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"The Lost Special" DVD on order
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doc...@gmail.com
Aug 29, 2012, 5:03:30 PM8/29/12
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The eBay seller says the DVD is in excellent condition, but what I wonder about is the condition of the print of the 1932 Republic film serial it was made from. I should find out soon, and expect to do some marathon viewing this weekend.
Bobbo in the Bronxo
Bobbo in the Bronxo
doc...@gmail.com
Sep 5, 2012, 4:55:18 PM9/5/12
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I watched the 12 episodes, some more than once, and several times was struck by the realiz'n of why certain scenes in "Lost" were the way they were made: They were echoing these movies.
Why did Oceanic 815's fuselage break into the very unlikely 3 pieces instead of 2? Because in the Universal serial, the train was a locomotive & 2 cars, and shown to be dropping into the mine shaft in 3 pieces.
In "The Lost Special" there was a Tank Room where a prisoner was held. It was explained by a captor that the purpose for which the previous occupants had built a room that could be flooded was not known. While the Tank Room was occupied, someone in the prisoner's party accidentally opened the sluice to flood it. It took a fist fight to get the drain open.
The framing of scenes at the Red Lantern was echoed in "Expose" with the dancing ladies and the back office where The Cobra operated.
Blasting with dynamite in an occupied tunnel was a feature of both.
Another scene in "The Lost Special" was echoed on "Lost" when Sawyer was tied up and left with a knife very demonstratively apparently just out of reach.
The decision at the end of "The Lost Special" to keep things out of the papers was echoed on "Lost" as "We have to lie."
Cooper-Seward's refusal to read the "letter to Mr. Sawyer" on "Lost" was a re-creation of a scene with a character similarly tied up in "The Lost Special".
As to "The Lost Special" viewed in isolation, it was the usual crap from that time. Some stunts were good, but the stunt fighting was absolutely awful and took up a lot of screen time. (Contrast with the stunt fighting in the Superman serials almost 20 yrs. later, which was excellent. Audiences must've become more sophisticated.) Characters did crazy things with no apparent motiv'n -- much as on "Lost". The conversion to DVD was only fair, overlapping the frame much of the time. Contrast was often way too high, but that might've been a problem with the film print. The sound could've been filtered to remove hum. Many of the serials from that era are apparently lost, so we're lucky to have this one in any form.
Bobbo in the Bronxo
Why did Oceanic 815's fuselage break into the very unlikely 3 pieces instead of 2? Because in the Universal serial, the train was a locomotive & 2 cars, and shown to be dropping into the mine shaft in 3 pieces.
In "The Lost Special" there was a Tank Room where a prisoner was held. It was explained by a captor that the purpose for which the previous occupants had built a room that could be flooded was not known. While the Tank Room was occupied, someone in the prisoner's party accidentally opened the sluice to flood it. It took a fist fight to get the drain open.
The framing of scenes at the Red Lantern was echoed in "Expose" with the dancing ladies and the back office where The Cobra operated.
Blasting with dynamite in an occupied tunnel was a feature of both.
Another scene in "The Lost Special" was echoed on "Lost" when Sawyer was tied up and left with a knife very demonstratively apparently just out of reach.
The decision at the end of "The Lost Special" to keep things out of the papers was echoed on "Lost" as "We have to lie."
Cooper-Seward's refusal to read the "letter to Mr. Sawyer" on "Lost" was a re-creation of a scene with a character similarly tied up in "The Lost Special".
As to "The Lost Special" viewed in isolation, it was the usual crap from that time. Some stunts were good, but the stunt fighting was absolutely awful and took up a lot of screen time. (Contrast with the stunt fighting in the Superman serials almost 20 yrs. later, which was excellent. Audiences must've become more sophisticated.) Characters did crazy things with no apparent motiv'n -- much as on "Lost". The conversion to DVD was only fair, overlapping the frame much of the time. Contrast was often way too high, but that might've been a problem with the film print. The sound could've been filtered to remove hum. Many of the serials from that era are apparently lost, so we're lucky to have this one in any form.
Bobbo in the Bronxo
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