Fantastic!

Don't Believe the Hype

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Viewed as a sub-genre, the best serials are various mixtures of good acting, an involving but non-repetitive story, a strong villain, (usually) a de-emphasis on endless fist fights, and an exciting musical soundtrack. Poor serials just try to fill in the lulls between fist fights.'Tim Tyler's Luck' has several pluses, as well as a few minuses. On the plus side we get Frankie Thomas, doing a sincere, and wonderful job as Tim, the "All-American Boy" his compassion ("Let me get you some water!") towards the good, the bad and the animal drives his fearlessness: whenever he's on screen, we can't stop watching him. He's totally believable, especially with the animals. Norman Willis as the 'Master Outlaw' Spider Webb has a look and voice that is evil and menacing (he played over 100 villains in his career), but unfortunately, he's too stiff as an actor.The story, by the serial king writer Wydham Gittens, is not a one-note plot ('finding the lost father'), but develops into the capture and rescue of Tim's father, the escape from the Ugambi swamp, a search for Spider Webb, the death of Tim's father, and finally, the search for the mythic cliché 'the Elephant Burial Grounds'. All of this is done with the added nonsensical elements of 'The Jungle Cruiser' (wasn't this taken from 'Undersea Kingdom'?) and the pseudo Western 'cavalry,' the Ivory Patrol. The story moves along pretty well without too many backward steps. It's a little weak on the cliff hangers, but thankfully, they're not all maulings by lions, panthers or leopards.We get Jack Mulhall in his biggest serial role since 'Custer's Last Stand' (1936), the bad Anthony Warde is here, but almost wasted -- he is King Turan of the Forest people in 'Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars' (1938) and Killer Kane in 'Buck Rogers' (1939)-- the latter two both written by Wydham Gitten. Unfortunately, Killer Kane is no Ming the Merciless but a weak tool of his council; apparently Gitten couldn't write strong villains.Now for the minuses. While we don't get endless fist fights, we do get too many chases and shoot outs by the Ivory Patrol, riding on horse back through Southern California's Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, after Spider Webb's Jungle Cruiser. Incidentally, the Southern California terrain is passed off as many locations such as Asia in 'Ace Drummond,' (1936), 'The Adventures of Captain Marvel' (1941), and as Atlantis in 'Undersea Kingdom' (1936) as well as, of course, as parts of the Southwest in countless western serials, films and TV shows.The gorillas are men in gorilla suits! When I first saw this serial on TV when I was ten years old, it was okay -- they were scary! But as an adult their presence is lamentable. The soundtrack does not draw too much from the great Universal back log of movie or serial soundtracks and does not add much to the excitement. Frances Robinson, as the 'female,' almost just stands around, and contributes little. Give me Linda Stirling anyday! The final scene with the villain is too weak, almost anti-climactic.For me, Frankie Thomas carries the film; with its large cast and visually interesting and well written chapters, I'd give it a six and half.

Tim Tyler's Luck is based on a popular comic strip of the day. The strip concerned the adventures of an orphan kid named Tim Tyler who traveled around the world and had all kinds of situations that would be popular in the pulp fiction genre.For this serial however, Tim acquires a long lost father in the person of Professor James Tyler played by Al Shean. Al's in a place called gorilla canyon studying the primates. But it turns out that the place ain't just a hang out for gorillas, right next door is the fabled legendary elephant's graveyard. Shean's lost in the jungle and young Tim played by Frankie Thomas is off to Africa to find him. On the steamship up river, Thomas meets Frances Robinson who's looking for the John Dillinger of Africa, a gentleman named Spider Webb (I kid you not) played by Norman Willis. Of course wouldn't you know it, Spider's gang attacks the steamship and Robinson and Thomas escape. That starts a nice round of adventure going for twelve chapters.Frankie Thomas usually played these nice all American kid types in such films as One Foot in Heaven and Boy's Town. He's got the same character down for the comic strip Tim Tyler. No doubt with his instincts for survival, Tim's spent some time in the Boy Scouts. He certainly has a way with animals, during the course of the twelve chapters Tim acquires animal friends and help from a black panther, chimpanzee, and an elephant. The primate part may come naturally as Al Shean has learned to talk gorilla. Speaks it quite well, at one point he persuades a dangerous gorilla to drop his son who he's carrying off to God knows what fate. It's kind of hard to take Shean seriously as a scientist though, he's still the vaudeville comedian doing his shtick.One of many misconceptions about Africa given to America by it's cinema. Gorillas are hardly the dangerous animals that are shown here, aggressively attacking man. They actually are quite shy creatures and will only attack if provoked.Of course that's nothing compared to the Ivory Patrol. I'm still trying to figure out what part of sub Sahara Africa had this outfit which bears a striking resemblance to the United States Cavalry in many a western. They're constantly riding around and until the very end, never quite catch up with Spider Webb and his whole mob.So we've got good guys taken from westerns and a bad guy taken from gangster flicks for a jungle movie. Funny thing everyone here has no accent at all, no one sounds like they're from any colonizing European power. The sets in fact could be what Universal studios used for its westerns part of the time.Oh, and before I forget Al Shean also is a mechanic, he invents some kind of armored vehicle called a jungle cruiser. Looks very much like a modified early tank from World War I. Even more like one of those futuristic vehicles found in Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. Universal put everything they could into Tim Tyler's Luck.It's interesting to watch everyone here. Everyone of the adults in the film knows this all nonsense and indulges in a scenery chewing contest. Naturally someone like Al Shean has an advantage here because of years in vaudeville. But Frankie Thomas, God bless him, plays the whole thing absolutely straight. That in itself might have qualified him for an Academy Award.

If you like the Flash Gordon serials, you will very probably like this one too. Directed by Ford Beebe, the story line is great in the old tradition--the "Ivory Patrol", the "Jungle Cruiser" and of course the famous elephants' burial ground. Remember it now?Acting is so-so, there's plenty of stock footage of Africa, and some of the locations will remind you of the old Commando Cody serials. Nevertheless the story moves well and there is not a lot of fist fighting which tends to detract from many of the serials of this period.Heartily recommended for those who like this genre.

Along with "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers", this chapterplay rates high with fans of Universal's serials. Everyone in the cast seems to enjoy their roles, in particular Frankie Thomas as Tim Tyler. Moves at a good clip with some great cliffhanger endings. Some excellent music cues ( from various Universal features ) are an added bonus.