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The Fighting Devil Dogs
''The Fighting Devil Dogs'' (1938) is a 12-chapter Republic movie serial starring Lee Powell and Herman Brix, the latter better known by his later stage name, Bruce Bennett. It was directed by William Witney and John English. While not often considered a great serial, as it contains much stock footage and two recap chapters, it is famous for its main villain, the Lightning—the first costumed supervillain. There is some speculation that George Lucas used the Lightning as a template for Darth Vader. Plot In Singapore, two Marine Lieutenants, Tom Grayson and Frank Corby, uncover the threat of a masked terrorist called the Lightning, who uses an arsenal of powerful lightning-based weaponry in his bid for world conquest. However, the battle becomes personal when the Lightning annihilates the officers' unit and later kills Lt. Grayson's father as he was helping the investigation of the weapon. Now, the marines have dedicated themselves to stopping the Lightning and bringing hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Witney
William Nuelsen Witney (May 15, 1915 – March 17, 2002) was an American film and television director. He is best remembered for the action films he made for Republic Pictures, particularly serials: ''Dick Tracy Returns'', ''G-Men vs. the Black Dragon'', ''Daredevils of the Red Circle'', ''Zorro's Fighting Legion'', and ''Drums of Fu Manchu''. Prolific and pugnacious, Witney began directing while still in his 20s, and continued working until 1982. Early years Witney was born in Lawton, Oklahoma. He was four years old when his father died, and he lived with his uncle, who was an Army captain at Fort Sam Houston. Colbert Clark, Witney's brother-in-law, introduced him to films by letting him ride in some chase scenes for the serial ''Fighting with Kit Carson'' (1933). Witney stayed around the Mascot Pictures headquarters while preparing for the entrance exam to the U.S. Naval Academy. After he failed that exam, he continued at the studio. In 1936 Mascot was absorbed by Republic, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Nobles (cinematographer)
William Nobles (December 23, 1892 – November 24, 1968) was an American cinematographer. Biography Born in 1892 in Waubay, South Dakota, Nobles worked on nearly 200 Hollywood films in a career that spanned five decades, from 1917 to 1966. His most noted cinematography work is probably the Gene Autry film ''Red River Valley'' in 1936,John Howard Reid, ''Great Hollywood Westerns: Classic Pictures, Must-See Movies & "B" Films'', page 118, 2006. and the original ''Dick Tracy'' serial film in 1937, working with Edgar Lyons. One author described his contribution to filmmaking as follows: Another notes the "fine photography" by Nobles in ''The Fighting Devil Dogs'', 1938.John Reid, ''These Movies Won No Hollywood Awards'', page 64, 2005. Nobles died in 1968 in Costa Mesa, California, at the age of 75. Partial filmography * '' The Little Patriot'' (1917) * ''Cyclone Bliss'' (1921) *''Barb Wire'' (1922) * '' The Crow's Nest'' (1922) * ''The Red Warning'' (1923) * ''The White Out ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Tracy (serial)
''Dick Tracy'' (1937) is a 15-chapter Republic movie serial starring Ralph Byrd based on the ''Dick Tracy'' comic strip by Chester Gould. It was directed by Alan James and Ray Taylor. Plot Dick Tracy's foe for this serial is the crime boss and masked mystery villain the Spider/the Lame One (both names are used) and his Spider Ring. In the process of various crimes, including using his flying wing and sound weapon to destroy the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and stealing an experimental "speed plane", The Spider captures Dick Tracy's brother, Gordon. The Spider's minion, Dr. Moloch, performs a brain operation on Gordon Tracy to turn him evil, making him secretly part of the Spider Ring and so turning brother against brother. Cast Starring cast *Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy *Kay Hughes as Gwen Andrews *Smiley Burnette as Mike McGurk *Lee Van Atta as Junior *John Picorri as Dr Moloch *Richard Beach as Gordon Tracy (pre-operation in Chapter 1) *Carleton Young as Gordon Tracy (post-oper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flying Wing
A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blisters, booms, or vertical stabilizers. Similar aircraft designs, that are not technically flying wings, are sometimes casually referred to as such. These types include blended wing body aircraft and lifting body aircraft, which have a fuselage and no definite wings. A pure flying wing is theoretically the lowest drag design configuration for a fixed wing aircraft. However, because it lacks conventional stabilizing surfaces and the associated control surfaces, in its purest form the flying wing suffers from being unstable and difficult to control. The basic flying wing configuration became an object of significant study during the 1920s, often in conjunction with other tailless designs. In the Second World War, both Nazi Germany and the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Undersea Kingdom
''Undersea Kingdom'' (1936) is a Republic Pictures 12 chapter film serial released in response to Universal's '' Flash Gordon''. It was the second of the sixty-six serials made by Republic. In 1966, the serial was edited into a 100-minute television film titled ''Sharad of Atlantis''. Following a suspicious earthquake, and detecting a series of signals, Professor Norton leads an expedition, including Lt. Crash Corrigan and reporter Diana Compton, in his rocket submarine to the suspected location of Atlantis. Finding the lost continent they become embroiled in an Atlantean civil war between Sharad (with his White Robes) and the usurper Unga Khan (with his Black Robes), who wishes to conquer Atlantis and then destroy the upper world with earthquakes generated by his Disintegrator. Thus he will rule the world unless he can be stopped in time. The star of the serial is ''Ray "Crash" Corrigan'', using that screen name for the first time. The name was created to sound similar to "Fla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Vigilantes Are Coming
''The Vigilantes Are Coming'' is a 1936 American Republic Pictures, Republic film serial directed by Ray Taylor (director), Ray Taylor and Mack V. Wright. It was the third of the sixty six serials made by Republic Pictures (and the third released in 1936). This serial was filmed between 28 May and 17 June 1936 under the working title of ''The Vigilantes''. It was released two months later, on 22 August 1936, under the final title. In the early 1950s the serial was re-edited into six 26½ minute episodes for television. Plot Following the discovery of gold in Mexico, Mexican California in 1844, Russian Empire, Russian Cossacks led by Count Ivan Raspinoff, in collusion with General Jason Burr, attempt to invade California and turn it into a Russian Colony with Burr as its dictator. In doing so they round up slaves to work the mines and General Burr has Don Loring's brother and father murdered to acquire their ore-rich land. When Don returns, having been away at the time with Sal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clipshow
A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depicted with a clip of the event presented as a flashback. Clip shows are also known as cheaters, particularly in the field of animation. Clip shows are often played before series finales as a way to summarize the entire series, or once syndication becomes highly likely as a way to increase the number of episodes that can be sold. Other times, however, clip shows are simply produced for budgetary reasons (i.e. to avoid additional costs from shooting in a certain setting, or from casting actors to appear in new material). Origin Clip shows have their origin in theatrical short films and serials. Every serial chapter always had a brief recap showing where the previous chapter left off, but, beginning in 1936, entire chapters were largely devote ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the Strait of Malacca to the west, the Singapore Strait to the south, the South China Sea to the east, and the Straits of Johor to the north. The country's territory is composed of one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet; the combined area of these has increased by 25% since the country's independence as a result of extensive land reclamation projects. It has the third highest population density in the world. With a multicultural population and recognising the need to respect cultural identities of the major ethnic groups within the nation, Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. English is the lingua franca and numerous public services are available only in Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George Lucas has collectively referred to the first six episodic films of the franchise as "the tragedy of Darth Vader". He has become one of the most iconic villains in popular culture, and has been listed among the greatest villains and fictional characters ever. His masked face is one of the most iconic character designs of all time. Originally a slave on Tatooine, Anakin Skywalker is a Jedi prophesied to bring balance to the Force. He is lured to the dark side of the Force by Chancellor Sheev Palpatine / Darth Sidious and becomes a Sith Lord, assuming the title of Darth Vader. After a lightsaber battle with his former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar, in which he is severely injured, Vader is transformed into a cyborg. He then serves the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Lucas is one of history's most financially successful filmmakers and has been nominated for four Academy Awards. His films are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster (entertainment), blockbuster. After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Lucas wrote and directed ''THX 1138'' (1971), based on his student short ''Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB'', which was a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supervillain
A supervillain or supercriminal is a variant of the villainous stock character that is commonly found in American comic books, usually possessing superhuman abilities. A supervillain is the antithesis of a superhero. Supervillains are often used as foils to present a daunting challenge to a superhero. In instances where the supervillain does not have superhuman, mystical, or alien powers, the supervillain may possess a genius intellect or a skill set that allows them to draft complex schemes or commit crimes in a way normal humans cannot. Other traits may include megalomania and possession of considerable resources to further their aims. Many supervillains share some typical characteristics of real world dictators, gangsters, mad scientists, trophy hunters, corrupt businesspeople, serial killers, and terrorists, often having an aspiration of world domination. Notable supervillains The Joker, Lex Luthor, Doctor Doom, Magneto, Brainiac, Deathstroke, the Green Goblin, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stock Footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock footage is called a "stock shot" or a "library shot". Stock footage may have appeared in previous productions but may also be outtakes or footage shot for previous productions and not used. Examples of stock footage that might be utilized are moving images of cities and landmarks, wildlife in their natural environments, and historical footage. Suppliers of stock footage may be either rights managed or royalty-free. Many websites offer direct downloads of clips in various formats. History Stock footage companies began to emerge in the mid-1980s, offering clips mastered on Betacam SP, VHS, and film formats. Many of the smaller libraries that specialized in niche topics such as extreme sports, technological or cultural collections were boug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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