Reviews (1)

Thrill-Packed western serial action.
This Republic Studios 13-chapter serial was released in July of 1948. It stars Clayton Moore (TV's Lone Ranger), Steve Darrell, Noel Neill (Columbia chapter serials & TV Superman's Lois Lane) and George J. Lewis. The wild west's famous bad boys want restitution for rip-offs committed in their names, but it will take all 13 episodes of danger, desperadoes and dynamite and more before they settle their debts. Collapsing mines, exploding bombs, and runaway coaches. Just a few of the surprises when the James boys try to hit pay-dirt with a supposedly empty silver mine. 180 min. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Turning into Roy Barcroft
Richard Bailey didn't cut the most heroic figure among Republic's serial heroes, and his voice sounds a tad on the sissy side. But he was built like stuntman Tom Steele which is what counts, because Steele made his character look like quite a battler. Even so, heroine Linda Stirling saves the life of Bailey's criminologist character about as many times as vice versa in this exciting chapter-play, about one of a group of suspects on an island who has developed a Frankenstein-like spark-throwing transformation machine which can literally turn him into another person, the physical personification of his pirate ancestor, played by Roy Barcroft. It is said that this was one of Barcroft's favorite roles, because it was something different from western heavies. Indeed it was, and Barcroft revels in it.

Great Serial to enjoy...
This serial is a good one in that it stars the great Roy Barcoft as the villian. Followers of serials know that he was one of the best and gives a first rate performance here. ... Read more

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TERENCE STAMP IS AMAZING!-ClydeisHungry@aol.com
Terence Stamp delivers a beautiful performance in this film. This is one western that is worth watching. It doesn't have the "typical" theme most western's have. This is more of a human story. The story of a young man who was raised by people not of his kind, growing up this is all he knows until he comes face to face with the harsh realities of what the rest of the world has to offer. Showing how sometimes the human spirit isn't always the greatest assest. This film was well written and well directed if you haven't seen "Blue" check it out I guarantee you will like it! ... Read more

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Enjoyable Serial Of Federal Law Officer vs. Crime Lord
Federal Operator 99 is one of Republic's best serials, combining action-filled cliffhangers with an engaging cast and several good twists.

Marten Lamont is Jerry Blake, Operator 99. Part James Bond (he speaks with a mild English accent, is quite charming looking, and gets into traps worthy of Ian Fleming), part Joe Friday, and part Frank Bullitt, Jerry Blake is after Jim Belmont (George J. Lewis), an escaped crimelord with a unique characteristic; he is a musician with a talent for piano, which he plays incessently for relaxation; his taste for music figures prominently in one of his robberies, when he kidnaps a famed violinest to swipe his expensive Stradivarius.

Both Blake and Belmont are ably backed by two lovely ladies - Joyce Kingston (Helen Talbot) and Rita Parker (Lorna Gray), both of whom get quite involved in the action - at one point both ladies fight for the wheel of an out of control truck. Rita shows herself to be as mean as any gunsel (she calmly sticks a flaming lighter in the face of a kidnapped Countess to make her spill the beans on hidden crown jewels), while Joyce is Cloudy Russo to Jerry's Popeye Doyle (she rescues him from one of Belmont's traps and kills the driver of a car trying to knock them over a cliff).

Both couples become ever more frustrated at the cat-and-mouse game that proceeds; there is a great scene where Belmont is playing piano while Rita glumly stares into space. Jerry Blake, meanwhile, becomes noticably less confident over the course of the story; he records a letter to his superiors in Washington, and displays a very real sense of failure in reporting on Belmont's escapes.

But when Belmont's chief gunman Matt Farrell (Hal Taliafero) is nabbed after the botched Stradivarius heist, Belmont and Rita kidnap Joyce, hoping to trade her for Farrell. Jerry gets the break needed and tracks them down to an abandoned theatre. Rita hides herself and the bound-and-gagged Joyce in a closet, but Blake fools Belmont and a gun battle ensues, in which the closet in hit by Belmont's gunfire and one of the ladies perishes. Blake pursues Belmont throughout the theatre, dodging thrown knives as he closes on his quarry.

If you've never seen an old Saturday serial, this is one to start with. ... Read more

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great horseman and great looks
this is a great action movie as Yackama
Canut (a great action director and stunt man)directed this and liked to show off sunsets ability as a great rider and the different ways to mount a horse .I haven't seen this movie in a while but I'm sure that his brother had him framed and sent to prison and when he gets out he comes to see him not knowing his brother ha d framed him.Sunset was great in this movie 'as he comes riding into town until the end its great to see him ride as well act. the weomen loved his looks and the guys loved the action in his movies .I was so glad to find it ... Read more

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High Camp in Chatsworth
An obscure production providing a charming mix of singing cowboys (Rogers) and cowgirls (Evans) who prove themselves as wranglers. The rendition of the Bing Crosby song "San Fernando Valley" is great, since the movie is shot in the Chatsworth Hills of the San Fernando Valley, above Los Angeles where Rogers lived until his recent death. More of a historical piece than anything else. Action-wise,it's typical low budget Saturday matinee stuff--but that's what makes it fun. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

High Camp in Chatsworth
An obscure production providing a charming mix of singing cowboys (Rogers) and cowgirls (Evans) who prove themselves as wranglers. The rendition of the Bing Crosby song "San Fernando Valley" is great, since the movie is shot in the Chatsworth Hills of the San Fernando Valley, above Los Angeles where Rogers lived until his recent death. More of a historical piece than anything else. Action-wise,it's typical low budget Saturday matinee stuff--but that's what makes it fun. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A showcase for Roy Barcroft
Clayton Moore was one of the busiest serial actors around, before his TV fame as the Lone Ranger (he and Buster Crabbe could legitimately compete for the serial hero king title). He does a good job here as an FBI agent, but veteran villain Roy Barcroft steals the storyline in a dual role, as a police commissioner and as the criminal who impersonates him after plastic surgery. B-westerns have been only half-jokingly described as a series of pictures in which different heroes beat up or shoot Barcroft; this serial shows what a good actor he was.

The villian steals the show...
This is an interesting, although not quite remarkable serial. Clayton Moore plays a government agent out to help recapture a nefarious criminal using modern scientific methods.

The head crook steals the show, having himself altered by plastic surgery to look like his foe, the Police Commissioner. Swearing revenge against the man who had him sent to prison, he has himself doctored, then kidnaps the real cop. He assumes the role of Police Commissioner to facillitate his crimes, and implicate the Commissioner.

The famous flooding tunnel sequence was taken directly from the classic "Daredevils of the Red Circle", made several years earlier. To me, recycling the sequence made this serial seem less creative and inspired.

In turn, the method of tracking the crooks' car to their hideout by adding a substance to the radiator was used in a later serial, "Government Agents vs. the Phantom Legion".

Probably the most remarkable moment is the cliffhanger in Chapter 10. In the scene, a crook goes to the hero's apartment to commit the murder of a man waiting there to give info to the hero. The menacing crook turns on the radio, kills the man, and then lays in wait, gun at the ready, for the hero to arrive.

This sequence was an amazing change of pace and totally unexpected, both in its inclusion and in its quality. It was pure film noir, absolutely suspenseful and mesmerizing. It made up for a multitude of sins.

Otherwise, this is a workable crime serial, starring Clayton Moore of Lone Ranger fame.

One of Republic's better postwar serials
In this action-packed serial, Clayton Moore and Ramsay Ames doggedly refuse to let the evil Roy Barcroft stand in the government's way. If you like Moore as The Lone Ranger, you'll enjoy seeing him in a "civilian" role as an athletic leading man, and the striking Ramsay Ames gamely joins in the action. Lots of stunts, fistfights, etc., and an excellent editing job: spectacular footage from older serials and features is cleverly worked in to give viewers their money's worth. Fun for serial and action fans.

Lone Rangers Meets Princess Ananka!
This fast-paced, compact thriller from l948 stars Clayton Moore, who would later become the Lone Ranger. Equally as fascinating is that his gorgeous female sidekick, Frances Blake, is none other than Ramsey Ames, who portrayed the mummy's bride, Princess Ananka, in the best of the mummy series, the l944 "The Mummy's Ghost." Ames was probably the most ravishing starlet to ever appear on the screen but was criminally overlooked by her studio, Universal. When Universal closed down its B-movie unit in l945, she was among a small army of now legendary cast and crew thrown to the dogs. Among them: Scream Queen Evelyn Ankers, outstanding B-actress Fay Helm (jenny in The Wolf Man), Lon Chaney, etc.A powerful cult following has grown up around the late Ramsey Ames (she died of lung cancer in l998), primarily because of her hypnotic beauty and mysterious charisma as the doomed Amina Mansouri/Princess Ananka in The Mummy's Ghost. In this serial, she is incredibly good-looking, but proves feisty and good with a gun. Why the studios never used her in anything worthwhile is just another Tinsletown tragedy, because the same could be said of other dynamic performers: Evelyn Ankers (watch her in The Wolf Man), Fay Helm (she gives a bravura performance in Night Monster), Elizabeth Russell (great as the Cat Woman cameo of a mysterious restaurant woman and as the insane wife in Weird Woman). Bravo to the Lone Ranger and Princess Ananka! ... Read more