JACK ARMSTRONG (1947)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

I don't precisely know what I like about the cheap Columbia serial JACK ARMSTRONG, based on a popular radio adventure-series. It's certainly just as cost-conscious as a number of other serials-- THE LOST PLANET, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND-- in which producer Sam Katzman had his actors plod around some very limited shooting-set for fifteen chapters, getting into occasional fistfights but never able to escape to any other venue.

Certainly no one would praise the serial for capturing the sense of youthful protagonists running around solving dastardly crimes, since none of the principals-- Jack (John Hart) or brother-and-sister Betty and Billy (Rosemary LaPlanche, Joe Brown Jr) were less than 24 years of age. The "teens" are also accompanied by an older fellow, the siblings' "Uncle Jim," but he doesn't play a large role in the heroics. Brown's character of Billy is just another lame comedy relief character, but as Jack and Betty the actors Hart and LaPlanche give the serial some needed charisma. The young heroes track down mysterious signals to a remote South Seas island and find there a secret installation whose scientists are constructing an "astroglobe" with which they can rule the world. The leader of the plot is Jason Grood (Charles Middleton of FLASH GORDON fame), but most of the active villainy is supplied by Grood's flunky Zorn (Wheeler Oakman) and a plotter who wants to move in on Grood's action. 

The thing that keeps ARMSTRONG a little above the average is not even particularly original. The island is inhabited by South Seas natives, led by a lissome Princess Alura (Clair James), and these denizens vary between being a help or a hindrance to the adventurers. In a few episodes Grood poses as the natives' god in order to manipulate them against the good guys, but surprisingly the writers don't use this old chestnut very often. There's not much detail about how the natives feel about Caucasians, but in a telling line, Grood reminds a native ally that the natives all know how "cruel" the white men have been to their people. To be sure, there's less evidence of white misbehavior here than what one might have seen in a contemporaneous Tarzan film, but at least the mention of past grievances gives the conflict a little more sociological heft.

As others before me have observed, 15 chapters is too long for this kind of limited set-action, and some plotlines are suggested and never realized, as when Zorn kidnaps one of Uncle Jim's scientists for help on the project-- and said scientist does nothing that even slightly affects the plot. Middleton is a welcome presence in his few scenes-- he was said to be ill and passed away two years later-- though Katzman's people left his name out of the credits. The fight-scenes are decent but unremarkable, and the only memorable aspect of the cliffhangers is that in one of them, the female lead rescues her compatriots, which didn't happen all that often in serials. There are a few impressive FX scenes-- one in which a man is killed in an electric booby trap, and another in which hero Jack sneaks aboard Grood's rocketship (seen only as a single control room) to foil the use of the death-ray. All else considered, maybe I just liked the bouncy theme music.