11 cliffhangers with the Dead End Kids.
James McDonald | Southern California | 03/20/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you like Billy Halop, Bernard Punsly and Huntz Hall in the Dead End Kids films (beginning with Dead End [1937]) and when they moved on to help the Little Tough Guys, then you would probably like the Saturday Matinee serials they did too. A new chapter was shown every week for 12 weeks in the local theatre. Each episode ran only 16 to 26 minutes long. Now available on DVD are all the episodes togther on a two volume set. There was JUNIOR G-MEN (1940), SEA RAIDERS (1941), JUNIOR G-MEN OF THE AIR (1942). Alpha Video through Nina's Discount Oldies offers each serial in two seperate volumes, chapters 1-6 and then chapters 7-12. Buy them both so you will own all 12 chapters (episodes) of the serial. Perhaps Amazon.com will have a good deal too. The Junior G-Men of the Air are a civilian defense army. The State Police help the young men of Junior G-Men. In this story, the Dead End Kids are much more mature in this one. A dangerous organization, the Blacks Dragons, rob the state bank. When they crash into the Western Union building, they steal Billy Halop's truck. Billy couldn't stop them, but he's got a clue. A dragonfly emblem from the bad guy's lapel. The State Bureau of Investigation finally realize that the only way the Black Dragons could have disappeared was go up. Up in the air that is. See how they cleverly hid their getaway plane. Now Don Ames (Richard Lane) needs the help of Billy Halop and his gang to find the Black Dragons. 12 episodes. 11 cliffhangers to enjoy. Total running time: 3 hours and 45 minutes. The Dead End Kids with the Little Tough Guys in this serial are: Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsly, Gabriel Dell with Gene Reynolds and David Gorcey. Turhan Bey (The Amazing Mr. X [1948]) plays "Araka" in this one."