Customer Reviews

Gang Busters-13 Episodes [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

VCI Entertainment and Universal Pictures presents a film based on the radio program by Phillips H. Lord "Gang Busters" (1942) (Dolby digitally remastered), with 13 Chapters based on a real radio show in which unsolved crimes were reenacted in the hope of catching the criminal, stories were combined with original and completely ficitional...dedicated to law enforcement officers throughout the nation, in grateful recognition of their unending war against crime..story line has twists and turns as "The League of Murdered Men" with mad scientist (Ralph Morgan) at the helm...is there a mysterious death stimulating drug that presumes a person dead only to be resurrected by this mad man Prof. Mortis (Morgan)...will Lt. Bill Bannister (Taylor) and Det. Tim Nolan (Armstrong) stop this gang of misfits who is terrorizing the city...can Vicki Logan (Hervey) and Happy Haskins (Davies) who work for the local newspaper, get in the way or be of some assistance bringing the villains to justice...what is this strange hideout in a subterranean cell that is located beneath the city's subways...don't touch that dial or leave the theater until the final chapter is over and done with "Law and Order"....just remember double thrills, chills, mystery and suspense...hitting the bull's eye with excitement...don't miss a single spine thrilling episode..return next week to this local theater for another episode of action and adventure that will keep you thrilled until the next chapter.

Under director's Ray Taylor and Noel Smith, associate producer Ford Beebe, Original screenplay by Morgan B. Cox, Al Martin, Vic McLeod, George H. Plympton, dialogue director Jacques Jaccard, musical score by Ralph Freed, Charles Previn, Heinz Roemheld, Hans J. Salter, Frank Skinner and Franz Waxman...the cast includes Kent Taylor (Lt. Bill Bannister), Irene Hervey (Vicky Logan), Ralph Morgan (Dr. Clayton Maxton aka Prof. Mortis), Robert Armstrong (Det. Tim Nolan), Richard Davies (Happy Haskins), Joseph Crehan (Police Chief Martin O'Brien), George Watts (Mayor Hansen), George J. Lewis (Joey Morrions aka Mason), Ralf Harolde(Halliger-henchman), John Gallaudet (Wilkinson-henchman), William Haade (Mike Taboni), Vic Zimmerman (Ted Lane, alias Barnard), Johnnie Berkes (Mr. Grub ), Pat O'Malley ( Police Chemist Crandall), Eddie Dean (Blair, Police Lab Tech), William Desmond (Rogan's Death Witness), Karl Hackett (Henry, crooked watchman), Carleton Young (Highway Patrolman)........great stuntwork by Carey Loftin, David Sharpe, Tom Steele, Ken Terrell and Dale Van Sickel....meanwhile back to our Universal Serial which is always good till the last drop and this serial is no exception...there is a great deal of entertainment here for the cliffhanger fans out there...all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and features.

CHAPTER TITLES:

1. The League of Murdered Men
2. The Death Plunge
3. Murder Blockade
4. Hangman's Noose
5. Man Under Cover
6. Under Crumbling Walls
7. The Water Trap
8. Murder by Proxy
9. Gang Bait
10.Mob Vengeance
11.Wanted at Headquarters
12.The Long Chance
13.Law and Order

BIOS:
1. Kent Taylor (aka Louis William Weiss)
Birth Date: 5/11/1907 - Nashua, Iowa
Died: 4/11/1987 - Woodland Hills, CA
2. Irene Hervey
Birth Date: 7/11/1909 - Venice, CA
Died: 12/20/1998 - Woodland Hills, CA
3. Robert Armstrong (of the film "King Kong" fame)
Birth Date: 11/20/1890 - Saginaw, Michigan
Died: 4/20/1973 - Santa Monica, CA
4. Ray Taylor (Director)
Birth Date: 12/01/1888 - Perham, Minnesota
Died: 2/15/1952 - Hollywood, CA

If you're into vintage serials as I am, why not pick up a copy of the following titles from VCI Home Video:
VCI CLIFFHANGER TRAILERS:
1. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe)
2. Adventures of the Flying Cadets (Bobby Jordan)
3. Drums of Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon)
4. Jungle Girl (Frances Gifford)
5. The Phantom (Tom Tyler)
6. Zane Greys "King of the Royal Mounted" (Allan "Rocky" Lane)
7. Secret Agent X-9 (1945) (Lloyd Bridges & Keye Luke)
8. Adventures of Red Ryder (Don "Red" Barry)
9. Secret Agent X-9 (1937) (Scott Kolk & Henry Brandon)
10.Zorro's Cliffhanger Collection (Reed Hadley, John Carroll & Linda Stirling)
11.Dick Tracy's G-Men (Ralph Byrd)
12.Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Buster Crabbe)
13.Jungle Jim (Grant Withers & Raymond Hatton)
14.Miracle Rider (Tom Mix & Tony Jr)

If you crave action, drama and plenty of adventure then this is the place for all of the above...check out another release from VCI Entertainment and Republic Pictures present Zane Grey's "King of the Royal Mounted" (1940) (digitally remastered), 12 Chapters of vintage serial loaded with action sequences...is there a discovered substance called "Compound X", which may cure infantile paralysis...has Tom Merritt stumbled on such a rare find...is there a war between Canada and sources known later as the "Father Land".....get out there as they're going fast, this is the one you've been waiting for.

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing "Gang Busters" (1942), the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '30s, '40s & '50s...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure from the "King of Serials" VCI...just the way we like 'em

Total Time: 255 mins ~ VCI Entertainment 1731 ~ (1992)

In all fairness, the 2 earlier ratings are not for this version of the Gangbusters serial.

THE HERMITAGE HILL RELEASE OF GANGBUSTERS IS THE COMPLETE SERIAL ON 2 DISCS.

From the fine folks at The Serial Squadron - this is the finest digital restoration of this serial ever available.

Please check the other reviews for the content of the serial - a very GOOD serial for a studio other than Republic. This one will not disappoint someone interested in serials of the period.

Universal Pictures made serials as far back as the 1910s, and by 1942 they were old hands at making action pictures. Cliffhanger fans agree that GANG BUSTERS is one of Universal's best serial adventures (and in this writer's opinion, Universal's very best). The story has the city being terrorized by The League of Murdered Men, a gang of criminals whose members have all been declared dead! With this intriguing premise, 13 chapters of almost non-stop cops-and-robbers action follow, as the League's criminal mastermind declares war on the city's police force.

The cast is familiar from feature films of the period: Kent Taylor as the chief investigator, Irene Hervey as a press photographer, Robert Armstrong as a police detective, and an entire company of villains with familiar faces (Ralf Harolde, John Gallaudet, William Haade, Stanley Price, George J. Lewis, and a host of others). Ralph Morgan is tremendous as the soft-spoken mastermind; you won't soon forget his bravura performance.

There are two special distinctions to this serial. First, there is plenty of outdoor action staged by Ray Taylor and Noel Smith, including an exceptional cliffhanger in Chapter 3 (a speeding car hurtling to certain doom, with Irene Hervey on the running board). Some of the action scenes are so good that Universal reused them in later serials. The other distinction is that this is one of Universal's "streamlined serials," using a novel device: instead of recapping each chapter with narration or titles, Universal shot new footage, with the principals bringing the viewer up to date with spoken dialogue. Smart move in this case, because the new scenes get each chapter off to a fast start.

The original coming-attractions trailer is a bonus feature. Assembled before the film's release, it contains stock shots that DON'T appear in the actual film (watch for some VERY old cars!). The trailer can be sampled elsewhere on the Web.

Picture and sound quality are much better than the many public-domain editions of GANG BUSTERS. This is a Serial Squadron restoration, painstakingly produced by Eric Stedman. Insist on this version, because it's probably the best print you'll ever see of this subject. A comparison showing the results of the restoration can be found on the manufacturer's website.

UNFORTUNATELY, THIS DVD ONLY HAS THE 1ST 6 CHAPTERS. SO IF YOU WANNA SEE THE REST OF THE SERIAL, YOU HAVE TO BUY VOL. 2, WHICH HAS THE REMAINING 7 CHAPTERS ON THERE. ANYWAY, THE POLICE TRY TO BREAK A GROUP OF GANGSTERS KNOWN AS THE LEAGUE OF MURDERED MEN. HAS GREAT SHOOTOUTS, FIST FIGHTS, AND A LOTTA SUSPENSE. AND IF YOU THINK THESE 6 CHAPTERS ARE GOOD, WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THE REMAINING 7 CHAPTERS!

Amateur fan club "restoration". Well, they started with nice materials. Not sure if it's a transfer of a dupe neg or dupe 16mm print (the white negative scratches are the giveaway). But where they went wrong was in "de-noising" the soundtrack. They sucked all the ambience out of the track just so they wouldn't have any extraneous noise. The bass was pumped up so that the splices (which should have been blooped) sound like mini-bombs. Then they added a phony reverb. Too bad, since this is the best print of this PD serial that's surfaced. Still recommend at least until an original print that isn't monkeyed with shows up on DVD.

Gang Busters is a 1942 Universal Serial based loosely on the radio program by Phillips Lord. Screenplay is by Morgan Cox, Al Martin, Victor McLeod and George H. Plympton, and it was directed by Ray Taylor and Noel Smith. Two DVD editions are currently available, from The Serial Squadron (Hermitage Hill not mentioned on the package) and Alpha Video.

The plot involves a crime wave by the "League of Murdered Men" -- members of which are listed as dead in police records. They haven't actually been murdered, but the gang's boss, Professor Mortis (Ralph Morgan) employs a drug that simulates death, supplied mostly to captured criminals who "commit suicide" in prison, who are then brought back to life, but are obliged to obey Mortis so they can get a pill from him to stay alive. Bill Bannister (Kent Taylor) is investigating the crime wave, and his brother, framed and imprisoned, then released due to new evidence, has learned of the "suicide" scheme, but he is killed before he can tell very much. Mortis, in a radio broadcast on the Police wavelength, says he will end the crime wave if the entire city government is replaced. Police Chief Martin O'Brien (Joseph Crehan) also has to spar with windbag Mayor Hansen (George Watts) to keep Bannister on the case. Getting involved in the investigation is a newspaper photographer, Vicki Logan (Irene Hervey) and reporter, Happy Haskins (Richard Davies).

This is one of the better Universal serials of the 1940's, with the atmosphere kept dark and serious by directors Ray Taylor and Noel Smith. Ralph Morgan in fine form as Dr. Mortis, and his hideout, under the subway tunnels is a nice touch. Acting by serial movie standards is also good from the rest of the cast with only a small amount of "comic relief," mostly from gang member Mike Taboni (William Haade). As usual with Universal, the special effects are not up to the quality seen in Republic serials; cars become a dozen years older as they go over cliffs, and crashing airplanes turn into rather unconvincing models. The fist fights are not the well-choreographed acrobatic events seen in Republic serials, perhaps enhancing the realism and the tendency is more toward gun-battles anyway. A lot of stock footage is used; many of the cliffhangers will be old friends to those familiar with other Universal serials. But the plot moves along well, maintaining interest with little of the usual "sag" after the first three chapters. Many familiar faces are seen in smaller roles including George J. Lewis, Stanley Price, Edmund Cobb, Jack Mulhall and even a "cameo" by Grace Cunard from the silent serials as Mike Taboni's landlady.

The Serial Squadron's edition is on two recordable (DVD-R) discs. The "special features" are the original trailer and some "bio's" of the actors playing the main characters. The disc format causes minor annoyances; some CD players may forget where they were stopped if the power is turned off, and the disc won't play "straight through," going back to the menu after each chapter. Serials should be watched one chapter at a time so this isn't a big problem. The image is sharp and clear, with reasonable contrast, from a good if not pristine print having only a little "white dirt" and minor scratches. The opening titles contain the usual "cheat" of restoration in that all are from one chapter, having the same MPPDA certificate number, though the original titles were otherwise identical. The print has a copyright from Serials Incorporated, a reissue, with the letters of "Gang Busters" in the main title outlined, and even some of the enclosed spaces filled in. This may have been done to enhance apparent sharpness in the early days of television, which still works but now looks a little crude. Authentic enough, but for The Serial Squadron's edition fake opening chapter titles have been added, a willful "improvement" covering the end of the time used for the "dedication" title. These might work better than an FBI warning to prevent pirating of the video, with less customer ire than adding a pop-up company logo, but the only such title in the original is on Chapter One. While the editing is generally good, six minutes into Chapter Nine there is an error, a repeated section lasting about a minute and a quarter.

Unfortunately The Serial Squadron's sound processing is a source of annoyance; while noise is at a low level there are some odd frequency components, an "echoy" effect most obvious in the "footsteps" in the titles and high frequency loss, noticeably greater at low amplitudes, in many of the chapters. It is possible the filters used to remove specific noise frequencies result in "ringing." The sound processing makes some of the dialogue a little hard to understand when not shouted in the manner of the Mayor. Not much of a problem when associated with on-screen action, but it causes troble in the opening "recap" dialogue in a few of the chapters and the sonic fog is usually present, like a descending cloud as the volume level goes down, dropping both noise and high frequencies.

The competition from Alpha is in two volumes, numbers 4406D and 4407D, or shrink-wrapped as # 9536D. It has better sound, the opening footsteps crisp and distinct as is the dialogue, within limits of the somewhat-distorted original, though there are occasional short pieces missing due to splices in the film. The titles are from a print with copyright by "Universal Pictures Company, Inc." instead of "Serials Incorporated" and the main title does not have the outlined letters. Further, the image behind the "Gang Busters" title has motion, while the one on the Serials Incorporated print is a still frame. But while not too bad for an Alpha release, the image quality is worse than the one from The Serial Squadron, only mildly unsharp but rather muddy and with unstable contrast and brightness. Sometimes the highlights are washed out, especially in the newspaper headlines, and at other times it is hard to tell what's going on in the "night" scenes. The image has been reduced in size slightly and a letter or two more of the headlines are present but the advantage is slight. It was transferred from videotape, as can be seen from the head-switching point seen near the bottom of the frame, though the transfer seems to have been properly done. In the titles the MPPDA certificate numbers, which should go from 7931 to 7943 are not all the same, but some are from the wrong chapters, and others are so indistinct that they cannot be read. Alpha's edition is also on two discs so there is no great cost advantage, though it comes on non-burned DVD's, the menu is not needed to move on to the next chapter and no problems were noted with the CD player forgetting where it was stopped. The only "extra feature" is advertising for other Alpha releases.

So a fine serial, in two flawed DVD editions, though both are reasonably priced and neither especially bad. Using two players to have the sound from the Alpha release with the video from The Serial Squadron is possible, but they don't stay in sync very well. The better image quality of the one from The Serial Squadron will outweigh its other faults for most viewers.