Zorro's Black Whip (1944 serial) still 1

''Zorro's Black Whip'' is a 1944 12-chapter

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 ...

Republic Pictures Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City a ...

starring Linda Stirling. The film was made after the 1940

20th Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

remake of '' The Mark of Zorro'' in order to capitalize on it. Republic was not able to use the character of Zorro himself, however, and despite the title, the hero(ine) is called The Black Whip throughout. The serial is set in pre-statehood

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

, and involves a fight to prevent and ensure statehood by the villains and heroes respectively. Parts of the serial were reused as

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 stoc ...

to pad out later serials such as '' Don Daredevil Rides Again'' (1951) and '' Man with the Steel Whip'' (1954) – despite the fact that both of those serials had male leads.

Plot

In ''Zorro's Black Whip'' the word Zorro never occurs, but a female who behaves like

Don Diego Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places * County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vil ...

fights a cabal of corrupt politicians as "The Black Whip" after her brother (the original Black Whip) is killed. Hammond, owner of the town's

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

line and a leading citizen on the council, is secretly opposed to

becoming a state—because government protection would destroy the system and organization he has constructed—and conducts raids against citizens and settlers alike to prevent order, while keeping his own identity as the organization's leader secret. The town

marshal Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated o ...

is meanwhile powerless to act outside his jurisdiction beyond the town boundary. Randolph Meredith, owner of the town's

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

, as the Black Whip, opposes this scheme to defeat statehood, but one day he is killed after preventing yet another coup. Meredith's sister Barbara, expert with a bullwhip and

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, a ...

, dons Randolph's black costume and mask and becomes "The Black Whip" in her brother's place, dealing a blow to Hammond and his gang each time they perform some heinous act in their efforts to keep the town, and their power over it, unchanged. Aided by recently arrived undercover US government

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

Vic Gordon, Barbara ( Linda Stirling) as ''The Black Whip'' is quite obviously female but, even after a bout of wrestling, the villains do not realise they aren't fighting a man. Some reference is made to this in the script, however, when the villains are trying to determine who the Black Whip's secret identity could be: Hammond orders her taken, but the day is saved when Vic Gordon discovers Barbara's secret and removes her from suspicion by appearing in her costume and overcoming her captors. From this point on, despite relinquishing the costume at her insistence that she must continue as the Black Whip, he tends to assume the hero role while Barbara becomes slightly more of a traditional

damsel in distress The damsel in distress is a recurring narrative device in which one or more men must rescue a woman who has either been kidnapped or placed in general peril. Kinship, love, or lust (or a combination of those) gives the male protagonist the motiv ...

, even while she still holds her own in successive violent confrontations with Hammond's henchmen, and more than once saves Vic's life. After the town has finally voted on whether or not to accept statehood, most of Hammond's gang are gunned down while attempting to steal the ballot boxes. Hammond escapes, and secretly trails and confronts Barbara in her cave when she removes her mask. He takes aim, but is struck down by the Black Whip's stallion. The reign of terror has ended. Vic remains with Barbara and the marshall to help maintain peace in the territory.

Cast

* Linda Stirling as Barbara Meredith, The Black Whip and newspaper proprietrix * George J. Lewis as Vic Gordon, a US government agent allied with the Black Whip. In a related role, Lewis later portrayed Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro's father, Don Alejandro de la Vega in the

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

television series '' Zorro''. * Lucien Littlefield as "Tenpoint" Jackson, the comic relief newspaper typesetter working with Barbara Meredith * Francis McDonald as Dan Hammond,

villain A villain (also known as a " black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. '' Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a charact ...

ous owner of the town's Stagecoach company * Hal Taliaferro as Baxter, one of Hammond's

henchmen A henchman (''vernacular:'' "hencher"), is a loyal employee, supporter, or aide to some powerful figure engaged in nefarious or criminal enterprises. Henchmen are typically relatively unimportant in the organization: minions whose value lies pri ...

* John Merton as Ed Harris, one of Hammond's henchmen * Stanley Price as Hedges, Hammond's Clerk-Henchman The surnames of the two lead characters, ''Meredith'' and ''Gordon'', are an in-joke referencing two earlier Republic serials. The character

Nyoka the Jungle Girl Nyoka the Jungle Girl is a fictional character created for the screen in the 1941 serial ''Jungle Girl'', starring Frances Gifford as Nyoka Meredith. After the initial film, Nyoka appeared in comic books published by Fawcett, Charlton, and AC C ...

and her father had the surname Meredith in '' Jungle Girl'', but their last name was Gordon in the semi-sequel ''

Perils of Nyoka ''Perils of Nyoka'' is a 1942 Republic serial directed by William Witney. It stars Kay Aldridge as Nyoka the Jungle Girl, a character who first appeared in the Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired serial ''Jungle Girl''. Plot Nyoka, with help from L ...

''.

Production

This serial was put into production, with Linda Stirling as the main star, following the actress' popular performance in '' The Tiger Woman''. ''Zorro's Black Whip'' was budgeted at $134,899 although the final negative cost was $145,251 (a $10,352, or 7.7%, overspend). It was the cheapest Republic serial of 1944. It was filmed between 29 July and 26 August 1944 under the

working title A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...

''The Black Whip''. The serial's production number was 1495. Despite physically wrestling with her, the villains never realize that the very obviously female Black Whip is a woman. Footage from this serial was reused in '' Don Daredevil Rides Again'' and '' Man with the Steel Whip''.

Stunts

* Babe DeFreest as The Black Whip (doubling Linda Stirling) *

Dale Van Sickel Dale Harris Van Sickel (November 29, 1907 – January 25, 1977) was an American college football, basketball and baseball player during the 1920s, who later became a Hollywood motion picture actor and stunt performer for over forty years. Van ...

as Vic Gordon/Rock Heavy Karl/Camp Heavy/Danley (doubling George J. Lewis] * Tom Steele (stuntman), Tom Steele as Baxter/Ed (doubling Hal Taliaferro) * Helen Thurston *Carey Loftin *Cliff Lyons

Special effects

Special effects by Republic's in-house team of the Lydecker brothers.

Release

Theatrical

''Zorro's Black Whips official release date is 16 November 1944, although this is actually the date the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges. The serial was re-released on 8 July 1957 between the similar re-releases of '' The Purple Monster Strikes'' and ''

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 ...

''. The last original Republic serial release was ''

King of the Carnival ''King of the Carnival'' (1955) is a Republic movie serial that contains a substantial amount of stock footage from the earlier Republic serial ''Daredevils of the Red Circle''. It is the 66th and final serial produced by Republic and is often ...

'' in 1955.

Chapter titles

183 minutes = 3h, 2m, 15s #The Masked Avenger (23min 23s) #Tomb of Terror (14min 27s) #Mob Murder (14min 24s) #Detour to Death (14min 24s) #Take Off That Mask! (14min 28s) #Fatal Gold (14min 27s) #Wolf Pack (14min 27s) #The Invisible Victim (14min 26s) – a re-cap chapter #Avalanche (14min 28s) #Fangs of Doom (14min 27s) #Flaming Juggernaut (14min 27s) #Trail of Tyranny (14min 27s) _Source: This was one of two 12-chapter serials released in 1944, along with Linda Stirling's serial debut, '' The Tiger Woman''. It had been Republic's standard pattern to produce two 12-chapter serials and two 15-chapter serials each year since 1938 but 1944 was the last year that occurred. In fact, Republic would only produce two more 15-chapter serials, '' Manhunt of Mystery Island'' and '' The Purple Monster Strikes'', both in 1945 and both starring Linda Stirling.

References

External links

* * *
Stomp Tokyo review of ''Zorro's Black Whip''

Download or view online

Episodes 2–12 free online
{{Authority control 1944 films 1944 Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films Films directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet Films set in Idaho Republic Pictures film serials Zorro films Articles containing video clips American sequel films Films based on works by Johnston McCulley Films with screenplays by Joseph F. Poland 1940s American films