Photo Credit

It occurred to me that since I put a photo of myself on this blog, I ought to give credit where credit is due. That photograph was taken by my wife Livia several years ago while we were visiting Corpus Christi. That's the U.S.S. Lexington behind me. I think I've talked about the Lex on here before. It's a great place to visit for anybody who's interested in World War II naval aviation. I've been all over the ship (at least every place they'll let the public visit) from the engine room to the pilots' ready room to the bridge. It's a really special feeling walking the flight deck. And this is coming from somebody who doesn't particularly like boats or the ocean and refuses to fly.

WesternPulps scan -- WESTERN STORY, August 7, 1937 

Pure Drivel

No, I'm not talking about this blog, although I'm sure it qualifies a lot of the time. I'm talking about the book of that title by Steve Martin, a collection of short humor pieces published by Hyperion in 1998. I've always liked Steve Martin, ever since he was a writer and occasional performer on the Smothers Brothers TV show almost forty years ago. Most of his work seems to be smart without being smug, and he's never afraid to indulge in some sheer silliness when he needs to. I ran across a copy of PURE DRIVEL not long ago and have been been reading it in bits and pieces, finished it earlier today. Most of the essays first appeared in THE NEW YORKER, and while I don't think of myself as a New Yorker kind of guy (although I did once, when I was in college), I really enjoyed them, especially one called "Writing is Easy!" If I can get away with one short quote: "A Word to Avoid: 'Dagnabbit' will never get you anywhere with the Booker Prize people. Lose it." If that strikes you as funny as it does me, I highly recommend PURE DRIVEL.

The Trailsman #282: Kansas Weapon Wolves -- another fine entry in this long-running series 

A Day Off; or, Schnauzers, Weeds, and Far Aints

Since I'd written for fourteen days without a break, I thought it might be a good time to take a day off. However, the day started before dawn when the schnauzer got out of the yard and then began to pitch a fit because he couldn't figure out how to get back in. That woke me considerably earlier than I normally get up, and I had to go out, round up the dog, and fix the fence, all before the sun was up. Later, we ventured out to Wal-Mart and bought weed killer and Amdro. I was all ready to spray the weed killer on the front yard when I noticed the fine print saying not to use the stuff on St. Augustine grass. Since we have some St. Augustine, we decided we'd have to take it back and get something else that's safe to use on St. Augustine. I felt like I needed to get something accomplished, so I opened the Amdro and spent the rest of the afternoon on the traditional Doping of the Far Aint Mounds. I didn't realize how many of them we had this year. Took the entire giant economy-sized container of Amdro. Of course, it won't get rid of the ants, but it might annoy them a little. That's about the best you can hope for with the dreaded Far Aints.

So after all that, the pages I have to write tomorrow don't look so bad.

Undersea Kingdom

I’ve already started watching another serial, this one from 1936 – UNDERSEA KINGDOM. This is one of Republic’s science fiction serials, which means lots of bizarre costumes and goofy-looking robots. It seems that eccentric scientist Professor Norton has invented a machine that will predict earthquakes, and he plans to use it to locate the cause of a series of mysterious quakes that are causing great damage along the East Coast. Since the source of the quakes seems to be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, discovering their origin will necessitate the use of another of Professor Norton’s inventions, the Rocket Submarine. This sub is under the command of naval commander “Crash” Corrigan, who is played, appropriately enough, by Ray “Crash” Corrigan. The sub sets out into the Atlantic, and on board are Corrigan, Professor Norton, a plucky female newspaper reporter, a somewhat crazed assistant, and a couple of comic relief sidekicks played by Smiley Burnette (best known later on as a sidekick to Roy Rogers and Gene Autry) and Frankie Marvin. The professor’s young son is a stowaway, the typical kid sidekick whose main job is to get in trouble and need rescuing.

Unknown to any of our heroes from the surface, at the bottom of the ocean lies the lost civilization of Atlantis, which sunk not in an overnight apocalypse, as many believe, but rather slowly enough so that the inhabitants were able to construct a giant dome over it, where their descendants now live. The people of Atlantis have split into two warring factions, one of which wants to also make war on the surface world. These are the villains responsible for the devastating earthquakes plaguing the United States.

Things really get weird in the scenes set in Atlantis. Despite their super-science (the Atlanteans have flying warships that are dead ringers for the Enterprise in the original Star Trek), their soldiers gallop around on horseback. Of course, this is so that the stuntmen and riding extras I mentioned in my post on ZORRO’S FIGHTING LEGION can play Atlanteans, too. (I can just imagine the reaction of some of those old cowboys when they were told they had to wear Roman-looking tunics and silly helmets.) Some places in Atlantis have a tropical, jungle-like appearance about them, but mostly Atlantis is sagebrush and boulders and looks just like the location where all the Republic Westerns were filmed. I expected to see the Lone Ranger gallop out from behind a rock and give chase to the evil Atlanteans.

Despite my sarcasm, I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode. There’s lot of miniature work by Howard and Theodore Lydecker, Republic’s special effects wizards. I’ve always been able to get in touch with my inner ten-year-old without much trouble, so I don’t mind the goofiness. Ray Corrigan is a likable hero (he played Tucson Smith in many of the Three Mesquiteer B-Westerns from Republic). I don’t expect UNDERSEA KINGDOM to be as good as ZORRO’S FIGHTING LEGION, but I do think it’ll be quite entertaining.

Daylight Savings Time

I have to admit, I like Daylight Savings Time. When I was a kid, one of the great things about summer was that it stayed light so late, which meant there was more time for playing baseball or football in the area we called The Park, which was actually a sort of vacant lot formed by the road where I lived going around in a circle. And that was in the days before DST, so it was actually light only until about 8:00 or 8:30.

Now with Daylight Savings Time, it doesn't get dark in the summer until after 9:00, and that's fine with me. I don't play ball anymore (which is something I regret sometimes), but I love to get out and walk, and evenings are a good time for it. Heck, even today I was out walking between 7:30 and 8:00. That does wonders for clearing the head after a day spent staring at the monitor and wondering how the hell I ever wrote myself into the corners I found myself in -- and how in the world was I going to get out of them. That's the trouble with writing. You have to think too blasted much.

Zorro's Fighting Legion

This serial came highly recommended by Bill Crider, but despite that, I had a few doubts as I started watching it. The cast is lacking most of the familiar Republic Pictures stalwarts (No Roy Barcroft? How can you have a gang of evil-doers without Roy Barcroft?) and the villain, at first glance, is more laughable than menacing. Don Del Oro, supposedly the reincarnation of a Yaqui god, wears a suit of golden armor and a golden mask so huge and top-heavy it's all he can do to shuffle around without falling flat on his face. Despite the fact that the story is set in Mexico in the 1820s, not long after Mexico gained its independence from Spain, the members of Don Del Oro's gang are played by the same stuntmen and riding extras who played outlaws and sheriff's posses and ranch hands in Republic's other Western serials, so they all sound like cowboys. Of course, it might have been even more ludicrous if they had tried to adopt phony Mexican accents. Charles King, who played the villain in many a B-Western, is one of the henchmen and looks out of place in his vaquero outfit.

Despite these drawbacks, though, ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION won me over completely. Bill's right: this is one of Republic's best serials. The plot concerns a sinister group of politicians and military men who want to overthrow Mexico's newly-established government and replace it with a dictatorship of their own. To achieve this end, they resurrect the story of the legendary Don Del Oro, and one of them pretends to be the Yaqui god in order to get the Indians to fight for them. Luckily, a visitor arrives from California just in time to oppose this scheme: Don Diego, who just happens to also be Zorro. He recruits a group of assistants to help him fight Don Del Oro, and these men are known as Zorro's Fighting Legion, hence the title of the serial. Most of the episodes are spent foiling Don Del Oro's plans to take over the gold mines in the region and steal guns and ammunition so that he arm his Yaquis. There are also efforts on Zorro's part to uncover Don Del Oro's true identity, and it all comes to a head in the cave that serves as Don Del Oro's secret hideout.

I don't know that I've ever seen Reed Hadley in anything else, but he does a fine job as Zorro/Diego. William Corson is a surprisingly competent sidekick who provides real assistance to Zorro instead of comic relief. Sheila Darcy is given almost nothing to do but looks okay in her few scenes as Diego's token romantic interest. The real stars, though, are the stuntmen, the photographers, and directors William Witney and John English. Action abounds, with the usual mix of cliffhangers, and the stunt work by Dale Van Sickel and Yakima Canutt is top-notch throughout, with Yak doing one of his trademark leaps from a stagecoach onto its racing team, where he then falls off between the horses, lets the stagecoach pass over him, grabs onto it, and climbs up the back. Great stuff for a stunt aficionado. The photography is very crisp and makes good use of location shooting, in territory that will be very familiar to fans of Republic's Westerns. There's a little bit of stock footage, but not much. Even the theme song and musical score by William Lava work very well.

My only other quibble is that the members of Zorro's Legion are all pretty much nameless and completely lacking in personality. With a running time of several hours, it seems like the viewer could have gotten to know at least a few of them.

All in all, this is now one of my favorite serials, and I recommend it to anyone who's a fan of that genre.

WesternPulps scan -- SPICY WESTERN, October 1941 

Black Horse Western Contest

Go to the Black Horse Westerns site to enter a contest for a free, signed copy of the Chap O'Keefe novel THE REBEL AND THE HEIRESS. And there's plenty of other good stuff to read while you're there.