King of the Forests Rangers (1946)

Undeniably fun, but a step down from other Republic serials.

This is a good, not great, chapterplay from their heyday, and will please all serial fans. But it is not among the very best.

The stunts and escapes are, again, fine, but maybe just a notch below those as staged by Witney and English. The fights are tremendous; Bennett sure did enjoy a good knockdown dragout pugilistic bout. Nary a stool or bench or piece of pottery went unshattered in the entire serial. And there are about two of these fights per chapter.

My ambivalence for this serial has much to do with how completely boring the villain is. He is just an average white guy who talks funny. I can overlook a bad accent if "logistical constraints" did not permit the producers to hire someone who was actually of the ethnicity he portrayed, but this dude simply talked funny. For example, he pronounces our hero's name King as `Keeng,' and the ancient people he was studying (The Towermen) as `The Tay-hour Mayun.' I expect serial villains to be histrionic madmen with robot killers as bodyguards, or raven-haired leopard-skin clad beauties with pet gorillas named Satan. This man was a slightly ambitious Archaeology 101 professor. At least he wore a fedora.

The treasure hunt plot is not anything groundbreaking but is a good one- expected redundancies aside- although Canada is much less exotic than the jungles of Africa or some tropical isle. It also eliminates the possibility of legions of native or Nazi henchmen helping the villain. Just more interchangeable white guys in flannel.

KotFR is also more straightforward than many of the finest serials, with no double identities and no masked men. This is not necessarily bad, but the narrative is nearly three hours long and kind of repetitive, so any additional story contrivances are welcome. As long as these lead directly toward setting up the next fight...

P.S. Try Daredevils of the Red Circle, S.O.S. Coast Guard, Jungle Girl, Nyoka and the Tigermen, Zorro's Fighting Legion and The Adventures of Captain Marvel. June 20, 2001

More reviews at Amazon.com ...