Above: A poster for THE FIGHTING MARINES (Mascot, 1935).

THE FIGHTING MARINES

Mascot, 12 Chapters, 1935. Starring Grant Withers, Adrian Morris, Ann Rutherford, Robert Warwick, Tom London, Warner Richmond, J. Frank Glendon, Robert Frazer, George J. Lewis.

THE FIGHTING MARINES was little Mascot Pictures’ 25th and final serial, or famous Republic Pictures’ 1st of 67 serials, depending on how you look at it. MARINES was made by Mascot but released by Republic (newly formed by a merger of Mascot, Monogram, and Consolidated). Appropriately, the serial is both a good example of the archetypal Mascot serial and a sort of forerunner of the great cliffhangers Republic would turn out in later years. In addition, it’s an entertaining chapterplay in its own right, full of boundless energy and good action, and featuring some fine performances. Like most Mascot outings, it’s rather rough-hewn in spots, the lack of a music score hinders the action and the cliffhangers in places, and the plot is pretty sketchy and confusing, but these flaws are compensated for by overall entertainment value.

MARINES opens up with a terrific large-scale battle sequences, one of the best shoot-outs I’ve seen anywhere in serials. A Marine squad led by Sgt. MacGowan (Adrian Morris) and Corporal Lawrence (Grant Withers) shoots it out with a gang of South American bandits in order to rescue Sgt. Bill Schiller (George J. Lewis) who is being held prisoner by the enemy. Lawrence finally manages to destroy the bandits’ ammunition dump with a hand grenade, and the enemy surrenders. Then it’s back to the United States, where Bill prepares for the test of his new invention (the invention is the reason the bandits had captured him). The invention is a “gyro-compass”, designed to guide a plane by remote control even if the pilot loses control of the aircraft. The test is successful, and Colonel Bennett (Robert Warwick) plans to use the gyro-compass to effect a landing on Halfway Island, a small Pacific isle where the Marines hope to establish a base. All their attempts to land on the island so far have been blocked by some mysterious force that causes the Marine pilots to lose control of their planes and crash. Douglas (Robert Frazer), a construction engineer who wants to build a commercial airfield on the island, opposes the whole idea, but the Colonel sends Schiller and two other men to investigate the previous crashes. We soon find out that the Tiger Shark, a modern-day pirate, is using Halfway Island as a base of operation, and that his men, armed with fantastic technology, have been crashing every plane that attempts to land on the island. Schiller’s plane meets the same fate, and when Lawrence and MacGowan come looking for their friend, they just barely manage to land themselves. They rescue Schiller from the island’s hostile natives, who are in the pay of the Tiger Shark, but when they return to the mainland Schiller is killed by the Tiger Shark’s minions. Lawrence and MacGowan set out to track down the mysterious master criminal, doing battle with his various henchmen and keeping tabs on the suspicious Douglas and equally suspicious businessman Buchanan (J. Frank Glendon), one of whom could be the Tiger Shark himself.

The writers of FIGHTING MARINES (Maurice Geraghty, Sherman Lowe, Wallace MacDonald, Barney Sarecky, Ray Trampe) take a very slim plot idea--the Marines trying to establish a base on Halfway Island and the Tiger Shark trying to stop them)--but get a good cliffhanger out of it nevertheless. The pace is swift and keeps moving fast enough to prevent any feeling of repetition or boredom, and the writers give some genuinely fun banter to our two heroes, Grant Withers and Adrian Morris. However, the writers occasionally sacrifice logic to speed, as happened often at Mascot. The guessing game of “who’s the Tiger Shark?” is handled with typical Mascot incomprehensibility; the murder of one suspect in particular makes no sense when the true culprit’s identity is revealed. Republic would vastly improve on the “guess-the-villain” gimmick in later serials--taking care not to throw in too much contradictory and suspicious behavior on the part of the “red herrings”. Also, the subplot of the Tiger Shark trying to get ahold of Schiller’s gyro-compass abruptly vanishes halfway through the serial, and no mention is made of Schiller himself (or of his sister, the third-billed heroine!) from Chapter Six on.

While MARINES contains several obvious economy measures (the most groan-inducing of which is the use of THREE recap chapters), it also has a generous helping of location shooting and good miniature work (the latter courtesy of Howard and Theodore Lydecker). The Halfway Island sequences look like they were shot in genuine wilderness, rather than inside studio “barns.” The action scenes are all well-directed, thanks to old pro B. Reeves “Breezy” Eason and young Joseph Kane (who later directed a staggering amount of A-westerns at Republic Pictures). The opening battle sequence is nothing short of magnificent, and there are several other good shootouts that take place in the jungles of Halfway Island later in the serial. The fight scenes, with Eddie Parker doubling Grant Withers and Yakima Canutt standing in for various heavies, are pretty good for this era of cliffhanger history, much better than contemporary Universal brawls if not up to 1940s Republic duke-outs. The chapter endings are well done for the most part, with one outrageous cheat but few “lived-through-it” escapes. The best peril comes at the end of Chapter Eleven, when Withers and Morris are trapped in a room whose walls are slowly closing in to crush them.

As mentioned, the script gives some actual humor and character to the lead players, and Grant Withers and Adrian Morris do a great job bringing their lines to life. “Larry” Lawrence and “Mac” MacGowan are tough, resourceful, and determined, but they also can’t refrain from kidding each other in the most desperate circumstances or playing practical jokes on each other when things are less tense. Like Lee Powell and Herman Brix in the later FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS, Withers and Morris function more as “co-heroes” than as “hero and sidekick.” They share the action scenes almost equally, and neither one is immediately knocked out so the other can clean up the bad guys by himself.

The two charismatic heroes get most of the screen time in FIGHTING MARINES. The actors who get the biggest chance to shine apart from Withers and Morris are the henchmen--the “island” pack led by Warner Richmond and the “mainland” pack led by Tom London. Richmond does a terrific job as the sneering Metcalf, who takes gleeful delight in crashing Marine planes or warning the other thugs what will happen to them if they try to cross the Tiger Shark. Tom London is businesslike but thoroughly nasty as Miller; one always tends to forget how effective a villain this “old codger” can make. Richmond’s cohorts are Mexican-born Donald Reed, hulking Richard Alexander (who, unfortunately, is strangled by the Tiger Shark for attempting a doublecross--the sight of the gigantic Alexander being throttled by the smaller villain is just too silly to be believed), eye-patched Max Wagner, and lanky Jim Corey. London’s accessories are rough-voiced Stanley Blystone, jumpy Ted Adams--and, surprisingly, a young Milburn Stone. It’s a bit of a shock to see a tried-and-true good guy like Stone rushing about snarling at the good guys and doing his best to murder everyone, but he actually does a pretty good job in the atypical part.

George J. Lewis is fine as Bill Schiller, though his part is actually rather small. The lovely and talented Ann Rutherford (only fourteen when this serial was made!) is charming as his sister, but unfortunately she drops completely out of sight after Chapter Six. At least she went on to bigger things in Red Skelton’s WHISPERING comedies, the Andy Hardy movies, GONE WITH THE WIND, and so many others. Dour Robert Frazer and sinisterly smug Frank Glendon make fine suspects for the Tiger Shark, and Victor Potel plays the island leader of the natives. Robert Warwick has the proper air of dignity and command as Colonel Bennett, but never gets to do anything besides give orders, recap the plot, and accuse Frazer or Glendon in each chapter. Frank Reicher, another fine character actor (remember him as the Captain in KING KONG?) has a similarly small role as Steinbeck, the Tiger Shark’s scientist cohort who relays messages from the mystery villain to the various henchmen. Jason Robards Sr. and Pat O’Malley are given high billing, but their roles (as Warwick’s Oriental valet and a Marine captain, respectively) aren’t all that noticeable. We do get a fascinating chance to see future Republic screenwriter, producer, and director Franklin Adreon in an acting role as Marine Captain Holmes. Adreon is no great actor, but he has a laid-back charm that makes him fun to watch.

Whether regarded in the light of a primitive effort that paved the way for more polished thrillers, or as a rough-hewn but enjoyable action film in its own right, THE FIGHTING MARINES is a very pleasant and enjoyable cliffhanger.