemies as well as protect the area in which the treasure of Monteczuma is supposedly buried. Eventually, though, a wise-guy radio announcer puts two and two together and is able to turn the tables on Zucco--leading to a silly and happy conclusion--happy because it puts this dopey movie to the test.Overall, even for Zucco completists, this will be a very tough film to take. It has absolutely nothing going for it--a dumb script, bad acting and a rehashed plot that manages to make the worst of "The Bat"--the film which has been reworked into this mess. Its only value is as kitsch--a film so bad that it's good for a laugh.

George Zucco's archaeologist character has a major problem at the beginning of the 1946 cheapie "The Flying Serpent." He had recently discovered Montezuma's treasure horde in an Aztec cave in New Mexico, and now fears that the locals might start to get snoopy. Good thing he's also found Quetzalcoatl, the legendary Aztec serpent/bird god, and has learned that the creature will track down and kill whoever is in unwitting possession of one of its feathers. Thus, pretty soon, Zucco is planting Q plumage left and right, sitting back and enjoying the carnage... Anyway, this 57-minute film is minimally fun, and Zucco is always interesting to watch, but the picture is unfortunately done in by supercheap production values, a tediously talkative screenplay, occasional goofball humor, and the simple fact that we never get a solid, steady look at Quetzalcoatl itself. Worse, the film's resolution is asinine and inane, with Zucco behaving uncharacteristically stupid and contrary to common sense. Matters aren't helped by the badly damaged film print offered to us on the Image DVD that I just watched, with problematic sound, to boot. Many other viewers have noted the similarity between this picture and another PRC effort, "The Devil Bat," a Bela Lugosi vehicle released five years earlier. In that film, Bela had lured his flying killer to the intended victim by using a special shaving lotion; here, those darn feathers have been substituted. Bottom line: I would have to say that "The Flying Serpent" is a movie for George Zucco completists only, if such an animal exists. Other viewers who are interested in a film featuring the feathered serpent god alive and well in the 20th century would probably be better advised to seek out Larry Cohen's 1982 film "Q."