Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Six writers! Three directors! And Linda Stirling! 'Manhunt On Mystery Island' is a fast moving and entertaining serial set on the eponymous island and concerns Claire Forrest looking for her kidnapped scientist father, helped by Lance Reardon. The villain of the piece is supposedly long dead Captain Mephisto who is also another character in the serial due to his ability to change his bodily form (in what looks like an electric chair!). In the usual way of serials there are lots of chases, traps, mysteries, fights and ups and downs until everything is resolved. The fist fights are great. Before they start you can guess what will be broken or upset, whether it is a table, cupboard, set of shelves, bookcases, barrels etc. and the participants fight with great gusto. Linda Stirling as Claire Forrest is splendid as usual, her character is smart, sexy and very handy with a gun. She does rescuing as well as the male lead so is definitely not the helpless female. Roy Barcroft chews the scenery as Captain Mephisto (when not breaking up the scenery in fights) and is a pleasure to watch. Kudos must also go to Dale Van Sickel who plays Barker and Ritter and Lewis and Frazier and Sardon. Talk about versatile! The rest of the cast are adequate.Some people don't like serials because of the repetition of certain things but they were not meant to be watched all at once but at intervals, so each episode had to have things to remind viewers of previous episodes. Anyway, if you like serials this is a good one.

15 episodes of looking for Linda Stirling's father on a small island? Too bad the plot is so thin, with each chapter having the barest hint of story, merely as a quick prelude to fights, fights and more fights. The cast is so small that almost every chapter has one or two fights between the dork hero, Richard Bailey, and Kenne Duncan, as the main henchman,(here in one of his biggest roles before his Ed Wood days) and frequently a threeway with Roy Barcroft (Captain Mephisto).Surprisingly, the serial really moves along, with the action scenes (directed by the Great Yak--Yakima Canutt, who finally gets directing credit this time) and cliff hangers exciting and holding your interest. The fun part in watching all the sets getting destroyed during the fights is guessing when any piece of vertical furniture (including filing cabinets, bunk beds or bookcases)is going to get knocked over and smashed. Great leaping and throwing of objects, and total destruction of rooms! Way to go, Yak!Since this is Republic in the mid forties, we expect a few jump out of the car before it goes over the cliff cheap chapter endings, but we get several interesting variations on Republic's stock of cliff hanger endings. In many of them, Linda Stirling herself saves the hero, and in several chapters shoots a gun! She certainly shows confidence in her athleticism after having done such a good job in "The Tiger Woman" (1944) and "Zorro's Black Whip" (1944). In fact, in the last chapter, she kills Mephisto!Not too bad, considering what little they had to work with, but still only four stars.

Caught this one on TV in its TV-movie form in 1966, now it is in my collection. Roy Barcroft considered this one his favorite, I can see why, he gets to play a villain who can disappear into a completely different body, how's that for a disguise. Contains one of the all time great villain's quotes. Captain Mephisto explains to the Kenne Duncan character how he transforms from his secret identity into Captain Mephisto. When the latter responds, "Oh I understand" Captain Mephisto says "If I thought you understood I'd kill you!" How's that for villainy? Top stuntman Dale Van Sickel doubling for Roy Barcroft, the usual top notch stunt work by the Lydecker brothers, non stop action, an intriguing if far fetched plot. About the only complaint I have is that I've never seen it on the Big Screen.

A scientist working on a remote control invention is kidnapped and brought to an island, by a mysterious Captain Mephisto, who used to be governor of the island in days when it was a penal colony. In reality, Mephisto is one of the four ruling members of the island who uses a transformation chair which changes the enigmatic member into the evil pirate. Investigator Lance Reardon, who along with the scientist's daughter Claire Forrest, searches out the captive scientist in this thrilling chapterplay. In 1945, serials were on the way out, but this easily ranks up with any from the golden age of the genre. Co-director Yakima Canutt adds plenty of action and the far fetched plot surprisingly becomes incredibly intriguing. 15 episodes. In terms of serials, 10 out of 10.