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Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island
Robinson Crusoe of Mystery Island / Secret Agent Mala of the South Seas / The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island
USA 1936
produced by
Nat Levine for Republic
directed by Ray Taylor, Mack V. Wright
starring Mala, Mamo Clark, Herbert Rawlinson, William Newell, John Ward, John Dilson, Selmer Jackson, John Picorri, George Chesebro, Bob Kortman, George Cleveland, Lloyd Whitlock, Tiny Roebuck, Tracy Layne, Herbert Weber, Anthony Pawley, Allen Connor, Rex the horse, Buck the dog
written by Morgan Cox, Barry Shipman, Maurice Geraghty, music by Hugo Riesenfeld, special effects by Howard Lydecker, Theodore Lydecker, John T. Coyle, edited by William Witney, Helen Turner
serial
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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A dirigible company is to make the first direct flight from San
Francisco to Australia, but then it's found that the refueling post on
Clipper Island is totally destroyed and the natives are angry, thus
dirigible tries to make it to Australia nonstop ... and crashes. The
dirigible company is less than happy about this, so they send Mala, a
gouvernment agent with native roots, to Clipper Island to investigate.
Mala and his sidekicks (William Newell, John Ward) - as well as Buck the dog and Rex the
horse - soon make the acquaintance of Melani (Mamo Clark), the natives'
Princess who is actually quite sympathetic to Mala's agenda ... but she
has strong opposition in the form of High Priest Porotu (John Picorri),
who's actually in league with a spy ring operating on the island
under the orders of mysterious H.K., who wants to destroy the dirigible
company and who resides back in San Francisco. Porotu manages to keep his
natives in check because the baddies control the volcano and are able to
make it erupt every time Porotu's grip on his people loosens. But amidst
fights and chases and all sorts of action, on land, on water and in the
air, Mala gets closer and closer to the truth - and ultimately, he gets
back to San Francisco in hopes to unmask H.K., whom he figures to be one
of three shareholders of the dirigible company (Herbert Rawlinson, John
Dilson, Selmer Jackson), but before he can unmask him in San Francisco,
H.K. breaks camp, and incidently all three shareholders travel to Clipper
Island in another dirigible - so whoever-it-is will be identified only on
the island. On Clipper Island, Princess Melani has since been seized by
Porotu's goons and accused of high treason, but Mala saves her and
restores her reputation while having Porotu expelled. Then he saves the
dirigible from certain destruction, learns all three shareholders have
been kidnapped by the spy ring, learns who H.K. is (Selmer Jackson) when
he tries to spring the shareholders, and then frees everybody just before
the baddies blow up the volcano on Clipper Island, something that
instantly falls back on all the baddies as the debris sinks their getaway
submarine as well as felling Porotu, while Mala and Melani finally become
a couple. Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island is your
typical 1930s serial with all the right elements in the right places:
Plenty of adventure, exotic locale, romance, and a boy's adventure logic
to everything. That said, there's also great variety in the action going
on, some pretty good miniature effects, and a nice pacing to everything.
Sure, on the other hand, hero Mala's rather wooden in his role, some of
the glaring holes in (narrative as well as factual) logic are too big to
ignored, and really don't look for any depth here ... but as a serial,
this one's pretty good entertainment and probably one of the most fun of
its era.
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amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island at adultvideouniverse.com
