''Daughter of Don Q'' (1946) is a Republic

Movie 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 ...

. It combines elements of the

B-Western The B movie, whose roots trace to the silent film era, was a significant contributor to Hollywood's Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s. As the Hollywood studios made the transition to sound film in the late 1920s, many independent exhibitors began ...

genre with contemporary crime films, especially the popular "land grab" plot in which the villain attempts to steal apparently worthless land from the heroine (in this case) because he secretly knows it is worth a fortune. In this case, Dolores Quantero, is the rightful heir to extremely valuable metropolitan land which another family member, Carlos Manning, wants for himself.

Plot

Delores Quantero is the descendant of

Zorro Zorro ( Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante w ...

-style hero, Don Quantero, who was granted land by the Spanish crown. This grant, which is still legally valid, now covers the business district of the city. Another descendant, Carlos Manning, has discovered the existence of this document and plots to inherit the fortune by murdering his relatives.

Cast

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 Dolores Quantero, heiress and heroine (billed as Adrian Booth) *

Kirk Alyn Kirk Alyn (born John Feggo Jr.; October 8, 1910 – March 14, 1999) was an American actor, best known for being the first actor to play the DC Comics character Superman in live-action for the 1948 movie serial ''Superman'' and its 1950 sequel '' A ...

as Cliff Roberts, reporter aiding Dolores *

LeRoy Mason LeRoy Franklin Mason (July 2, 1903 – October 13, 1947) was an American film actor who worked primarily in Westerns in both the silent and sound film eras. Mason was born in Larimore, North Dakota on July 2, 1903. Career 1920s Mason's fi ...

as Carlos Manning, villain *

Roy Barcroft Roy Barcroft (born Howard Harold Ravenscroft; September 7, 1902 – November 28, 1969) was an American character actor famous for playing villains in B-Westerns and other genres. From 1937 to 1957, he appeared in more than 300 films for Re ...

as Mel Donovan *Claire Meade as Marie Martinez *Kernan Cripps as Inspector Grogan *Jimmy Ames as Romero * Eddie Parker in multiple small roles including "Store Clerk" and "Henchman" * Tom Steele in multiple small roles including "Streetsweep" and "Bomb thug"

Production

''Daughter of Don Q'' was budgeted at $137,988 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 ho ...

was $140,156 (a $2,168, or 1.6%, overspend). At 1.6% overbudget this was low for a Republic serial, with an average over all 66 of 5.7% over and especially considering the subsequent serial, '' The Crimson Ghost'', would exceed its budget by 16.9%. Although budgeted to be the most expensive Republic serial of 1946, ''The Crimson Ghost'' took that title with its final negative cost of $161,174. It was filmed between January 3 and 30, 1946. The serial's production number was 1596.

Special effects

Special effects by the

Lydecker brothers Howard and Theodore Lydecker, always known—and billed—as such, were Howard "Babe" Lydecker (June 8, 1911 – September 26, 1969) and Theodore Lydecker (November 7, 1908 – May 25, 1990), a special effects team primarily working as contract ...

Release

Theatrical

''Daughter of Don Qs official release date is July 27, 1946, although this is actually the date the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.

Chapter titles

# Multiple Murder (20min) # Vendetta (13min 20s) # Under the Knives (13min 20s) # Race to Destruction (13min 20s) # Blackout (13min 20s) # Forged Evidence (13min 20s) # Execution by Error (13min 20s) # Window to Death (13min 20s) – a re-cap chapter # The Juggernaut (13min 20s) # Cremation (13min 20s) # Glass Guillotine (13min 20s) # Dead Man's Vengeance (13min 20s) _Source: Note: All serials produced by Republic in 1946 were 12 chapters long and this was the first year that no 15-chapter serials were produced by the serial. Almost all future Republic serials would follow this 12-chapter limit until the last was released in 1955.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Daughter Of Don Q 1946 films 1940s crime films American black-and-white films American crime films 1940s English-language films Films directed by Fred C. Brannon Films directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet Films scored by Raoul Kraushaar Republic Pictures film serials 1940s American films