''Perils of Nyoka'' is a 1942

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

serial directed by

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 ...

. It stars

Kay Aldridge Katharine ("Kay") Gratten Aldridge (July 9, 1917 – January 12, 1995) was an American actress and model, best known for playing feisty and imperiled heroines in black-and-white serials during the 1940s. Life and work Aldridge was born on July ...

Nyoka the Jungle Girl Nyoka the Jungle Girl is a fictional character created for the screen in the 1941 Serial (film), serial Jungle Girl (serial), ''Jungle Girl'', starring Frances Gifford as Nyoka Meredith. After the initial film, Nyoka appeared in comic books publish ...

, a character who first appeared in the

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he ...

-inspired serial ''

Jungle Girl A jungle girl (so-called, but usually adult woman) is an archetype or stock character, often used in popular fiction, of a female adventurer, superhero or even a damsel in distress living in a jungle or rainforest setting. An alternate depiction i ...

''.

Plot

Nyoka, with help from Larry Grayson, attempts to discover the golden tablets of

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...

. The tablets contain the medical knowledge of the ancients and are being buried along with

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

and other

treasure Treasure (from la, thesaurus from Greek language ''thēsauros'', "treasure store") is a concentration of wealth — often originating from ancient history — that is considered lost and/or forgotten until rediscovered. Some jurisdictions le ...

. Also hunting for the tablets are Queen Vultura (Ruler of the Arabs) and Cassib.

Cast

Main cast

as Nyoka Gordon. Aldridge replaced

Frances Gifford Mary Frances Gifford (December 7, 1920 – January 22, 1994) was an American actress who played leads and supporting roles in many 1930s and 1940s movies. Early years Gifford was born and raised in Long Beach, California, and at the age of 16, ...

. The success and popularity that Aldridge gained from the role made her the star of several other Republic serials. In his autobiography, director William Witney stated that the studio used a different actress to ensure that there would be no actionable copyright infringement. However, Ray Stedman writes that Gifford was not cast in ''Perils of Nyoka'' because she was on loan from another studio for ''Jungle Girl'' and was not available. William Cline partially backs this point of view, saying that Gifford was unavailable to reprise her role because she had moved on to feature films. *

Clayton Moore Clayton Moore (born Jack Carlton Moore, September 14, 1914 – December 28, 1999) was an American actor best known for playing the fictional western character the Lone Ranger from 1949 to 1952 and 1953 to 1957 on the television series of the sa ...

as Dr. Larry Grayson *

Lorna Gray Virginia Pound (July 26, 1917 – April 30, 2017), known professionally as Lorna Gray and (after 1945) Adrian Booth, was an American film actress known for her comic roles, and later as a villainess. She is best known for her roles in Columb ...

as Vultura, Ruler of the Arabs * Charles Middleton as Cassib *

William Benedict William Benedict (April 16, 1917 – November 25, 1999), was an American actor, perhaps best known for playing "Whitey" in Monogram Pictures' The Bowery Boys series. Early years Benedict was born in Haskell, Oklahoma, After his father's dea ...

as Red Davis *Forbes Murray as Prof Douglas Campbell *George Pembroke as John Spencer * Tristram Coffin as Benito Torrini *

Forrest Taylor Edwin Forrest Taylor (December 29, 1883 – February 19, 1965) was an American character actor whose artistic career spanned six different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color films. Early years Taylor was born in B ...

as Translator

Supporting cast

*Forbes Murray as Professor Douglas Campbell *Robert Strange as Professor Henry Gordon *George Pembroke as John Spencer *

Georges Renavent Georges Renavent (born Georges DeChaux, April 23, 1892 – January 2, 1969) was a French-American actor in film, Broadway plays and operator of American Grand Guignol. He was born in Paris, France. In 1914, he immigrated to the United Stat ...

as Maghreb, Vultura's high priest * John Davidson as Lhoba, Tuareg high priest * George J. Lewis as Batan, Arab henchman *

Ken Terrell Kenneth Jones Terrell (April 29, 1904 – March 8, 1966) was an American western and action film actor and stuntman best known for playing Joe Marcelli in the 1956 film ''Indestructible Man ''Indestructible Man'' is a 1956 American cri ...

as Ahmed, Arab henchman * John Bagni as Ben Ali *

Kenne Duncan Kenne Duncan (February 17, 1903 – February 5, 1972) was a Canadian-born American B-movie character actor. Hyped professionally as "The Meanest Man in the Movies," the vast majority of his over 250 appearances on camera were Westerns, but ...

as Abou, expedition headman *

Emil Van Horn Emil Van Horn (October 3, 1907 – February 15, 1967) Search for Emil VANHORN '' ic', died Orleans parish, February 15, 1967, age 59. was an American stuntman and actor. Together with Charles Gemora, Ray Corrigan, Steve Calvert, and George Barro ...

as Satan the gorilla (Van Horn also played the gorilla in ''Jungle Girl'').

Production

''Perils of Nyoka'' was budgeted at $169,296 although the final

negative cost Negative cost is the net expense to produce and shoot a film, excluding such expenditures as distribution and promotion. Low-budget movies, for example ''The Blair Witch Project ''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural h ...

was $175,010 (a $5,714, or 3.4%, overspend), making it the most expensive Republic serial of 1942. It was filmed between March 20 and May 2, 1942, with the outdoor action sequences shot primarily at the

Iverson Movie Ranch Iverson may refer to: Computing * Iverson Award, an ACM honour for APL contributions * Iverson bracket, a mathematical notation * Iverson Notation, the syntactic basis of APL (programming language) Other uses * Iverson Movie Ranch, Chatsworth, Ca ...

Chatsworth, California Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley. The area was home to Native Americans, some of whom left caves containing rock art. Chatsworth was explored and colonized by the Spanish b ...

. The success of the original serial ''Jungle Girl'' prompted the sequel, but the studio did not want to pay licensing fees to Burroughs again, so it avoided any repetition of the term Jungle Girl, for which he owned the rights. Nyoka, the name of the main character in the first film, was instead placed in the title of the sequel, as that name was an original creation of Republic's writers, not of Burroughs. The word "jungle" was avoided in the film, with the setting described as an African "desert", though the area shown was not nearly as arid as is the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

Release

Theatrical

''Perils of Nyokas official release date was June 27, 1942, but that is actually the date upon which the seventh chapter was made available to film exchanges. The serial was re-released on April 2, 1952 under the new title ''Nyoka and the Tigermen'', between the first runs of ''

Radar Men from the Moon ''Radar Men from the Moon'' is a 1952 black-and-white Republic Pictures' 12-chapter movie serial, the first Commando Cody serial starring newcomer George Wallace as Cody, Aline Towne as his sidekick Joan Gilbert, and serial veteran Roy Barcroft ...

'' and ''

Zombies of the Stratosphere ''Zombies of the Stratosphere'' is a 1952 black-and-white Republic Studios serial directed by Fred C. Brannon, with a screenplay by Ronald Davidson, and special effects by Republic's Lydecker brothers. It was intended to be Republic's second ser ...

''.

Television

''Perils of Nyoka'' was one of 26 Republic serials rereleased for television in 1966 under the Century 66 label. The title of the film was changed to ''Nyoka and the Lost Secrets of Hippocrates''. This version was trimmed to 100 minutes in length.

Reception

Jim Harmon James Judson Harmon (21 April 1933 – 16 February 2010), better known as Jim Harmon, was an American short story author and popular culture historian who wrote extensively about the Golden Age of Radio. He sometimes used the pseudonym Judson Grey ...

and

Donald F. Glut Donald F. Glut (; born February 19, 1944) is an American writer, motion picture film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for writing The Empire Strikes Back (novel), the novelization of the second ''Star Wars'' film, ''The Empire Strikes ...

have written that ''Perils of Nyoka'' was probably the best jungle-type serial ever made and that it "lavished in increased production values". Cline noted that ''Perils of Nyoka'' stood out in the memories of the original serial audiences, despite the strong competition of 1942.

Chapter titles

#Desert Intrigue (26:50) #Death's Chariot (17:09) #Devil's Crucible (16:52) #Ascending Doom (16:48) #Fatal Second (16:49) #Human Sacrifice (16:41) #Monster's Clutch (16:47) #Tuareg Vengeance (16:44) #Buried Alive (16:41) #Treacherous Trail (16:51) #Unknown Peril (16:40) #Underground Tornado (16:39) #Thundering Death (16:43) #Blazing Barrier (16:38) #Satan's Fury (16:33) _Source:

References

External links

* {{William Witney Jungle girls Republic Pictures film serials 1942 films 1940s fantasy adventure films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films Films based on works by Edgar Rice Burroughs Films directed by William Witney Films adapted into comics American sequel films American fantasy adventure films Films with screenplays by Joseph F. Poland 1940s American films