The Fighting Marines
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Fighting Marines |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1935 |
| length | 216 min. Minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | B. Reeves Eason , Joseph Kane |
| script | Wallace MacDonald , Maurice Geraghty , Ray Trampe , Sherman L. Lowe , Barney A. Sarecky |
| production | Mascot Pictures , Nat Levine , Barney A. Sarecky |
| music | Leo payer |
| camera | Jack A. Marta , William Nobles |
| cut | Richard Fantl |
| occupation | |
| |
The Fighting Marines is a 12-piece US -amerikanisches Serial 1935 with science fiction -elements in which US Marines in the Pacific against a band of pirates and their mysterious leader Tiger Shark ( Tiger Shark ) fight.
Further technical data
- Trick technique: Theodore and Howard Lydecker ( Lydecker brothers )
- Trick camera: Bud Thackery
- First performance: November 23, 1935
- Technical advice: Franklin Adrion, USMC Reserve Officer
action
Opening credits:
On Land or Sea in polar night
Or sweltering, tropic scenes
Where e´er there´s fighting
You will find US Marines
Corporal Larry Lawrence and Sergeant Mack McGowan are friends with Sergeant William Schiller and are hunting bandits in an unspecified Spanish-speaking country in Central America or the Caribbean . The bandits, however, wear uniforms and are led by a captain (capitán) who in turn serves a mysterious guide.
The bandits have kidnapped Schiller to him the secret of his invention, a gyrocompass snatch (gyro compass). With a trick and the use of hand grenades , the marines win the battle and free Schiller; the bandits surrender. The Marines return to the United States on a steamer.
Marine Colonel Bennett plans to build a runway on Half Way Island in the Pacific. However, all the aircraft that the Marine Corps sent there are disappearing. Lawrence and McGowan fly to the island and discover that the island is controlled by a criminal named Tiger Shark , who has a hiding place for his gang of pirates there. The island is inhabited by natives who are under his rule.
The tiger shark sees a danger for the position of his island in Schiller's compass and tries with all means to get into its possession. He has a base in a warehouse near the Marines barracks and has contact with a scientist who designs state-of-the-art technical equipment for him, such as a radio gravit gun with a range of half a mile and a helicopter . The tiger shark only appears in a flight leather jacket and a helmet with a mask. He flies both the helicopter and other aircraft and attacks the Marines from the air with a submachine gun and bombs.
In the hunt for the shark, the two marines are supported by Frances Schiller, Sergeant Schiller's sister. Her brother is killed by killers of the shark in a hospital, the murderers leave a kind of tattoo in the shape of a shark on Schiller's neck.
For a long time, the Marines suspected that Buchanan, the owner of the Oriental Navigation Co. , was the tiger shark. Eventually, however, it turns out that Colonel Bennett's mess boy, Kota, is the tiger shark , as Buchanan is killed in Colonel Bennett's office with Bennett's revolver, to which only Kota has access.
On Half Way Island there is a showdown between the shark and the two heroes in the pirates' treasure cave . A rifle containing nitroglycerine fell over when a pirate shot . Your explosion kills the tiger shark. Lawrence and McGowan are awarded the Navy Cross for their bravery .
chapter
1. Human Targets
2. Isle of Missing Men
3. The Savage Hoard
4. The Mark of the Tiger Shark
5. The Gauntlet of Grief
6. Robber's Roost
7. Jungle Terror
8. Siege of Halfway Island
9. Death from the Sky
10. Wheels of Destruction
11. Behind the mask
12. Two Against the Horde
Dramaturgy, music
The serial is a buddy film in classic cliffhanger fashion . The "Cliffs" are spurious, however, because at the beginning of a new episode the scenes are not repeated that show the protagonists in the previous episode in a seemingly hopeless situation.
By using scenes that had already been filmed, which were used extensively as flashbacks in the following episodes , Mascot saved considerable production costs. The series is very action-packed and characterized by numerous chases and fights. The inhabitants of Half Way Island are portrayed as a barbaric horde and also referred to as such.
The theme song is the popular march Semper fidelis, composed in 1888 by John Philip Sousa .
Although serious criminal offenses are consistently committed in the act, the police are never used, the Marines only act on behalf of Colonel Bennett.
Contemporary production background
Shortly before production, the Marines had been withdrawn from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic after years of occupation in the context of the banana wars , which is what the first part of the first episode refers to. With Kota, an Asian man is staged as the villain who is obviously supposed to represent Japan .
Trivia
- The name Half Way Island is obviously derived from Midway Island .
- Technical advisor, Frank Adreon, went on to write scripts for the SOS Coast Guard and The Fighting Devil Dogs serials, which star in the United States Coast Guard and Marine Corps.
See also
literature
- Hank Davis: Classic Cliffhangers , Volume 1 1914-1940, Baltimore, MD (Luminary Press) 2007. ISBN 9781887664769
