It seems that we who love the old pulps seem to find a lot of commonalities in the old movie serials. Back in 2004 I was going through a marathon session of watching those great old chapter plays. Plenty of terrific pulp thrills crammed into 12 to 15 concentrated doses of action and adventure.
The Hollywood studio that typified the best in serial production was Republic Studios. So many of the serials that I watched during that period of pulpish binging were Republic serials. I recently found some notes made at the time for Haunted Harbor. They are reproduced below.
Republic’s 1944 serial Haunted Harbor is based on the novel Haunted Harbor: Murder in the South Seas written by Dayle Douglas and published by New York Mystery House in 1943. Since this was based on a mystery novel, I felt obligated to read the book in addition to watching the serial. I figured it would be interesting to compare the two. And they surprisingly did a pretty good serial adaptation. I figured that it might be barely recognizable, but no. Other than leaving out the romantic plot, they actually kept most of the important scenes from the mystery novel.
The re-release version
When Republic decided to release a commercial VHS tape of this serial, all they could find was the film print of the 1951 re-release which had been retitled Pirates’ Harbor. So when I watched this, I had to sit through the main title that proclaimed Pirates’ Harbor. But if I squinted, below the main title in small print it said “formerly entitled Haunted Harbor.” I guess they didn’t archive their original films as carefully as they should have. Kinda like all those great old pulp magazines which should have been more carefully preserved, but sadly weren’t. Won’t we ever learn?
Pirates? Did the title mention pirates? Well, that’s the only evidence of pirates you’ll get in the entire 15 chapters. No pirates appear anywhere in the serial. No pirates are even mentioned. There are no eye patches or peg legs. Not even a single “Arrrrhh” is uttered. I think Republic just grabbed this title out of the air, since it had “kid appeal.” After all, what kid doesn’t like pirates? And what kid couldn’t be conned out of plunking down his dime to see a movie with the word “pirate” in the title?
Well, if there are no pirates, then what’s this one got going for it? A decent plot, for one thing. Plenty of action. A hero, played by Kane Richmond, who can act fairly well by serial standards. (I did say by serial standards.) And pretty leading-lady Kay Aldridge is always a treat for the eyes. She looks pretty young, here. Hard to believe that she was 27 and had a couple of dozen films under her belt. Including a starring role in the 1942 serial Perils of Nyoka. She looks about 19.
Kay plays Patricia Harding, (in the book, she’s Lispeth Harding, but hey, let’s not quibble) who’s rescued by our hero in chapter one. As our heroine, she speaks with an accent that’s a strange combination of English and Southern. When she says “harbor,” it comes out “haw-buh.” But she’s easy on the eyes, so I forgive her. Uhh… “foah-give” her, I mean.
This girl’s not much of a fighter. Certainly not like her Nyoka character from two years earlier. Seems like every time there’s a fight, she is thrown against a wall or table and is knocked unconscious. In think chapter six is the record, in which she is knocked unconscious twice in a space of less than two minutes. She just barely had time to revive before getting knocked out again. Personally, I think she’s faking it. She just doesn’t want to get involved, so plays possum. Yup, that’s my opinion and I’m sticking with it.
Rounding out the gang of good guys is Yank and Tommy. In the book, it was Yank and Limey, but, hey… close enough. The two are employees of the trading post and good friends of Jim Marsden. Yank is a middle-aged salt, weathered and ready to aid Jim when needed. Tommy is young and energetic, always there for Jim in a pinch.
The story opens.
Now to the plot. Our serial opens on the south sea island of Amoa. We meet Jim Marsden at the Ship’s Bell Cafe. It seems that three months ago his ship, the schooner The Dolphin, was lost in a terrible storm. And it was carrying a million dollars in gold! That was a lot of money back in 1944! Was Jim responsible for this coincidence? Hmmm… Voorhees, the island banker who knows the secret of the sunken gold, is killed by a man named Carter, but Marsden is blamed for the murder. I should point out that in the novel, the murder was named Lawson, not Carter. But except for these few name changes, the plots are very similar.
Jim Marsden is on the lam, accused of murder! He takes off for the island of Pulau Mati, a non-treaty port where he can’t be extradited. He’s going to run Captain Galbraith‘s trading post and oversee the natives’ production of copra, while trying to clear his name. And then, he hears about “Haunted Harbor.” Ooooohhh… this is the part where all the little kiddies in the theater lean forward in their seats. Hands, which up until now have been stuffing popcorn in their mouths, are stilled. All eyes are fixed on the screen.
Jim Marsden is told that of all the natives who have gone to that place of mystery known as Haunted Harbor, only one has come back. And he came back a raving maniac. Babbling of demons, sea serpents, and monsters. Natives will no longer work the copra plantation because it’s too darned close to the haunted harbor. As a result, trade with the natives has dropped to near nothing.
Jim has to clear up the mystery of Haunted Harbor so the natives will return to harvesting the copra. He has to clear up the identity of “Carter” the mystery man who killed Voorhees. And he only has 15 chapters in which to do it. And that’s stretched out over almost four months’ worth of time. Ah, the agony for a youngster.
The monster of Haunted Harbor.
The kids in the audience must have been anxiously waiting to see the monster from the haunted harbor. But other than a glimpse in the opening and closing credits, they had to wait until chapter five. That’s when they got a full view of the fearsome creature. Fearsome? Make that ludicrous. Boy, what a letdown. It’s gotta be one of the least convincing monsters in all of filmland.
Why couldn’t they just put a guy in a rubber suit and have him flail around in the water? They could have shot it like a miniature, to give him extra size. But no, we get a something like a toy figure being pushed out of the water, except this was apparently a full-scale figure, not a model. Nothing moved. Its arms and claws are extended, but never move a bit. Frozen like a statue. Actually, I do think I saw the tongue move a bit. Oh, and steam comes out of its nostrils. But that’s it.
The special effects in this serial were done by Theodore Lydecker. Believe me, he and his brother, Howard, were much better at doing models of ships, planes, rockets, cars and flying men than monsters. Or maybe Howard was the “creature” guy. Even taking into consideration that the technology wasn’t very sophisticated in 1944, this creature was bad by any standards. Really bad. I don’t think it could have fooled a rock, much less a tribe of island natives. Cheesy. But then 10-year-olds weren’t too demanding, and that’s something upon which Republic pictures was depending.
It takes a very dedicated suspension of disbelief whenever this creature shows up. But it’s about the only big drawback to this serial, and if you can somehow overlook the monster, which admittedly isn’t easy to do, the rest of the serial is a real treat. Yes, I liked it! The serial, not the monster. Just wanted to make that clear.
There are some very impressive scenes in the first chapter. There is a storm at sea, and Jim Marsden rescues Patricia Harding and her father from their ship that has grounded on the rocks. This is just one of many scenes taken directly from the book, and it fit into the serial perfectly.
Hey, wait! I’ve seen that wave before! In the hurricane sequence, the same old wave keeps popping up in the background. I remember first seeing it in the 1941 serial Captain Marvel. It got plenty of use there, and now it crops up here, too. So much for rear projection and film loops… and low budgets.
Once they get to the neighboring island of Pulau Mati, there’s little pretense of being in the Pacific. The action is pretty much landlocked. And the land on this south sea island sure looks a lot like Southern California. All the outdoor shots seem just like those in the western serials. Wait, was that Zorro I saw riding a horse in the distance? No, I guess I was mistaken. But for a minute…
Don’t miss the next exciting episode.
There were some pretty good cliffhangers in this serial. The chapter six ending is cool. Jim Marsden is exiting the back room of the Ship’s Bell Cafe and is shot through the door with an automatic rifle. The resolution is something that I thought I had figured out. This was the gun that held the blanks they had used in chapter five. So obviously… but wait! I see the slugs digging into the woodwork. Wow! Has our hero died? Come back next week and see chapter seven to find out!
The chapter 12 cliffhanger is one of my favorites, and it has a very clever resolution, as well. No cheats! Jim Marsden falls beneath a tiger trap in the jungle. Yes, I guess there are tigers on this south sea island. Let’s not get picky, now. Anyway, this tiger trap is a large wooden platform suspended about 20 feet above the ground by a vine rope. There are sharp bamboo spikes covering the bottom, pointing downward. When the trap is released, it falls like a stone, impaling anyone below upon those sharp spikes. Does Marsden roll out of the way in time? No! He doesn’t use that worn-out old bromide. He finds another way to survive; one that caught me totally by surprise. It’s the moments like these, rare though they may be, that are why I love the serials.
Hey, wait a minute… Where’s the economy chapter? You know, the chapter composed of recycled material from earlier chapters. Flashbacks which help the young audience remember what happened a month or so ago, and also helped stretch an already-thin budget. Every serial is obliged to have an economy chapter, especially the longer 15-chapter ones. But, nope, there’s no economy chapter here. My only explanation is that they had already saved so much money on the cheesy monster in the haunted harbor that they didn’t need to save any more. Did I mention how lame that monster was? Yeah, I thought so.
In chapter 13, they discover that the sea serpent of Haunted Harbor is fake. What’s that, now, you say? A fake? Well, imagine that! Jim Marsden gets in a deep-sea diving suit and goes down to the floor of the harbor. Gee, I didn’t know the harbor was that deep. Anyway, once there he finds the mechanical monster and reports through his phone line to Yank and the rest of the crew above on the schooner. No one seems too surprised. “Jim reports the monster is a fake.” “Oh, OK. Is it dinner, yet?” Actually, we shouldn’t be too surprised at their lack of surprise. Did I mention how lame that monster was?
Meanwhile, back on shore, Patricia and Tommy find the control station overlooking Haunted Harbor, where the sea monster is controlled. There, two henchmen are about to blow up Marsden’s schooner with mines hidden in the waters. There’s a fight, in which Patricia is knocked out within the first seconds. No surprise there. But in a real shocker, Tommy, Marsden’s faithful friend, is shot and killed. Say, what, now?
Poor Tommy.
Yes, the closing to chapter 13 is a real shocker. Tommy is killed, and Marsden is trapped in a heavy diving suit beneath the ocean as his air hose is severed by the detonation of an exploding mine. This can’t be happening! The good guys don’t get shot this close to the end of a serial. Not with only two chapters left! And how will Marsden escape from a watery grave?
At the beginning of chapter 14, we see the same fight recapped. Patricia is lying on the floor unconscious, as before. But as soon as the thugs throw the switch to detonate the mines, suddenly she’s sitting securely bound in a chair. Hey, what happened, there? A little continuity error, eh? They didn’t have time to tie her up. They were too busy fighting Tommy and blowing up the mines. Oh well, I guess we weren’t supposed to notice. So I’ll pretend…
And what about poor old dead Tommy? Well, that part didn’t come from the book. In the book, Limey, Tommy’s counterpart, lives to see the end titles. But in the serial, he inexplicably dies, and nothing further is said. There’s no, “Oh, let’s mourn for our good friend Tommy.” There isn’t even an explanation, “Jim, Tommy’s dead!” Not even a question, “Where’s Tommy?” Nope, he’s dead and nobody seems to care. Not even his best friend, Jim Marsden. Sheesh! Some friend he is!
Chapter 15 rolls around and mine-owner Kane is revealed as the hidden murderer called Carter. He dies when he accidentally dumps a cauldron of molten gold on himself. All the lost gold is recovered, although you may have to pick out a few bones out of some of it. Marsden is cleared of the murder charge, and everybody is happy.
All except poor ol’ Tommy who died and never got any recognition. Not even at the very end when Jim is thanking everybody. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Galbraith. Or you Yank. Or you Patricia.” But still no mention of Tommy. How cold!
Tommy was played by Marshall J. Reed. He did a fine job as one of the second bananas in this serial. He never made stupid mistakes. He was always there for his friends. He was stalwart. He was strong. He could take a punch. He was faithful. And in the end, he gave his life for Jim Marsden. If nobody else will say it, I will: “Thanks, Tommy.”
