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Confu's disc contains the secret for the most powerful poisonous and
explosive gas, so powerful in fact that Confu has, centuries ago, broken
the disc in half and hidden the two halves in two very seperate spots.
In the now (1930's that is), Professor Hargraves (James Durkin) is
hellbent to find the two halves and retrieve them for the USA lest they
fall into the wrong hands - namely those of villain Doctor Bashan (John
Davidson). The first half, Hargraves and his party - his feisty daughter
Pauline (Evalyn Knapp), his cowardly and klutzy assistant Willie Dodge
(Sonny Ray) and all-American hero Robert Ward (Robert Allen) - find in a
temple in China, when the revolution is at its peak turning China into a
battleground.
From China it's off to Borneo, where Hargraves and his party and Bashan
and his men get caught up in tribal warfare, and ultimately our heroes are
only saved by aviator Sullivan (Pat O'Malley), who also gets them a quick
passage to Singapore.
From Singapore it's off to India, where our group of heroes are almost
slaughtered for desecrated a sacred temple, then almost fall prey to the
temple's in-built traps. But in India, Hargraves finally finds the
decisive clue that leads to the second half of the disc ... which is back
in New York, in the Egyptian museum - just too bad that Bashan knows that
as well ...
In New York, Bashan makes an attempt to get the half of the disc in the
Egyptian museum as well as the other half that actually Pauline carries on
her body, but to no avail, finally Hargraves gets the whole disc,
translates it into English and compounds the formula - even if that sets
his lab aflame when Bashan's men make another attempt. But in his friend
Professor Thompson's (William Desmond) home he gets access to another lab,
and this time he compounds the formula for good ... before once again
Bashan's men attack, but Pauline is cool-headed enough to call the police
just in time, and soon enough, Bashan's gang is overpowered, only Bashan
and his lead henchman Fang (Frank Lackteen) evade the cops, but when they
try to take the gas that Hargraves has compounded according to the formula
with them, the container breaks and they are killed by the gas they were
so hell-bent to get ... Though this serial claims to be a
remake of the then 20 years old Pearl White serial The
Perils of Pauline (that serial's screenwriter Charles W.Goddard is
even credited as story writer of this one in the on-screen credits), the
two serials have little in common. While the old serial was about a fun
loving woman who threw herself into one adventure after another simply
because she wanted to, not knowing that there's someone out there
hell-bent to kill her, in this one Pauline is little more than the
(decidedly feisty and courageous) love interest for hero Paul Allen, and
while the old serials hopped from genre to genre (Western, horse racing,
car racing, pirates, aerial adventure, ...) with the greatest of ease,
this one is firmly rooted in the tried and true adventure serial formula. So
in direct comparison, I have to admit, the 1914-version is the
better serial. However, taking the 1934-version by its own merits, it's
a very entertaining adventure serial: the action hardly ever lets up, the
serial features a welcome change in scenery every few chapters, the rather
simplistic story is well told, and heroine Evalyn Knapp gives a fkine
performance that easily outshines that of hero Robert Allen. Only Sonny
Ray in the role of the scared-as-shit butler that is supposed to be
comical is annoying rather than anything else, and totally unfunny as
well. However, his role isn#t big enough to ruin the serial.
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