''The King of the Kongo'' (1929) is a

Mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

film serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

, and was the first serial to have

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' b ...

,(Re)search My Trash: Mascot Pictures
retrieved June 29, 2007 although only partial sound ("Part Talking") rather than the later (and now standard) "All-Talking" productions with complete sound. The first episode was a "three reeler" with the remaining nine episodes being "two reelers" (approximately 15 minutes per

film reel A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the ends ...

Plot

Independently, the two protagonists, Diana Martin and

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

agent Larry Trent, are searching the jungle for missing relatives, her father and his brother. Tied up in this plot are ivory smugglers and a lost treasure hidden in the jungle.

Cast

* Jacqueline Logan as Diana Martin * Walter Miller as Larry Trent,

Secret Service Agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

Richard Tucker Richard Tucker (August 28, 1913January 8, 1975) was an American operatic tenor and cantor. Long associated with the Metropolitan Opera, Tucker's career was primarily centered in the United States. Early life Tucker was born Rivn (Rubin) Ticke ...

as Chief of the Secret Service *

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film '' Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established ...

as Scarface Macklin, included in the film as a red herring (Spoiler Alert: He is actually the heroine's missing father). *

Larry Steers Lawrence Wells Steers (February 14, 1888 – February 15, 1951) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 550 films between 1917 and 1951. He was born in Indiana, and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. Partial filmography * ...

as Jack Drake *

Harry Todd Harry Todd (December 13, 1863 – February 15, 1935) was an American actor. He appeared in nearly 400 films between 1909 and 1935. On Broadway, Todd was a member of the ensemble in '' The American Way'' (1939). Todd died in Glendale, Cal ...

as Commodore *

Richard Neill Richard Renchaw Neill Jr. (November 12, 1875 – April 8, 1970) was an American actor and screenwriter who worked in both the silent and sound eras. He performed in more than 200 films between 1910 and 1959, and during the early part of his ...

as Prisoner * Lafe McKee as Trader John * J.P. Leckray as Priest * William P. Burt as Mooney * J. Gordon Russell as Derelict * Robert Frazer as Native chief *Ruth Davis as Poppy * Joe Bonomo as Gorilla

Production

''The King of the Kongo'' was the first film serial to have any

element. Larger serial-producing studios (for example, Pathé and

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

) were reluctant to change away from silent production (although Universal released their own Part-Talking serial, ''

Tarzan the Tiger ''Tarzan the Tiger'' (1929) is a Universal movie serial based on the novel '' Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar'' by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It stars Frank Merrill as Tarzan, Natalie Kingston as Jane, and Al Ferguson. It was directed by Henry M ...

'', later in the same year) while smaller studios could not afford to do so. Legend has it that producer and studio owner

Nat Levine Nat Levine (July 26, 1899 – August 6, 1989), was an American film producer. He produced 105 films between 1921 and 1946. He was personal secretary to Marcus Loew, formed Mascot Pictures in 1927, and merged Mascot with Herbert Yates's Re ...

carried the sound discs in his lap from

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, by train and aeroplane, for them to be safely developed. For financial reasons, these discs could not have been repaired or replaced if anything had gone wrong. This was two years after the first Part-Talking film, ''

The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolate ...

'' (1927), had been released and a year after the first "All-Talking" film, '' Lights of New York'' (1928). Despite an announcement that two versions of this serial would be released, (a "Part Talking" version and a silent version intended for theatres not yet equipped for sound), no evidence for a silent version's ever being released exists. Some of the video bootlegs of the film are the sound version with the sound credits excised. ''King of the Kongo'' is sometimes misreported as an alternate title for the 1931 serial '' King of the Wild'', which also starred Boris Karloff.

Stunts

* Joe Bonomo *

Yakima Canutt Enos Edward "Yakima" Canutt (November 29, 1895 – May 24, 1986) was an American champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman, and action director. He developed many stunts for films and the techniques and technology to protect stuntmen in performing t ...

Chapter titles

#Into the Unknown #Terrors of the Jungle #Temple of Beasts #Gorilla Warfare #Danger in the Dark #The Fight at Lions Pitt #The Fatal Moment #Sentenced to Death #Desperate Choices #Jungle Justice

Preservation status

Chapter 1 (three reels) • Into the Unknown (no sound known to exist)
Chapter 2 (two reels) • Terrors of the Jungle (no sound)
Chapter 3 (two reels) • Temple of Beasts (no sound)
Chapter 4 (two reels) • Gorilla Warfare (sound disc for reel 2 survives)
Chapter 5 (two reels) • Danger in the Dark (sound discs for both reels survive) restoration was finished in 2013
Chapter 6 (two reels) • The Fight at Lions Pit (sound discs for both reels survive) National Film Preservation Foundation project began fall 2014
Chapter 7 (two reels) • The Fatal Moment (sound disc for reel 2 survives)
Chapter 8 (two reels) • Sentenced to Death (sound disc for reel 2 survives)
Chapter 9 (two reels) • Desperate Choices (sound disc for reel 1 survives)
Chapter 10 (two reels) • Jungle Justice (National Film Preservation Foundation restoration project began as of June 2014) In 2011, collector/historian Eric Grayson, owner of a 16mm silent print, restored the sound to several scenes of the film, using discs from Ron Hutchinson's Vitaphone Project. These reels were Chap 5 r1, Chap 5 r2, and Chap 6 r2. The results of some of the talking scenes have been posted on YouTube. In 2012, a Kickstarter successfully helped fund a restoration of Chapter 5. National Film Preservation Foundation grant is underway for Chapter 10. A grant for Chapter 6 was issued in June 2014.

References

External links

*
''King of the Kongo'' at SilentEra
* {{DEFAULTSORT:King of the Kongo, The 1929 films 1929 adventure films American black-and-white films American silent serial films 1920s English-language films Mascot Pictures film serials Films directed by Richard Thorpe Transitional sound films Films produced by Nat Levine American adventure films 1920s American films Silent adventure films